Club Obi Wan

I showed this jacket at the fedoralounge, but for those that don't go there, I thought you'd enjoy seeing pics of this jacket. The front has an Indy jacket appearance. I was in Seattle a week ago and picked this jacket up at an antique store on the waterfront. The dealer said a man in his 90s had just brought it in that morning and told him he wore it when he was young. Young is relative when your in your 90s, so it's hard to say exactly how old it is. I'm guessing maybe it's from the 50s or late 40s. The label is unreadable, but it is in excellent condition and has some awesome graining on it. No missing buttons, zips all work and no holes in the pockets.






fedoralover

Nice look and the condition appears to be fantastic!!! Nice find.


Mike

Very interesting jacket. My guess is it is late '40s post WW2, or '50s. The hide is probably either Horse or Goat by the look of how it has grained and wrinkled.

I have to agree with RC on the hide. That is one sweet jacket. It looks like something one of us might create for a custom job; part civilian A-2, part Indy, part Magnoli Open Road.

There's no pebbly appearance to the hide anywhere, just a lot of graining, so I doubt it's goat. So it's a toss up between horse or cow. Either way, I really like it. I'm glad I lost enough weight to be able to wear it. It's probably a size 40 or so.

fedoralover

looks like horse to me. nice jacket

fedoralover wrote:There's no pebbly appearance to the hide anywhere, just a lot of graining, so I doubt it's goat. So it's a toss up between horse or cow. Either way, I really like it. I'm glad I lost enough weight to be able to wear it. It's probably a size 40 or so.

fedoralover

Goat doesn't always show the pebbly appearance, I've seen it look exactly like that.

Can you make out any info from the label inside or is there any additional info inside the pockets etc ? ..........great looking jacket, enjoy

Tundrarider wrote:

P.S. I got first dibs on it if you ever decide to pass it along!

Dohh, beat me to it. That is one wicked fine, wicked nice, wicked good looking jacket. What an exceptional find. Love it. Wear it in good health.

Croft

More than likely it is Horse, I've seen few older jackets from the '50s that were labeled as Horse. It was still a fairly common hide then. Some were sold under teh Sears and JC Penny Brands.

Are there any labels or label tabs inside the pockets?

Can you take some more detail pics of those cuffs,loving them......looks like they may have couple of buttons .....are they functional ?

No other labels anywhere. The zipppers read Conmar, Made in USA. The buttons on the cuffs are for appearance and look to be original. Thanks for the input.

fedoralover

Sorry I didn't say this earlier, but that's a great jacket. Nice work! I need to start visiting antique stores! What, with brothers finding stuff like this, and that Webley that Antilles found...

Very nice find. That's a sweet, sweet looking jacket. I wonder why the guy decided to let it go after all this time? At least it's found a good home.

I used to spend a lot of time in thrift stores and used clothing stores, but everytime I found something that I liked it was like a size 38 or 40 and I'm a 46. After a while I just got so disappointed I ran up the white flag.

I've about tossed in the towel with vintage fedoras. Try finding one for a size 61 head!

crismans wrote:I've about tossed in the towel with vintage fedoras. Try finding one for a size 61 head!

No thanks. 60 is hard enough!

crismans wrote:I've about tossed in the towel with vintage fedoras. Try finding one for a size 61 head!

Brother..............I'm right there with you.....

Wow! That jacket looks great. My Grandpa gave me one very similar that he got in '49.

Your jacket would fit in great with Mark Seven's thread here; http://indygear.com/cow/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20124 which is really worth checking out if you haven't already done so.

Great looking jacket. Your lucky you found it. I've been going to a local antique clothing for 28 years and I've gotten some great stuff over the years. The problem I usually have is People were just so much smaller years ago and trying to find clothes that fit the modern frame is very difficult. If you can get something in your size GRAB IT.

Great looking jacket! It kinda reminds me of the one "Fedora" wore at the begining of Last Crusade.

Hey thanks alot for that link, I had not seen those pics. That one looks sooo close to mine. Mine just doesn't have the side cinch buckles. That really helps me to date it a little more closely.

thanks again.

fedoralover

It's a pretty standard (and lovely) half-belt of which there were many makers and many thousands of versions over 3 decades. I'd date that one from around the 1950's. There were in fact still a few leather stores down here that made them up to the mid 1980's, based on a classic and many would say timeless design. The flap/cargo pockets are less common than the standard slash pockets with zips on them. Also known as a utility jacket. Looks like goat to me but HH was more common. But you can't really pick a leather from a photo as _ will tell you.

Nice find - Cheers.

Just a quick search on "Conmar" shows they just made the zippers. The jackets I've looked at, so far, with Conmar zippers were all from the 50s

Doesn't Aero make a jacket like that called the roadster? It's a sweet jacket and my vote is early 60's.....but then again could be 50's or late 40's...

Hatch wrote:Can you take some more detail pics of those cuffs,loving them......looks like they may have couple of buttons .....are they functional ?

Here they are. No function other than just style. The close ups show how much grain there is.



fedoralover

Thanks from all of us...

this is horse hide.. it has the exact same grain like my Horse LC.

Indiana Holt wrote:this is horse hide.. it has the exact same grain like my Horse LC.

_ has already voted for 'good old cowhide'.......lets have a "Mod Steel Cage Death Match"

We could if _ were a mod or admin, which he is not. Besides, having met _ in person and seeing how big he is, I'm afraid I'd have to go with him as the ultimate victor.

Impossible to tell for sure from pics I agree, but just for the record my old jacket is definitely horsehide (says on the label).

I went over to a friends house who has a black light. When we shined it on the label we could read it fairly well. It reads Hercules, genuine horsehide, Sears and Roebuck clothing Co. So I finally know the maker and what kind of leather it is.

fedoralover

Indiana Holt wrote:this is horse hide.. it has the exact same grain like my Horse LC.

[quote="fedoralover"]I went over to a friends house who has a black light. When we shined it on the label we could read it fairly well. It reads Hercules, genuine horsehide, Sears and Roebuck clothing Co. So I finally know the maker and what kind of leather it is.

fedoralover[quote]

One of the all time classic American jacket brands. Well done.

binkmeisterRick wrote:We could if _ were a mod or admin, which he is not. Besides, having met _ in person and seeing how big he is, I'm afraid I'd have to go with him as the ultimate victor.

So you are calling _ a big bunny?

fedoralover wrote:I went over to a friends house who has a black light. When we shined it on the label we could read it fairly well. It reads Hercules, genuine horsehide, Sears and Roebuck clothing Co. So I finally know the maker and what kind of leather it is.

fedoralover

Thank you. I'm glad you were able to see all that.
It's nice to be 'confirmed'

'Hercules' was one of the Sears Brands

RCSignals wrote:More than likely it is Horse, I've seen a few older jackets from the '50s that were labeled as Horse. It was still a fairly common hide then. Some were sold under teh Sears and JC Penny Brands.

Are there any labels or label tabs inside the pockets?

So I wonder if it was in the Sears & Roebuck Catalogue. I wonder if we could find a picture of it in there?

That's an interesting idea. You would have to find one from the 40s. I'm not sure where you could pick one up, unless there are people who collect them and they log on here.

fedoralover

Sears changed their catalogs annually, often seasonally. There'd be a lot of catalogs to go through.
You might find some on line though