Club Obi Wan

Hey all,
I've seen some discussion about jackets with leather facings. I'm not really sure what they are, and what are the advantages/disadvantages. Who will enlighten me?

When you look on the inside of some leather jackets, there are strips of leather that run down along the INSIDE of the jacket parallel right next to the zipper. These are the inside leather facings.

Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but the main purpose is to protect the cotton (or whatever material) body on the inside of the jacket from getting hooked when you zip up your jacket. If you hook that, you can very well tear and/or damage it.

The original SCREEN-ACCURATE Indy jackets DO NOT have inside leather facings. They were something added by Wested for their street wearable jackets.

Ah HA! That's what I thought they were. So they are not screen accurate. I'm not a SA guy, so I don't mind that. Any other disadvantages?

I've heard several people say that they effect the drape of the jacket. I'm not sure if this is strictly from a SA view in that it doesn't drape like the one on screen or if a jacket with facings just doesn't look right period.

Well, the facings add to the wearability and specifically durability of the jacket. But I don't like them, particularly since they make the jacket lining heavier and a little bulkier. There are complaints from folks here about linings wearing out after 4 years -- I think that's pretty good for hard daily wear. And I think the lighter cotton lining is the better choice. When it wears, have it repaired -- when it wears out, have it replaced.

I have both. I prefer facings - but they can be made narrower. As an SA issue I don't rate it as significant at all but some folks do.

Cheers

Leather facings were originally added to the Wested by request to prevent the "wavy zipper". A phenomenon that occurs when a new jacket tightens up around the zipper causing it to wave "snake-like" when unzipped. It was felt that adding the facing balanced the open jacket allowing the zipper line to stay straight.

-P-

I often wondered where they came from even paused the dvd and looked to see if they were in the Raiders jacket,wasn't nice to know.