Club Obi Wan

Got my new Wested today,what a nice jacket.

I ordered mine on 12/8/04 and it was delivered today, 1/8/05.

Mine is an authentic lambskin, TOD. I ordered the double underarm gussets, square sliders, one inside pocket and cotton lining in the body and the satin like material in the arms. The fit seems pretty good. I gave detailed measurments of myself and a favorite jacket along with instructions for them to use their best judgment based on the jacket design. The sleeves are a tad long but if they ride up even 1/2" they will be even better. Chest size looks good but again, maybe a tad big. Probably not worth trying to shrink it down any in the dryer though.

I was really looking forward to distressing this but it looks so good right now in that rich brown I may need a second one to age!

Thanks for pointing me to Wested guys!

Tony

Congratulations buddy!

Just wear it enough and the sleeves will be fine, and so will probably the chest area once the leather has conformed a bit to your body. A tip, at your own risk, is to wear the jacket in rain once and let it dry while on you for a bit. Then hang it and condition it if needed. This helped me to make my jacket fit better.

Wested... Wise choice.

Regards,
Swindiana

Swindy,
I automatic rain sizing thing has been tried by me once before! I had an Avirex Horsehide A2 that I got caught in the rain in. I dried it as best I could with towels, hung it in a cool place to dry and it went from a 46L to a 44L...........I though stayed at 46L which posed a real problem!
Tony

Yeah, that does sound like a problem. As with most stuff, a 'do at own risk' is well to be mentioned. Ididn't feel that the jacket shrunk as much as it actually got more fitted to my body shape though. Let us know how it turns out after a bit of wear.

Regards,
Swindiana

Heirphoto wrote:Got my new Wested today,what a nice jacket.

I was really looking forward to distressing this but it looks so good right now in that rich brown I may need a second one to age!

Tony

Yes when faced with a pristine new Wested the first instinct is always to keep it good. I had to fight the urge to preserve it, but I am so glad I distressed it in the end.

Ken

Swindiana,
I took the wet jacket technique that shrunk my old A2 and resized my Wested as it really needed to go down a full size. This is really a do it at your own risk method but for me it worked well. One wet jacket, one dryer, a dry iron and a damp towel and creative blocking to give a final hang dry and it fits great now AND has a much more vintage feel. Some scheen is gone and the leather does not look pressed flat as on a new jacket but instead has some texture where it has shrunk in places. It actually looks as if it has ben worn a few years other than having a brand new brown finish

Again I will add that I have done this before with good results but you can also easily ruin a jacket this way by it shrinking too much in places and having seams wrinkle and curl. I wet it well then tumbled in the dryer with several heavy towels and varying degrees of heat. When still damp it had the pleats carefully lined up and folded flat then covered with a towel from the inside and pressed with a dry iron to prefvent the stitched seams from curling. The jacket was then blocked on a thick hanger with thin slats holding the pleats in proper alignment so they dried straight and true.
The work with the pleats is very important, without that they WILL curl and the pleats and back of the jacket will never hang correctly.

BTW, after doing this I felt brave enough to distress the inner pocket facing as a test. The acetone thing really does work well and was easier than I thought. I used a blow dryer to quickly evaporate the acetone to judge the finish. Guess I will start the outside of the jacket this week after looking at wear patterns on real vintage jackets first.

Once more, the wet method of jacket sizing is not for the faint of heart or the unlucky!

Best,
Tony

Interesting---Not that I'd want to try this myself (not feint of heart, but a lief-long believer in "Murphy's Law")...but when y'all say this method shrinks the jacket down "one size" what exactly does that mean? For example would a size 44 shrink down to a size 42, or would it shrink down to a notional size 43? Inquiring minds want to knw!

Lao,
Mine was a 48L and now it seems to fit like other 46L jackets I have. It shrunk more in length than width which worked out well as the sleeves were way too long.

I would really suggest getting the correct size initially though. I found it interesting that even with good measurments it is hard to get the perfect fit as each jacket type hangs a bit different. I measured a jacket I loved the fit of that was a non-military style aged leather jacket. Back length was 28", sleeves were 27.5. I ordered the same thing and my Wested arrived with 27" sleeves and a 27" back length and for some odd reason still hung longer than I wanted! Thank goodness Peter didn't make it exactly to my measurments. Now that I have one though it will make sizing the second easy.

Tony

Thanks for the insights. Very helpful. Cheers!

Heirphoto; Sounds good... all good.
Any chances there are some shots of it?

Regards,
Swindiana

Swindiana,
I will get a pic or two later tonight. I was really waiting till I got it distressed though as all I did was the inner pocket facing so far as a test. I loved the way that turned out as well as the new fit. It actually looks more like a raiders now than a TOD since it shrunk more in length than width.
Tony