Club Obi Wan

He is in fact selling shirts and other items. Up to this date we've only talked about shirts (ROTLA), he responded to my email I sent a while back. I got the email from another thread. I figured what the heck, let's look into it. Here are the two emails I've gotten so far, 1st is an apology for the long time in responding.

Edited by Croft 11-20-05, sorry about personel emails. I didn't mean to cause a stir. quotes have been removed as well. Suffice it to say, looks Noels back.



Now the price is a little higher than a Wested and with shipping not really to far off the prices for a shirt of this type. Has anyone else recently emailed Mr. Howard regarding these shirts and there quality. I'm seroiusly thinking of buying one but I thought I'd put it out there for you guys & gals to see what you think.
On another non-related topic, for all those who went to QM summit, loved the pic's

Here is his email if anyone else is thinking of contacting him.

Email address removed by Croft. Any one looking for it please PM me.


Croft

Hmm. Have heard of the famous Noel Howard shirt, how does it compare to the Wested? Anyone have any pics?

so what else is he selling besides the Raiders shirt? If he is going to be making and selling his other Indy items aswell then this is great news Im going to email him and find out prices and such. Thanks for the news, Indiana Croft.
Best Regards,
Joe

So why has he kept such a low profile, and why hasn't he alerted us to his workings. I've emailed him several times, and no reply, and could only conclude he's decided not to return to business.

Regards! Michaelson

Michaelson, I'm with you on this. I hope he selling his wares again. I know that since he closed his doors, there have been some great products to come out. I love my Wested shirt. However, I would like to get a replacement for my old NH shirt and pick up some of his leatherwares (gunbelt, bag strap and maybe a holster).

Mike

We'll see. I just responded to him once again, need clarify to sizes avavilable. Don't want to order a shirt and have another WPG shirt mishap (to big) my new WPG shirt is perfect, but I'd love to own another Indy shirt especially from the man who made them, kinda like owning a Wested.
Croft

WOW! Thanks for making my day! I can't recommend his shirt enough. My take on the Wested shirt is that it is quite stiff looking out of the box but they do appear to look nice once they've been worn in a bit. Keep in mind that the Wested is a copy (although not exact) of the NH shirt. I'm 1000% a Wested jacket fan over any other as they made the originals and IMHO still make the best Indy jacket today, hands down. NH helped make the original shirts and again it's MHO that it's still the best shirt. Well worth the extra money. Well worth it.
I'm sure that Nole has to charge a bit extra cuz' he's not moving them as quickly as Wested is. Wested seems to now have the market on the shirt. Makes sense to me.

HigHurtenflurst wrote:Hmm. Have heard of the famous Noel Howard shirt, how does it compare to the Wested? Anyone have any pics?

Interesting news.

Here's some photos I have.

These first two were to illustrate how the color of the NH shirt can change depending on the lighting.




A comparison I did when I had a custom Indy shirt commissioned.

Hmm, that doesn't look nearly like a "stone" that is quoted so often. More tan to it. Glad I ran accross this thread. I was going to ask about the pants.

I've got a pair of NH pants and was wondering if these are the "taupe standard" that Indy pants color is judged from.

Doc,
The pics presented above are perfect. Tyhe color of the shirt is more of a light tan and as you can see in the second pic, shows up much lighter as in the film when photographed with flash or in bright light.

I believe that both the NH shirt and pants were sourced in material and color from original swatches from the movie. If I didn't already have a couple of pairs of NH pants I'd be perfectly satisfied with the Wested offereing.

agent5 wrote:I can't recommend his shirt enough.

Um, yeah, I second that opinion. The Noel Howard shirts are hands down my favorite, though not everyone agrees. They are ultra-light-weight, so not for cold winter wear, but for tropical wear they are tops. I dyed my first Raiders shirt off-white, and wore it until it was threadbare and the sleeves developed rips... then I cut off the sleeves and wore it as a short-sleeve shirt until it developed another rip in the torso, and then I shed a tear and got another one. That one I ended up dying blue. And then I got a TOD shirt, which I like even better than the Raiders, even though I like Raiders better than TOD in every other respect... I bought a Wested shirt and promptly re-sold it because it just wasn't the same, though I too love the Wested jacket. I think the Wested shirt was a compromise to please the majority of fans - a 'rugged shirt,' whereas the NH shirt was a straight copy of the screen shirt - a 'costume shirt,' as the Indygear shirt section puts it.

