What Jacket Are You Wearing Today?

[Carlos840]

That's enough jacket for the two of you. That's similar to what my HWM fit. I knew it was off the moment I tried it on.

IMO, Fully cinched, correctly sized, this jacket should literally be skintight. That's the whole point of the side adjusters. Uncinched, you should have about 3" - 4" of space. If there's still room left over even warmest of layers you have, the jacket is too wide.

You're a slim dude, this isn't a jacket you should be wearing. Send it back for a remake. There's no way they'll say "Oh, it's supposed to look like that".

Yep, any maker who stands behind his product should see these pics and say "Sorry we got it wrong, let's remake it."

Edit: but i think you should stop wearing it asap so that they still get a "new" jacket returned to them.

 

[Angel]

Great weather today!

 

[ton312]

Great photos on this page! We are getting another 5 days of near record warmth here in Chicago. Jacket season has stalled. I’m OK with it though. Kind of a gift this time of year.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Great weather today! View attachment 278366

Cognac jackets are always great!!

 

[Imuricecreamman]

Will need to beat this to shit to get some grain out. Looks painted on in photographs.

 

[Imuricecreamman]

Great weather today! View attachment 278366

This is amazing!

 

[El Marro]

@Monitor and @Carlos840,
I hear your point on shoulder width, and I think I even understand how this could be so based on upper arm construction allowing more room, but I am still not convinced. Every leather jacket that fits me comfortably has a minimum shoulder width of 20”. I have a couple denim jackets that are slightly under 20” and while they fit well I can feel the tightness in the shoulders.
I don’t think there is anything particularly unique about my physique but shoulder measurement is one that I always check carefully before buying.

 

[JMax]

Quick ride before I go flood-proof my home for the inevitable coastal flooding associated with the incoming storm. I park my bike in the living room lol. That’s my baby. Anyways, the wind is starting to pick up and the LW is like armor. A bird clipped my handlebars on the ride over. Lucky it didn’t make contact with the LW! Little ba***rd.

 

[Turnip]

Pony and Submariner (sweater, not watch)

 

[Tom71]

Great weather today! View attachment 278366

Great picture and an epic jacket.

 

[Carlos840]

@Monitor and @Carlos840,
I hear your point on shoulder width, and I think I even understand how this could be so based on upper arm construction allowing more room, but I am still not convinced. Every leather jacket that fits me comfortably has a minimum shoulder width of 20”. I have a couple denim jackets that are slightly under 20” and while they fit well I can feel the tightness in the shoulders.
I don’t think there is anything particularly unique about my physique but shoulder measurement is one that I always check carefully before buying.

18.5" shoulders:

19" shoulders:

19.5" shoulders:

20" shoulders:

20.5" shoulders:

21" shoulders:

To me there is no noticeable difference in comfort between all these jackets that is linked to shoulder width, and all of them are a decent fit visualy.
Of course there is a minimum one should no go under , i doubt i would fit a jacket with 17.5"-18" shoulder to shoulder, but this shows that there is a lot more room to play with. There is also a sweet spot, for me it is probably 19-19.5".

If you tried to do the same thing with the bottom hem measurement the difference would be far more noticeable.
I can wear 19.5 to 20.5" bottom hem, anything above that looks like a bag, so that is a 1" leeway for the bottom hem but 2.5" for the shoulders!

I am not saying that shoulder mesurement should be ignored, just that it is IMO one of the more flexible ones in a jacket. During my early years on TFL i was convinced i "needed" 19.5 to 20" shoulder to shoulder, because of that i was missing great jackets because i was convinced they would not fit, or i was asking makers to enlarge the shoulders thinking i couldn't possibly fit in less than 19.5", i was wrong...

IMO the main things affected by shoulder measurement are how a jacket looks and how long the sleeves end up.
I can wear 25" sleeves with 20 shoulders, but with 19" shoulders i would rather have 26" sleeves.
Basically what you remove in the the shoulders you add in the arms and vice versa.

