we drove over to his shop in el segundo which was just south of the airport. at that time i was just in my little world of being star struck just because of all of the hollywood stars he's schmoozed with
we got to his shop and he gave me the tour. i was like a kid in a candy store! "this is where all the magic happens eh?", i said to tony.....he kind of looked at me with a 'ain't no big deal' look. i saw the jackets he was working on......just some really beautiful stuff: chris king's replacement jacket, orb's LC jacket (orb man......are you going to love that thing!!!). after seeing han jones and orb's, i kept thinking to myself that mr. holt should be here to give his blessing on this LC design as i don't think he would be disappointed at all....i think tony is going to conquer the LC market pretty soon as i have not seen anyone who can do the LC distressing as accurate as he can. he showed me the CS hides, the holy goat leather, and the 747 leather....all great stuff. i was orginally set to purchase a goatskin indy but he did not have enough to do up a jacket for me (which was a blessing in disguise). he also showed me all of the movie stuff he was working on or have worked on......yes hatch, i did see the bruce willis jacket which is styled as a vintage 'hercules' bomber....it's in a russet hue if i recall correctly.......that was a beautiful jacket. sorry that i did not get any pics of that, but i didn't want to take pictures of things that i thought was sensitive to big tony's work. if you look at the hercules jacket that aero leathers make....it's close to that design.i'm sure those that visited tony know he loves throwing jackets on people and getting them to pose for a picture......even if they don't fit
he had one jacket there that he made for himself for a planet holywood opening. it was a very light blue leather which he got bruce willis, sly stallone, and tom jones to sign....i don't look good in light coloured jackets but if big tony wants me to try it on, who am i to say no.........here are some pics of my 'modelling session':lol:http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m212 ... CT2703.jpg
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m212 ... CT2706.jpg
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m212 ... CT2707.jpg
after that, we just chewed the fat for a while. the subject of the conversation went to the whole shrunken lamb debate......now i'm not going to entertain any shrunken lamb debates on this thread, but please feel free to post them on the other thread where they belong (mr. holt, man the flak cannons please
)......anyways, tony told me that he use to work across the alley from where he is now, but the current tenant is a gentleman who was in the tannery business for many, many years. he is a 4th generation leather expert that tony frequents to supply him leather from time to time. tony said, "let's go see if we can find him!".....we step out in the alley and see a man taking a smoke break at the back of his building. tony proclaims, "there he is!!!!". tony introduced me to the man, jean oui martin (sp?) and we talked about the shrunken lamb that tony uses. he commented that the leather gives off the texture that it does via a process where it's PH level is dropped (by adding acidic catalysts to it). the degree of the pattern and grains that you get is highly dependent on what kind of lamb you use and the amount of acid that you drop (:lol: no pun intended )....ie - an australian lamb hide will produce different graining than a new zealand lamb hide. he also commented that in the 80's, the company that his father owned in france would ship more than a million dollars of shrunken lamb a MONTH to manufacturers in korea alone.......perhaps tony didn't think i was convinced with the shrunken lamb in raiders, perhaps he wanted to defend wested's claim that his hides are stamped....i don't know....i never doubted tony when i bought my very first shrunken lamb jacket that indiana williams now owns today.....the whole incident of finding and talking to jean oui just set the flavor of discovery for the trip.after that, tony was preoccupied with current business issues which allowed me to look around his shop some more. tucked away in the back i found some leather that tony recently used on a secret endeavour but did not use that type of leather on a jacket for years. he custom specified the leather long ago to build jackets out of but never used them to make anything indy. it was a flat matte leather that kind of looked predistressed until you examine it closer.....the distressed mark's were all NATURAL. tony found me poking around that leather pile and he asked me, "what did you find now???"......he took a sample of this stuff and he brought it to his table to test it.......we found that the sample, when 'prepped' would lose all of it's distressed markings, turning it back into a matte dark brown that was uniform across the hide....... and it only took a small pull of the leather to bring the lighter brown undertones back! the hide distressed on a dime, to put it simply. not only that, it was tough. it was a tough, stiff cowhide as it sits by itself but when tony massaged it and rubbed it around, it softened up extremely quick. it felt like how those oilskin jackets felt but it wasn't oily at all........strangest leather i've ever seen.....but man, was it a dead ringer for the colour of the raiders jacket!!!!
