Club Obi Wan

After seeing "Crystal Skull" I'm back in Indiana Jones mode and thought I'd come check out what's new here at Club Obi-Wan. (It's been a long time since I've been here). Really love the new look of IndyGear and all the new information.

Anyway, when I saw "Crystal Skull" I was a bit surprised to see how different the jacket in this film looks compared to the jackets from the original trilogy. Now that I've seen photos of some of your Tony Nowak jackets here I can't help but wonder how come he decided to make pre-distressed cowhide jackets for the new movie. It's a good looking jacket, but looks an awful lot like the pre-distressed Wested I bought a few years ago (it was my first Indy jacket and in all honesty I've always been a bit disappointed with it). After buying my pre-distressed I couldn't help but buy a lambskin Wested and distressing it myself and it's since been on many adventures. The pre-distressed has hung sadly in my closet ever since. I guess now I can think of it as a "Crystal Skull" jacket and maybe it'll get some use.

So, how does everyone else feel about the new "Crystal Skull" jacket? I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions about it.

GB_Cinch wrote:It's a good looking jacket, but looks an awful lot like the pre-distressed Wested I bought a few years ago (it was my first Indy jacket and in all honesty I've always been a bit disappointed with it).

Why you are disappointed with your pred cow Wested? I bought one recently, and I like it very much.

Don't get me wrong, it's a great jacket, but I just prefer the look and feel of my lambskin better. The pre-distressed is a bit heavy and doesn't drape as well as the lambskin. Both were bought within a couple of months of each other and have the same specs, but the lambskin just fits and moves better. Maybe this winter I'll try to wear the pre-distressed a little more, see if I can "break it in" because God knows I've put my lambskin through the ringer. Eventually I'm going to order another Wested in the Authentic (seal) Brown English lambskin and there will be some changes I'll make compared to the jackets I have (slightly longer length, cotton lining instead of satin, black rectangular sliders instead of D-rings, and the addition of gussets), but I've had my lambskin since 2001 and have really enjoyed it. It just looks and feels more like a true Indy jacket to me. Of course, I guess now that "Crystal Skull" has come out my pre-distressed jacket looks and feels like a true Indy jacket, too, so I'll give it a second chance.

I understand what you mean: I have both the pred and the lambskin too. Of course lambskin is more SA and with a better draping. But for the cold seasons I think the pred is a very good jacket. With a lot of use and some Pecard every 4-5 months you can soften it a little, for a better drape.

GB_Cinch wrote:So, how does everyone else feel about the new "Crystal Skull" jacket? I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions about it.

I wasn't impressed with the jacket in the movie. In the previous films all his jackets really looked as if they'd been on adventures and had the crud beat out of them. In CS his jacket looked liked a predistressed jacket that was brand new. The sleeves also looked an inch too long and way too baggy. This isn't a hit on Tony Nowak.. he makes a great, quality jacket.. it just didn't do it for me. (and Indy never wore his gas mask bag on the outside of the jacket as in CS, did he??)

LJ

Besides the jacket, the shirt and especially the pants looked very baggy on Harrison in CS......it made him look even older than he actually was. I don't know but maybe Harrison wanted that "look" in the movie.

I agree, Louisiana, the jacket did look new. I guess that's what surprised me about it. Pre-distressing looks like pre-distressing, not wear and tear, so it makes the jacket in CS look more like a costume jacket than one that's actually been on adventures. The hat in the movie looks fantastic thanks to the efforts of Adventurebilt and everybodies input here at IndyGear over the years, so I guess I just expected a jacket with the same level of attention.

As for the bag strap being worn on the outside of the jacket in the movie, maybe that was just Harrison's way of messing with all of us anal-retentive, fixated-on-details guys here at Club Obi-Wan. ("This'll give 'em something to talk about...")

GB_Cinch wrote:As for the bag strap being worn on the outside of the jacket in the movie, maybe that was just Harrison's way of messing with all of us anal-retentive, fixated-on-details guys here at Club Obi-Wan. ("This'll give 'em something to talk about...")

His assistant is probably reading this right now saying, "Hehehehe.. hey Mr. Ford... it worked!"

And yeah I agree with you, pre-distressed jackets just look pre-distressed. I have a new Wested novapelle.. so I'm interested to see how it distresses with time.

LJ

My first Wested was a Raiders Pre-D cowhide from '01 - since then, I always wear my Lambskin unless it's too chilly out (not hard, being in Canada) but recently I realized that my old Pre-D jacket looks A LOT like the CS jacket, with the same style of leather, D-rings on the straps, less scalloped pocket flaps and such - but as a Raiders jacket it needed poppers on the storm flap. $10 at a local shop later and viola! presto-chango, a new CS jacket!

I liked the movie, my thinking on the jacket was: like most of us that have gotten older, maybe the milage around the midline was a little too much from Indy getting older and his days at 35 he was slimmer and he just bought a new jacket. the strap did annoy me a little,I kept thinking he'll change it but oh well. overall I liked the movie, the jacket, and we'll see if the movie gets enough milage to warrent a fifth movie.

jacksdad wrote:I liked the movie, my thinking on the jacket was: like most of us that have gotten older, maybe the milage around the midline was a little too much from Indy getting older and his days at 35 he was slimmer and he just bought a new jacket. the strap did annoy me a little,I kept thinking he'll change it but oh well. overall I liked the movie, the jacket, and we'll see if the movie gets enough milage to warrent a fifth movie.

...you're right, Harrison is definately not the same man he was in his 30's......he's older, heavier, and less mobile.....but still, I wish his clothes were better tailored for him in the film.......esp. his pants--looked 3X too big.

Give him his dues, Harrison did rather well for a man in his mid sixties with all the stunts, jumping, running etc......having said that however, the movie was pants and if they come up with another script similar to this one then I would say no and Indy should hang up his hat.
Even with a superb new film script, the sands on time will be against them all and Lucas/Spielberg will need to get a move on and get this into production otherwise it will definately be too late.
In my opinion KotCS should have been made and released around 2000 giving enough time for a fifth movie if the renewed interest warranted it, to be released whilst Harrison still has some lead left in his pencil so to speak.....but hey that's just my personal opinion, don't what you chaps think on this.

jacksdad wrote:I liked the movie, my thinking on the jacket was: like most of us that have gotten older, maybe the milage around the midline was a little too much from Indy getting older and his days at 35 he was slimmer and he just bought a new jacket. the strap did annoy me a little,I kept thinking he'll change it but oh well. overall I liked the movie, the jacket, and we'll see if the movie gets enough milage to warrent a fifth movie.

Sheesh! I didn't think much of the film but I thought Harrison looked great. He certainly looked about the same build to me - no fat and the clothing appeared as "baggy" as the last films. I think it's just his age and grey tones that make it look slightly different. I always thought the pants and the jacket looked oversized.