So I just received my Wested Last Crusade in pre distressed lambskin.
Two things I want to throw out to the COW universe:
- I was expecting heavy duty pre distressed lamb, as this was on Westeds leather skin blog article, said to be just about as thick as cowhide. It looks quite thin, nowhere near cowhide. I also happened to notice when I ordered that the skin was called “pre distressed lamb” with no mention of heavy duty. Did I miss something?
- I have a couple other Wested Raiders jackets, so I ordered my normal size, this was a custom order. When I tried it on, this LC jacket was noticeably tighter than my others, that fit perfect. Again on the Wested blogs, the LC is described as having a looser fit due to the armholes. Could it be that Wested messed up on this custom order? Should I just keep it as the “weight loss” motivation jacket?? Hahaha
In my experience, the standard LC will fit tighter than the standard Raiders in the same chest size. At least somewhat. I forget what exactly it was, but I once measured mine and was kind of shocked to find that the front panels on the LC were smaller than the Raiders, but I think the back panel was wider. There was a difference in how they allocated the circumference. But over time and wear it has broken in to the point where it's not tight. That's the one bonus of lighter skins.
And a thing to keep in mind with Westeds is that the standard LC is sort of designed to mimic the film jacket's quirks more than the standard Raiders is, so to speak. The standard Raiders is really just a regular jacket fit for the most part, but the LC they shifted the arm holes and the shoulders a bit and the back sits differently, etc. It's not meant to be as screen accurate like the Hero models are, but it's definitely not a "regular" fit as the standard Raiders.
As for the skin, I mean, it's lamb. It's a much smaller animal than a horse or cow. Wested just doesn't deal in skins heavier than the novapelle cow or their lighter horsehide that they source. For myriad reasons. If you want heavier than that you really have only two options: one, have BK make you one in one of their horse or cowhides, which is very expensive, or two, try USW -- either new or ebay. My USW are quite heavy and durable and built like a tank. S&J used to have horse in two different weights -- one was lighter and mimicked the drape of the film jackets as well as horse possibly could, and my S&J LC in that light horse is probably my favorite jacket, but alas I don't believe they stock it anymore. You could always hit up Diego and see if they're planning on using horsehide again. But I don't think it would be anything like the weight of an authentic horse A2 or moto jacket or anything like that. And there's also Magnoli's cowhide, but that's also likely not going to be as heavy as you might be looking for.
Illinois_Jones wrote:In my experience, the standard LC will fit tighter than the standard Raiders in the same chest size. At least somewhat. I forget what exactly it was, but I once measured mine and was kind of shocked to find that the front panels on the LC were smaller than the Raiders, but I think the back panel was wider. There was a difference in how they allocated the circumference. But over time and wear it has broken in to the point where it's not tight. That's the one bonus of lighter skins.
And a thing to keep in mind with Westeds is that the standard LC is sort of designed to mimic the film jacket's quirks more than the standard Raiders is, so to speak. The standard Raiders is really just a regular jacket fit for the most part, but the LC they shifted the arm holes and the shoulders a bit and the back sits differently, etc. It's not meant to be as screen accurate like the Hero models are, but it's definitely not a "regular" fit as the standard Raiders.
As for the skin, I mean, it's lamb. It's a much smaller animal than a horse or cow. Wested just doesn't deal in skins heavier than the novapelle cow or their lighter horsehide that they source. For myriad reasons. If you want heavier than that you really have only two options: one, have BK make you one in one of their horse or cowhides, which is very expensive, or two, try USW -- either new or ebay. My USW are quite heavy and durable and built like a tank. S&J used to have horse in two different weights -- one was lighter and mimicked the drape of the film jackets as well as horse possibly could, and my S&J LC in that light horse is probably my favorite jacket, but alas I don't believe they stock it anymore. You could always hit up Diego and see if they're planning on using horsehide again. But I don't think it would be anything like the weight of an authentic horse A2 or moto jacket or anything like that. And there's also Magnoli's cowhide, but that's also likely not going to be as heavy as you might be looking for.
Being an LC fan above all else, I finally figured this one out after many, many ill-fitting jackets. The LC pattern has the arms 'rotated' forward more than the Raiders. Think of the jacket being a tube, and instead of the arms sticking off the side, they are rotated toward the front of the tube... it's weird.
Illinois_Jones wrote:In my experience, the standard LC will fit tighter than the standard Raiders in the same chest size. At least somewhat. I forget what exactly it was, but I once measured mine and was kind of shocked to find that the front panels on the LC were smaller than the Raiders, but I think the back panel was wider. There was a difference in how they allocated the circumference. But over time and wear it has broken in to the point where it's not tight. That's the one bonus of lighter skins.