"this is the stuff.....i want this stuff on my jacket please".........tony was a little hesitant as he likes to test all of hides before he offers it to the public. he put the hide through a test treatment that would take some time to get the results. this was a good time to break for lunch
when we got back he released his manufacturing crew on the task. ricardo, a man that has been cutting tony's patterns for decades cut out the 38 pieces that it took to make an indy jacket. the leather was reinforced and awaited the sewing. that was the end of the day so tony brought me back to my hotel for some much needed rest and to plan the next days events.
the following day i hit downtown LA, west hollywood (the beverly centre shopping mall), beverly hills (including anto's, where they made the CS shirts.......look in the general gear section...and i'm willing to give info to select members here interested in the shirt....those that didn't tick me off in the past....but there isn't too much info to share anyways), and the santa monica pier. i called tony when i was on rodeo dr late in the afternoon and he told me the jacket was done!!! geez, that was quick!!! louise is the man responsible for sewing the jackets and not only is he precise, he is extremely fast. he is another gent that's been working with tony for years. both ricardo and louise were extremely pleasant gentlemen and i want to thank them for all the care they put in my jacket. with these 2 highly skilled craftsmen, and several other 'behind the scene' individuals, tony acts as the director to orchestrate all of the efforts.....and in the endy....indy magic
we decided to call the hide 'DIRTY OIL' cowhide.....quite befitting as i work in the 'dirty oil' patch of alberta
. i claimed no. 569 of 888 to commemorate the date that i met tony. this is by far my most SA jacket....in colour and dimension....but not in drape. it does not drape like lamb, but i wasn't looking for the fashionable drape of lamb, i was looking for an indy jacket that i could run through a thorn bush with and come out unscaved......this is the guy. this jacket almost stands on its own like a FQHH horsehide jacket....but once it gets worked in, it will get as soft if not softer than the CS cowhide.so if you're still awake, off to the pictures:
here's how it looked in big tony's shop.......
here's how it looked today.........
the last day of my trip is when i went to pick up the jacket. tony and i spent the whole day talking about indy, about family and about life. we also took a bunch of his jackets to the supermarket to weigh on the produce scale
........cowhide beats the shrunken lamb btw (lamb was about 3.2 lbs while the cow was at 4.0 lbs). people at the market know him by name as he stops there frequently for his lunch and dinners....not because he's big in the hollywood circles....but because he is just friendly and outgoing with people........ he would ask the person behind the counter, "did you see the indiana jones movie"......then he would point at me, "he was the guy that was in it......." (i was in fedora and my new jacket).out of all the fun stuff i did, including all the indy jacket stuff that i saw and touched, all the sights and sounds of LA LA land......my most favourite memory will be of myself and tony sitting on a bench outside the supermarket eating our dinners. talking about manny ramirez and his 50 game suspension (his subject)...talking about which canadian teams are left in the stanley cup playoff (my subject)....talking about the old days of 'pumping iron' with arnold, and basically talking about our families in general.
he was a kind a gracious host to me, and i am truly greatful to have made a friend with this man. the quality of his products are only overshadowed by the quality of his character. thank you for everything tony
Sounds like a wonderful experience and glad you found that perfect leather you were searching for. It looks like a great hide, lots of character in that one right off the bat!
Sounds like a great time all around, and a nice jacket to boot!
thanks for sharing! 
I might be a bit funny in the head for this, but I'd love to see a ToD made in this leather for that was what immediately came to mind when I saw it. 