When @JustinW wrote "If I were to size down the shoulders would be too small" it made me think about how i used to think about shoulder measurement.
For someone tall and skinny like him, the key measurements is the bottom hem diameter, not the shoulders, and i am ready to bet he can comfortaby fit in a jacket with 1" less in the shoulders.

 

[Carlos840]

Quick ride before I go flood-proof my home for the inevitable coastal flooding associated with the incoming storm. I park my bike in the living room lol. That’s my baby. Anyways, the wind is starting to pick up and the LW is like armor. A bird clipped my handlebars on the ride over. Lucky it didn’t make contact with the LW! Little ba***rd.

View attachment 278415

Just stuff one LW jacket under each door, it will stop the flood!

 

[TooManyHatsOnlyOneHead]

Re: shoulder size. I'm learning and noticing as I started posted pics of myself wearing jackets, that I'm probably more of a 18.5 than a 19 (which is what I always thought). And I think, many of us are sizing too big on the shoulders, but it is to a certain extent, a visual/aesthetic thing and obviously style of the jacket, etc. etc. But I agree there's some range there to still be comfortable.

But something to keep in mind. Make sure you're apples to apples. Biswing back, shoulder gussets, underarm gussets, etc. are going to affect "comfort" as well as fit.

 

[Carlos840]

Re: shoulder size. I'm learning and noticing as I started posted pics of myself wearing jackets, that I'm probably more of a 18.5 than a 19 (which is what I always thought). And I think, many of us are sizing too big on the shoulders, but it is to a certain extent, a visual/aesthetic thing and obviously style of the jacket, etc. etc. But I agree there's some range there to still be comfortable.

But something to keep in mind. Make sure you're apples to apples. Biswing back, shoulder gussets, underarm gussets, etc. are going to affect "comfort" as well as fit.

+1, not all measurements mean the same thing on different patterns.
If the pattern is cleverly designed you could have narrow shoulders and still maintain great range of motion.
If the pattern sucks, giving wider shoulders is a good way to help range of motion, but it might not help at all.

This jacket for example has 20.5" shoulders, and 23.5" pit to pit, both measurements are slightly oversized for me, still it is unwearable, you can't reach up, you can't reach forward, it's a crap pattern...

You could have one jacket with 20" shoulders that feels tight, and one jacket with 19" shoulders that feel amazing.

 

[tmitchell59]

Old Montgomery Ward

 

[Pandemic]

I really appreciate the discussion and advice here everyone- and especially @Carlos840.

I’m hoping I will get a response from them soon and they will offer to make it right. It sounds like the best option would be for me to size down to a 36, keep the same sleeve and body lengths and maybe take an additional couple of inches off the bottom opening.

 

[Monitor]

@Monitor and @Carlos840,
I hear your point on shoulder width, and I think I even understand how this could be so based on upper arm construction allowing more room, but I am still not convinced. Every leather jacket that fits me comfortably has a minimum shoulder width of 20”. I have a couple denim jackets that are slightly under 20” and while they fit well I can feel the tightness in the shoulders.
I don’t think there is anything particularly unique about my physique but shoulder measurement is one that I always check carefully before buying.

There's nothing that would actually make the jacket feel tight in the shoulders - or rather, I believe that the jackets that you find tight, would feel this way regardless of the size. Except if you don't buy it like 3 sizes larger to compensate for this. I also think that's the reason why you're sometimes needlessly over-sizing your jackets. I know for a fact this is something I used to be guilty of, too.

Same as @Carlos840, for whatever reason, back in the days I had convinced myself that the shoulder width was the most important measurement to go by and to such an extent that I would completely ignore every other measurement if the shoulder width - measurement that doesn't even exist - sufficed. I wasn't even looking at jackets with a shoulder width under 20", which was of course ridiculous. My first Vanson was a sz. 46. Lol!

