It is true that at this time we were blacklisted by Monty Berman a we in his opinion had the audacity to supply the jackets for Roger Moore and co for the 007 film AView To A Kill. However we did supply the initial Temple of Doom jackets by arrangement with Noel Howard through the back door as they had no one else to make them and I had the patterns.The modern Indy jacket has a long history behind it. I thought that it was about time that more people had access to the real story. It all starts with Peter Botwright, obviously. Peter made the Indiana Jones jackets for Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. At the time of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Bermans & Nathens (the costume suppliers) were peeved with Peter, so they went with another company to make the jackets. If there were any jackets made by Peter used in TOD, it's a good bet that they were left overs from Raiders.
I had no knowledge of Lee Keepler until he contacted me and asked me to supply him Indy jackets. This we did for several years until we opened our our web siite and started selling direct and because of the price Lee could not obtain his profit margin.
This is a complete fabrication Lee never sent me a FS jacket in fact I had no knowledge of FS existance until they produced the Expedition jacket in the late 90's and according to FS advert they only started business in 1988. So how on earth could I copy thier pocket for the crusade jacket.Lee immediately sent Peter his Flight Suits jacket to work from (and to jog his memory). At least one hold over from this (and testament to it) is the inside pocket of the modern Wested, which took it’s design from the FS fan jacket (you can see a pic in the link posted above). The original Raiders pocket design (with the straight thin leather facings) can be seen in the “stars” pic and also on the dvd (when Indy picks up the idol).
I had never seen a FS jacket until about 2/3 years ago when I was shown one by Chris King.
The change of pocket was requested for the Last Crusade as it was required to hold the diary and they thought the existing Raiders pocket was too small and not strong enough. I put this in all of the jackets for this very reason.
If you read the post by _ I did not refuse them but said I would review them as I have with others who have come up with finer points of the design. Some I take on board and some I don't in my attempt to constantly impove authenticity combined with practicality.Since there were many differences between the then current Wested and the jacket that Paterson examined, Paterson first offered his findings to Peter. Peter refused them.
That off my chest I am going to enjoy my Xmas Turkey and have some falling down water.
Cheers and Merry Xmas to all
Peter