Club Obi Wan

Please excuse my ignorance but could someone please explain to me what leather facings are and what is their purpose? Thanks.

yep. -P is right. and if you wonder. non of the originals had them besides the CS jacket.

never gave leather facings alot of thought until the other day when i un-zipped my g&b and the zip got well and truly snagged in the nylon lining- must have spent a half hour trying to free the zip without tearing the lining

OK, now I understand.

Thanks very much for the responses.

Pardon my ignorance also but on the Wested site, do I want to order D rings or Sliders ? (and what is the X box stitch ??!) I wish they had pictures !

you WANT X-box and sliders. trust me. it's the same on one of the originals.

I hate not having facings on my G&B. but there were no facings on most A2's either...

Frankly, nopt having facings is the one issue I have with the G&B Expo..especially since the lining has a life of its own in shifting around.

Again, I appreciate all the responses.

I seem to be detouring my own thread but the more I search the more I like the G&B Expedition. Since a few people have made comments in this thread is there anything I should know before making the leap? It seems to be highly regarded by most people.

'Highly regarded' is the right phrase.

Regards! Michaelson

I prefer to have leather facings. I'm the type that would get his zipper stuck on the lining.

Zane

Do all the US wings jackets come w/facings. Just curious.

Croft

All but the Schott made Legend series have facings.

A little history on these Raider style jackets from the various vendors......

This is one of the 'items' that continues to get the jacket makers beat up about. The original screen used jackets did not have facings. For years folks grumbled at how they hated the fact that either the zipper could snag the lining, or the lining shifted around.

After much debate, Peter Botwright gave in and started installing facings in his jackets. He did it to keep his customers happy.

Wings always put facings in theirs as a slight change to the original pattern as that was a standard for leather jackets sold to the public, and had been a standard addition for years. Most folks didn't want to worry about the lining snag. The facing removed that completely from the equation.

In the case of Wested, the next thing they knew, they were getting beat up BECAUSE facings had been installed and they were not 'screen accurate', even though it was the fans who asked for them to be installed in the first place.

In the case of the Wings Legend, was a a real departure for Schott to make the jacket without facings, as per the original patterns, but they did it. From what I heard, it probably won't be done again. There was a real debate at the time this came up too.

Wested has been jerked back and forth between the two 'factions' over this point for years.

G&B just duplicated an original stunt jacket from the get-go and left it that way. If you want facings, order a custom. Otherwise, the original didn't have facings, and that's how they make them....like the original.

So, in the long run, it's durned if they do...and durned if they don't.

Each type has it's fanbase, and the jacket makers are always caught in the middle.

Regards! Michaelson

Thanks guys, answered my question to a T.

Croft

after owning and wearing my g&b for over a year ,i was hoping the lack of facings would have helped towards that wavy zipper and curling stormflap look that the raiders jacket had - but my jacket looks just the way it did when i received it - brand new !

I suppose you could always order a jacket that was shrunk somehow. That or take steps to distress it yourself and try to shrink it.

For my tastes, doing that to a jacket is taking SA a bit too far. I wouldn't do that with a jacket that I paid upwards of $200 for, just to make it look accurate to frame XYZ in a given film. I DEFINITELY wouldn't do it to a jacket that I paid upwards of $500 for, like a G&B or a TNO/Riley or Magnoli jacket, but that's because I'd be concerned about shortening the life of the jacket. After my experience with a Wested from 2001 or so, I'm much more about durability (which is why I'm going with a G&B, myself). Anyway, if SA is THAT important to someone, I'd figure they'd be looking more for a "costume" jacket than an actual functional, durable jacket. My sense is that G&B's stuff is not intended for "costuming." It "stylistically references" the Indy jacket (yes, I know it actually copies a stunt pattern), but it's still meant to be a jacket that you'll wear for functionality and more than just screen accuracy.

That's not to say that you can't find a happy marriage of both elements, but the more I read about them, the more I get the sense that the "look" of the various jackets (be they hero or stunt models) were designed to look like a leather jacket that was always on its last legs or was at least HEAVILY worn, and that to achieve that look, you basically have to shorten the jacket's lifespan. When you're shelling out multiple hundreds of dollars, to me, it's just not worth it to do that.


From what I hear about G&Bs, they're extremely durable and less prone to exactly the kind of stuff that the screen jackets were made to look like (IE: heavy wrinkling on the sleeves, wavy zipper due to leather shrinkage, etc.). They might take on that kind of character over many years of wear, but not after a single year. Now, on the other hand, I suppose a tough ol' jacket like a G&B could withstand "predistressing" better than other kinds, but I guess I'm just (mostly) anti-predistressing for my own stuff. I LOVE how some of the jackets people predistressed here turned out, but I'm shooting for longevity with my jacket this time around. Your mileage (and/or years?) may vary.

yeah- after a years wear and being caught in the odd rainstorm the only signs of distress on my g&b is some slight wrinkling on the sleeves . as said this is one tough jacket for real world wear- i would not consider any artifical distressing on this jacket so i guess i'll just put some more mileage on it !