@Carlos840 explained everything very well, I'd just like to add that probably the reason why you might believe that the denim jackets you have feel tight around the shoulders is because of the position of the armhole, which on truckers is usually positioned more directly toward the sides of the jacket, rather than slightly forward. So in turn, you compensate by buying a larger jacket than you actually need.
This is something a lot of people do. Reason you see pretty much everyone in the street walking in a coat that's 2 sizes too large on them is because they believe it fits them correctly due to being comfortable, but in 90% of the cases, it's just the pattern and has nothing to do with shoulder width.

But yeah, nothing about the shoulder seam-to-seam width can affect the way the jacket feels on you - you either push the sleeves out with your shoulders (and pull them a bit up) or you don't. The sleeve material will bend around your shoulder and you're good. With over-sized shoulders, the seam will fall lower, again bending around your shoulder curve and you're also good. Except not because the sleeve opening (and seam) might push into your shoulder and make the jacket feel small.

Tl;dr - It's mostly all about the armhole position, not the actual space between shoulder seams.

 

[Carlos840]

I really appreciate the discussion and advice here everyone- and especially @Carlos840.

I’m hoping I will get a response from them soon and they will offer to make it right. It sounds like the best option would be for me to size down to a 36, keep the same sleeve and body lengths and maybe take an additional couple of inches off the bottom opening.

If you size down to a 36 the shoulders will most likely be 0.5" narrower, maybe ask for 0.5" extra in the sleeves to end up with more or less the sleeve length you have on the current one.
Depending on the difference in bottom hem diameter between sizes maybe do a "Tony special" and ask for a 36 tapering down to a 34 in the bottom hem.
I hope it works out, good luck.

 

[El Marro]

I just experienced catastrophic zipper failure on my LW CHP.

I was changing the battery on my Monte Carlo when I looked down and noticed that the insert pin had separated from the zipper box. I don’t know if I missed it when I went to zip the jacket up or if it came loose while I was working but the end result was that I could not move the zipper all the way down to release. I fussed with it delicately for about a minute and then I did the he-man, grabbed both sides of the jacket and pulled apart shearing the teeth on the pull side of the zipper as you can see. I knew that brute force was not the answer but I also know that this zipper has been a problem since the day I received the jacket and once it’s separated like that it’s fate was sealed as far as I’m concerned.
I think I’m going to take the jacket into Johnson Leathers and have them install a #10 riri that will be up for the task of handling this heavy horsehide. While I’m there I might talk to them about taking in the sides a little bit through the ribs to increase the taper of this jacket.
Crappy way to start the day but I am trying to make lemonade with these lemons and hopefully end up with a jacket that fits better than this one ever has.

 

[ton312]

I just experienced catastrophic zipper failure on my LW CHP.
View attachment 278472
I was changing the battery on my Monte Carlo when I looked down and noticed that the insert pin had separated from the zipper box. I don’t know if I missed it when I went to zip the jacket up or if it came loose while I was working but the end result was that I could not move the zipper all the way down to release. I fussed with it delicately for about a minute and then I did the he-man, grabbed both sides of the jacket and pulled apart shearing the teeth on the pull side of the zipper as you can see. I knew that brute force was not the answer but I also know that this zipper has been a problem since the day I received the jacket and once it’s separated like that it’s fate was sealed as far as I’m concerned.
I think I’m going to take the jacket into Johnson Leathers and have them install a #10 riri that will be up for the task of handling this heavy horsehide. While I’m there I might talk to them about taking in the sides a little bit through the ribs to increase the taper of this jacket.
Crappy way to start the day but I am trying to make lemonade with these lemons and hopefully end up with a jacket that fits better than this one ever has.

I won’t even zip my LW. Has a massive #10 Talon and it’s in perfect order but the few times I’ve tried I can tell it won’t last long. I was debating on a preemptive strike with Dena and have her throw in a YKK. Would like this tapered one the body too. At the same time...not sure I’ll keep it, the sleeves feel about 1/2” too short.