Vintage Belstaff Leather Jacket

[Chris Tubman]

 

[Chris Tubman]

Anyone know which model of Belstaff this is?
Looks to be a better made genuine motorcycle jacket as opposed to their modern “designer fashion” products.

 

[Edward]

Anyone know which model of Belstaff this is?
Looks to be a better made genuine motorcycle jacket as opposed to their modern “designer fashion” products.

Belstaff have along had (and I believe still do) a range of "real" motorcycle gear alongside the fashion stuff. Still spendy, but good. I don't think this is a currently available model. There's something similar in the current range called the Turner, but it's just a hair shorter and has four pockets. I'm sure someone will be able to date this by the label. For what very little it may be worth, I don't recollect seeing any British leather motorcycle jackets using velcro anywhere until well into the eighties.

The lack of patch pockets on the lower half of the jacket front doesn't look like any commercial Belstaff of this length I've ever seen. Are the handwarmers 'regular' pockets, or do they go through to whatever you're wearing underneath? I'm left wondering whether this might have been a uniform issue - like a police MC uniform jacket. I remember the RUC (as then were, before the rebrand to PSNI) bike squad having leathers of this general shape and pattern, but I wasn't into the details then. I could see a jacket like this designed to be worn over a police utility belt (including a gun, in the case of the RUC - Northern Ireland was, and remains, the only part of the UK in which police officers are routinely armed) being designed to avoid bulky pockets that could get filled with stuff in the way. Pure speculation on my part here, though.

 

[Chris Tubman]

Thanks for your reply, I’ve done some more research and it looks as though this jacket is probably from the 90’s judging by the label.
It would have been from the time when Phoenix Distribution owned Belstaff but before the name was sold off again in 2004.
I vaguely remember seeing one of these jackets in a motorcycle clothing shop in the 90’s and thinking it was quite expensive for the time. The owner of the shop is still in business so I will be contacting him tomorrow to ask if he can remember anything about them.
I’m waiting for it to be delivered so I can’t really comment on it’s quality of construction but it looks pretty solid in the photographs, I’ll be wearing it on my motorcycle so it’ll need to be!
I also have a textile jacket made by Belstaff in the 90’s and it is extremely well designed and constructed so I’m hoping the leather jacket will be of the same quality.