My first jacket

Starman Jones · Post by **Starman Jones** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 6:12 pm

There came a time about 10 years ago that I decided I wanted an Indy jacket. It had been a number of years since I saw ROTLA, and I was so naive I thought Indy wore an A2 pilot's jacket. In December of that year Sears was selling Chinese A2 replicas, so I bought one. After a couple of days I realized this was NOT what Indy wore. The A2 has raglan sleeves for freedom of movement instead of action pleats. Around 2000 I set about searching the 'net, found this site and learned about Wested, and ordered the proper jacket. It's beautiful, but I wish the leather had the look of the A2. I'm wearing the A2 in my avatar photo, and you can just make out the patina and distressing the Chinese did to the leather. The jacket LOOKS like it's 60 years old. I don't have a clue as to how it was done, and i'm not about to try to make my Wested lamb look like that, but if Peter could do that or find supplier that could furnish that type of leather, I think it would sell quite well.

Starman Jones

Post by **Ken** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 6:44 pm

Peter offers pre-distressed cowhide which has the antiqued look. It tends to be a little bit of a uniform distressing but it does give it an aged quality.

Ken

Starman Jones · Post by **Starman Jones** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 8:00 pm

Ken, I looked at the one Peter offers. Nice as it is, the distressing doesn't begin to compare with what the Chinese did. The leather has random small rinkles and the color varies as if it had faded in places or someone, (with great skill) had attacked it with acetone.

Cheers,

Starman

Starman Jones · Post by **Starman Jones** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 1:16 pm

This is what I would like my authenic lamb to look like.

Gater · Post by **Gater** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 3:13 pm

Perhaps you could get a new jacket, and subscribe to the Guybrush method of distressing. ie/ barrel rolls on cement parking lots, scraping against a wall of seashells, Hugging up to bricks...whatelse Guybrush??

This has made him a very nice, distressed jacket...altho I don't have the Sankara Stones to try this myself.

Starman Jones · Post by **Starman Jones** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 4:35 pm

I have the Wested authenic lamb, but I don't have any of those sankara things either. This is a Chinese A2 repro and this the way it came from the maker.

Starman

FLATHEAD · Post by **FLATHEAD** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:53 am

I had a Wested Distressed Cow go thru my hands a while back, and the
leather looked exactly like your picture!

Its a nice leather, but its too evenly distressed for my taste, and I sent it
back for an authentic lamb. It reminded me of the old acid washed
looking leather back in the 80's, just like the one you have pictured.

But if you want an Indy jacket that looks like yours, you should go with the
distressed cow by Wested, and it will look like the leather in your picture,
evenly distressed all over. And you could always Pecard it, and darken
any areas of the jacket that you think are too evenly distressed, and make
the jacket look better.

You can also try the U.S. Wings Vintage Cow Indy jacket as well. That
one also has a distressed look to it.

I have their older version, which was made by Neil Cooper, and its a
nice jacket. It not as evenly distressed as the one from Wested. It
has areas that are more distressed than others, and it looks more
real than the distressing on the Wested. Plus, it keeps getting more
and more distressed in the high contact areas, such as the arms, chest
and back, like it should.

I think you would be very happy with either of these choices.

Flathead

Starman Jones · Post by **Starman Jones** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 11:39 pm

I'm just an old retired dude. Buying the lamb was a stretch. The cowhide didn't look as distressed in the Wested photo, or I probably would have gone for it. Oh, well. Too soon we grow old and too late smart

Starman

Starman Jones · Post by **Starman Jones** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 12:31 am

Here's a comparison of the two. The Wested, to me, just appears varigated compared to my Chinese jacket.

FLATHEAD · Post by **FLATHEAD** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 7:17 am

You should write to Peter and ask for a sample of the distressed cowhide.

He can send you some samples, and you can compare it to your actual
jacket.

Its better than trying to compare your real A-2 hide with a picture of the
Wested hide.

Its worth a try. You may be very pleasantly surprised!

Flathead

Starman Jones · Post by **Starman Jones** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 1:07 pm

Flathead,

I emailed Wested this morning requesting a sample. Just received an 'e' from Gemma saying it's in the post. It will be interesting to see how the two compare in real life.

Starman