I always loved patched and painted A2s, but even in the early 1980s they cost a few £££. About £300-400 could get you a decent sized WWII era jacket with some great nose art or bomb art etc on the back, sometimes with all the provenance collectors would kill for today.
I got one eventually a perfectly wearable 15th AAF jacket I still have today, size 44 with some great patches but no back nose art or bombs.
During the 1980s Rockabilly and Hep Cat music was becoming very popular in a lot of clubs with many clubbers wearing original American clothing. Usually 1950s sports jackets and slacks etc, no repro clothing was produced until a few years later no most of it was the genuine thing and even better if it had a Made in'California' label in it.
Alas I diverse
Not many men, we were mostly in out teens or early 20s, wore leather jackets in these clubs, girls were only interested in you if you wore original USA gear and leather was not in great attendance apart from a few Marlon Brando bikers, flight jackets were never seen even around the London clubs.
Im not really boasting but maybe a little , I was one of the first to wear flight jackets to these clubs, the odd one out maybe wearing my A2s. Very soon and I really mean that the jackets were everywhere, popularised by the Indianna Jones, Yanks and Top Gun films, plus a few other 40s themed films featuring the look,Hanover Street and a series We'll Meet Again were two TV series.
Still hungering for a pin up painted jacket I bought a rather poor condition original with a rather pin up of the Vaga era missing a lot of details including the head. Not a cool look missing a swimsuited lovely with no smile.
I had a local girl who was a bit of an artiste armed with a copy of the print re-paint over it SACRILEGE I can hear everyone shout, but this jacket had been re-patched a couple of times and I had no idea of any of its history.
As time passed into the 1990s repro jackets were everywhere, from Aero leather and also Eastman, may of their jackets ended up with painted ladies on the rear. Of course most were drawn and painted by superb artists putting great detail into their images. But looking at original jackets from the multitude of books available, not all were glamour girls and many were not that well painted but interesting as examples of what young men were interested in at the time.
The jacket I had painted/repaired was not the Gainsborough quality you see on a lot of jackets today, rather something a local lad may have painted in his spare time and I have to say I had some pleasing comments made about it at that time.
I don't know if it is still around as it was wearable but had a rather cold damp feeling about it. I eventually sold it to pay for some car insurance I had on an old 1960 Cadillac.
One word of warning though, new custom painted jackets are like custom painted cars. No matter how you love it and no matter how well it is painted etc, they can be hard to sell on if you wish to get rid, especially name tagged and personal themed stuff. But it's ok for originals if you can prove the provenance.
I have never had another painted jacket but sure wish I did. I'd wear the hell out of it
Johnny Tee.
Hey Johnny. Thanks for the interesting history and story
How much do you reckon would be a decent price to pay for a good paintjob on a B3 jacket nowadays? A few hundred bucks?
I don't mean the patches and whatnot, just a pin up girl painted on the back with some slogans maybe.
And I suppose if you really hate attention then you shouldn't ever draw on your jacket, especially something so bold haha. Buy if you enjoy being the center of attention and have the attitude to pull it off, then I suppose you could have lots of fun with a properly painted and patched jacket.