When did you first...

[Spitfire]

First of all I read everything I could get my little dirty fingers at on Royal Air Force, escapes from POW camps, bombing raids and the spitfire pilots during my childhood. The second kick came with the movie: Battle of Britain in '68. Got my first "Irvin" (From Simon Green at ALC) some years later and have been hooked ever since!

 

[Otter]

That would be about 20 years ago, I had a Caterham 7 (1700 supersprint) and had bought an Aviation Leathercraft (Irvin) jacket. The wife wanted a jacket to keep her warm but not a sheepskin as it made her look like a teddy bear. I found an advert in a Classic Car tht was from Aero, we went along and looked at the showroom and I went wow, these are so much better than the "proper" Irvin jackets. So we ordered a jacket from them, been customers ever since.

 

[scottyrocks]

I was in my mid-teens when the boys down the block got bomber jackets. When I went to buy one, they were way more than I could afford at that time ($40!). I found one in vinyl for half the price, but it wasn't the same, and I knew it even back then.

It wasn't until years later that I bought a Cooper leather bomber. I had it for years. I stopped wearing it as much after I sent it to be 'cleaned'. They ruined it, as it looked much like that vinyl jacket after they got through with it. That great aged patina it had was gone.

Since then, whenever I feel that a leather jacket, or rather its liner, needs to be cleaned, I do it myself. Yes, leather can get a little wet, as I had learned.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I had a vinyl G-1 knockoff in my college years, and a nondescript black cowhide "Raiders-esque" jacket that I got in 1981 while under the Indy influence.

Then I got a Schott bomber in the mid-80s (their combo A-2/G-1 design in brown naked cowhide, but back then with non-removable white pile lining and bogus mouton collar, and no belted back, a horizontal seam across the shoulder blades instead), which was my first decent leather jacket. But my first proper A-2 was a Gibson & Barnes (then still called FlightSuits) "civil" model in black goatskin that I got in late 2001 that's still my most frequently worn leather jacket - e.g., I'm wearing it today!

I've gotten a few more since then (a US Authetntic horsehide A-2, a G&B Historical M-422A, a Wested Raiders), but my first first-class repro is a Good Wear Dubow that's scheduled to be completed in May!