djd wrote:Just to give the other side of the story.... I'd artificially distress it if I were you.
Part of the charm to me of the Indy jacket is that it looks like it's been battered and trampled. If it doesn't have this look then it's just another leather jacket. Yes, you could get this naturally - maybe if you worn it constantly for years. However , I've ten year old leather jackets , including a bike jacket that I've crashed in twice, that still look not far off new. The film jackets were artificially distressed and if you want the true Indy look that's the way to go as far as I'm concerned. You can do it a bit at a time without going nuts....
This is the one of the age old debates for sure but I like hearing myself say it 'out loud' from time to time. I totally agree with djd. For many years I was on the fence about this subject but I am now a firm believer that for the jacket to look Indy it needs a certain amount of distressing.
It seems to me that people will connect the dots that pretty much any beat up jacket is like an Indy jacket. I have never had anyone other than a diehard fan look at one of my new, pristine Indy jackets and make any type of Indy related comment. It just has never happened. In contrast, I have had instances where I was wearing a non-Indy style leather jacket that was fairly beat up (when I was younger it was much more common for me to acquire more second hand, well lived in jackets than brand new ones) and had complete strangers come up and say, "Hey, Indy! Where's your whip?".
A large part of the Indy jacket is that it is beat up. Let's say you are asked to in one sentence describe the Indiana Jones jacket to a random person that you meet. Would you start describing the collar stand, the shape of the packets, the back panel, etc? If it were me I would likely say, "It a dark brown, beat-up looking leather jacket.". The rest is for we Indiana Jones engineer eggheads, you know, the guys that look at the nitty gritty details that most people don't care about. But don't forget the importance of the "beat up" part as a key component in the "construction" of an Indy jacket.
Let's face it. The majority of us will never be put into situations that would take a new jacket from pristine to the evenly worn look that we see on the screen. The normal wear marks I've put on my jackets from daily wear look very little like the wear that Indy's jacket has and I've worn my jackets in pretty much every situation that I could put them in whether it's my day-to-day life in modern day suburbia, hauling heavy brush around our property or that "epic" wilderness exploration hiking adventure that I go on with my dog whenever I can. Yes, I know there are some "real" adventurer's amongst us that can show me some real world wear examples but the bulk of us will not achieve the look that was the product of a very specific vision and well executed plan (with more than just a few jackets ruined in the process along the way...).
I know I'm one of those in the minority but to me, any new looking jacket is not an Indy jacket. It's an Indy wannabe jacket. As djd said, just do it a little bit at a time and you should be fine. Yes, you are likely shaving some time off the jackets life expectancy but that is what's required to give it the true Indy vibe.
BTW - that is a great looking Wested, MaXer! I say you need to make it look like an Indy jacket now!