And a thing to keep in mind with Westeds is that the standard LC is sort of designed to mimic the film jacket's quirks more than the standard Raiders is, so to speak. The standard Raiders is really just a regular jacket fit for the most part, but the LC they shifted the arm holes and the shoulders a bit and the back sits differently, etc. It's not meant to be as screen accurate like the Hero models are, but it's definitely not a "regular" fit as the standard Raiders.
As for the skin, I mean, it's lamb. It's a much smaller animal than a horse or cow. Wested just doesn't deal in skins heavier than the novapelle cow or their lighter horsehide that they source. For myriad reasons. If you want heavier than that you really have only two options: one, have BK make you one in one of their horse or cowhides, which is very expensive, or two, try USW -- either new or ebay. My USW are quite heavy and durable and built like a tank. S&J used to have horse in two different weights -- one was lighter and mimicked the drape of the film jackets as well as horse possibly could, and my S&J LC in that light horse is probably my favorite jacket, but alas I don't believe they stock it anymore. You could always hit up Diego and see if they're planning on using horsehide again. But I don't think it would be anything like the weight of an authentic horse A2 or moto jacket or anything like that. And there's also Magnoli's cowhide, but that's also likely not going to be as heavy as you might be looking for.
Being an LC fan above all else, I finally figured this one out after many, many ill-fitting jackets. The LC pattern has the arms 'rotated' forward more than the Raiders. Think of the jacket being a tube, and instead of the arms sticking off the side, they are rotated toward the front of the tube... it's weird.
Illinois_Jones wrote:In my experience, the standard LC will fit tighter than the standard Raiders in the same chest size. At least somewhat. I forget what exactly it was, but I once measured mine and was kind of shocked to find that the front panels on the LC were smaller than the Raiders, but I think the back panel was wider. There was a difference in how they allocated the circumference. But over time and wear it has broken in to the point where it's not tight. That's the one bonus of lighter skins.
And a thing to keep in mind with Westeds is that the standard LC is sort of designed to mimic the film jacket's quirks more than the standard Raiders is, so to speak. The standard Raiders is really just a regular jacket fit for the most part, but the LC they shifted the arm holes and the shoulders a bit and the back sits differently, etc. It's not meant to be as screen accurate like the Hero models are, but it's definitely not a "regular" fit as the standard Raiders.
As for the skin, I mean, it's lamb. It's a much smaller animal than a horse or cow. Wested just doesn't deal in skins heavier than the novapelle cow or their lighter horsehide that they source. For myriad reasons. If you want heavier than that you really have only two options: one, have BK make you one in one of their horse or cowhides, which is very expensive, or two, try USW -- either new or ebay. My USW are quite heavy and durable and built like a tank. S&J used to have horse in two different weights -- one was lighter and mimicked the drape of the film jackets as well as horse possibly could, and my S&J LC in that light horse is probably my favorite jacket, but alas I don't believe they stock it anymore. You could always hit up Diego and see if they're planning on using horsehide again. But I don't think it would be anything like the weight of an authentic horse A2 or moto jacket or anything like that. And there's also Magnoli's cowhide, but that's also likely not going to be as heavy as you might be looking for.
Being an LC fan above all else, I finally figured this one out after many, many ill-fitting jackets. The LC pattern has the arms 'rotated' forward more than the Raiders. Think of the jacket being a tube, and instead of the arms sticking off the side, they are rotated toward the front of the tube... it's weird.
Yeah, exactly. The arms and shoulders of the LC are just different. Mine actually has always fit me well, but I remember when I got it thinking it would fit more loosely than my standard Raiders but it didn't at all. It took me getting the tape measure etc and just going over it, because I was curious as the custom dimensions of the standard LC I ordered were exactly the same as the standard Raiders I had gotten. And like you said, because the arm holes are slightly forward and the angle of the shoulders is steeper, the jacket does hang off the shoulders differently and consequently the back of the collar can sit higher and the bottom hem of the jacket can be slightly higher than a Raiders of the same length. I was bummed about it but then I remembered how tight my G-1 fit me in the Navy and how much better it got as I wore it and worked it in, so I just wore the heck out of my Wested until it started to conform to how I want it.
Wested's most comfortable fit jackets in my opinion are their OTR pattern or custom 'Raiders' (non Hero) jacket and the Temple of Doom pattern. I find these to be the most comfortable, practical (from a fit perspective) and easy to wear jackets. I always get an extra inside pocket on the ToD jacket to make up for the smaller patch pockets which are less useful.