I too have had contact with Mr. Howard lately regarding some belt issues, and he has been very kind in any aspect answering my questions.

But I dont like the idea of posting personal e-mails in this forum. Many of us send e-mails from time to time to people who are somehow related to the world of Indiana Jones, and sometimes we also get very kind replys. But as with personal letters I regard e-mails as a personal contact, not a public announcement.

In the long run I beleive it could keep people from responding to e-mails because they dont like to see their answers, originally posted to an individual, copy/pasted into this forum as general information.

Vendors and other Indyrelated moviepeople may have various reasons for "keeping a low profile" and they may even be willing to share their reasons with us, but I beleive the least we can do is ask them if it is okay to publish this information. And if it's ok we can pass this information on to this forum by writing it ourselves, not by showing the full e-mail. I dont think we are talking big secrets here, just common respect to those who actually take their time to answer our e-mails.

I think most vendors allready know the existence of COW, and some use the forum for the info they have decided to share with us.

Indiana Croft, forgive me for bringing this up now that You share Your info with us, It's just that I generally dont like to see personal e-mails posted in here.

Cheers

Indy K, I have removed Mr. Howard email address, and made mention if any one wants it, to PM me.
But so you know I did get his email orriginaly from a previous thread. I posted his emails to me because I deemed them worthy info for gear heads who are always in search of "the" perfect shirt.

Croft

I recently bought my Mark VII and strap from Mr. Howard. He was very promt in his replies. He told me that his supply of shirts and pants was limited to only a few sizes, and that he didn't currently have any of his other Indy items, ie: gun belt, holster etc. I don't know if he'll be going back into production with his Indy shirt and pants or if he'll sell what he has and then that's the end... that's the impression I got. I hope I'm wrong. I'd love the NH shirt and trousers! By the way, I got his e-mail address from the Indy Gear site, so its out there, but courtesy is always best.

As for as shirts are concerned, wouldn't Indy Magnoli's be better for the money? Between the color variety, the screen accuracy (better epaulettes than the NH shirt,) and the custom fit, doesn't that seem like a better option?

Noel Howard made the pants and shirt for the original movies, so in that respect he is the 'Wested' of the Indy shirt and pants. As long as he sells them, gearheads will buy them from him. I for one really do hope he comes back, as I'd love a shirt.pants set and I got into this hobby slightly after he closed up shop.

I agree... something about "the original" that really appeals to me. I've seen Magnoli's too though, and I really like his stuff! Why not both??!!

I have received emails (3) from Mr. Howard, it would appear his inventory may not be at full capacity. But it does seem he may be getting back into soom form of selling his wares. My fingers are crossed anyway.

Croft

IGB, it seems that we love a good debate... but I have to clarify something to honor those originally involved.

Noel Howard DID NOT manufacture or design the original shirt and trousers.

Andre Dometakis of London designed the shirt and, subsequentally made several shirts for Bermans and Nathans. The original costume house that had a certain Noel Howard as film production manager.

It is true that Noel was in charge of costuming for Raiders of the Lost Ark but did not design or manufacture the shirts and trousers himself.

Peter Botwright deserves the credit for the design and creation of the Indiana Jones jacket.

Noel Howard deserves credit for the re-distribution of the shirt and trousers, not the design or the original manufacture.

Another interesting thing about Andre Dometakis is that he purchased three large bolts of material for the Indy films. One was stone, another a slight tan and the last a very pale green. Thanks to this inconsistency in bolt coloring we have the three colors of the trilogy:

Raiders - Stone

Temple of Doom - Slight Tan

Last Crusade - Pale Green

Talking about the shirts today... I guess I am never going to see a 100% accurate shirt and I say that at the risk of losing a place of diplomacy amongst you fine folks here. This particular article of the indygeardom has been a passion of mine for a long time and, I'm afraid, I am quite opinionated and vocal about it.

Thanks for holding back the poisonous blow darts, aimed precisely at my neck, until I had my .02 accounted for.

Kindest Regards,

Dan

I bought several shirts and a couple of pairs of trousers from Mr Howard about 5 years ago, and they were great! I'd be most interested in getting some more. Nice to hear he is still selling some Indy stuff.

As a side note, at Christmas, 2000 (a few months after I bought my stuff), I received a Holiday Card from Noel, wishing me a great Holiday season and a happy New Year... the card had a costuming / movie production sketch of Sean Connery's kilt from "The Avengers"... anyone else out there get one of these? Great piece of memorabilia...