This jacket has one of the more complicated histories of any item of gear. It is one of the unique identifiers of Indiana Jones. The leather jacket was central to the concept Steven Spielberg and George Lucas formulated for their protagonist, and it is the one significant item of wardrobe that is wholly unique to Indy and not based on any preexisting pattern. As preproduction activities moved forward, it became clear that the jacket needed specific design features.
Deborah Nadoolman was chosen as the wardrobe designer for “Raiders of the Lost Ark” because she previously worked with Spielberg on “1941“. Prior to this Spielberg had never used a costume designer. Nadoolman was his first, and Spielberg enjoyed the ideas she brought to the production process and the extra dimensions she might add to his characters.
Before the work began, Spielberg screened two movies for Deborah: “Secret of the Incas” (1954) and “China” (1943). Indy was directly inspired by Charlton Heston’s adventurer Harry Steele in “Secret of the Incas.” Indy is a more charismatic version of Steele, who was a somewhat unlikable plunderer. Steele and Alan Ladd’s character, David Jones—a callous opportunist profiting off the Japanese invasion of China—were the molds for Indiana Jones.
A short time after this, Nadoolman created initial sketches of the Indiana Jones costume. Based on these sketches, “ten military-style plain cuffed and plain hemmed leather jackets” were ordered from Wilson’s Leather in Los Angeles. This was the extent of the original specification, and Wilson’s responded with an altered A2-like jacket design that removed the jersey knits from the hems and cuffs.
It became clear there were functional problems with the Wilson’s jackets. The jacket would get caught on the gun belt and bullwhip. Additionally, the leather used did not artificially age well and the finish would flake off. Western Costumes was called in and provided a full mock-up jacket in a denim-like cloth, the design of which included an open action pleat that resolved the pattern issues. While it has been reported that Western Costumes provided finished leather jackets, this may not be accurate. The only complete jacket made to Nadoolman’s specifications was the cloth jacket, which some have speculated was used in the Raiders sequence where Ford is being chased downhill by the Hovitos. The conjecture is based on how well the Fuller’s Earth adhered to the surface of the jacket in that scene, as it tends not to coat leather so well.
The only leather jackets presented by Western Costumes to Nadoolman were historically accurate World War II-style A2s, which WC carried in its inventory. The A2 design did not satisfy the requirements for Indy. As the leading man changed from Tom Selleck to Harrison Ford, Nadoolman and her assistant, Kelly Kimball, left for London where the final production jackets for Indy would ultimately be obtained through Berman and Nathans in London.
Upon arrival in the UK, Nadoolman considered the jacket to still be very much a work-in-progress. Berman and Nathans’ Noel Howard introduced jacket maker Peter Botwright. Botwright was in fact the owner/operator of Leather Concessionaires and had worked on many films through Berman’s before Raiders, having fitted Ford once before with an A2 for the production of “Hanover Street.”
Botwright brought several jackets to Fitting session with Ford, and it was determined that he would use his existing “James Dean” pattern with the addition of A2 pockets and an action pleat based on the Western Costumes mock-up. Botwright was able to deliver the Raiders hero jacket the very next day. This jacket was much lighter than the Wilson’s jackets—a “plus” in Nadoolman’s mind given the locations they were to shoot. The Wilson’s jackets had been made from cowhide, while the Leather Concessionaires jacket was lambskin.
With the pattern approved, the final test was in how well the jacket would age. Nadoolman did this personally using Ford’s Swiss Army knife and a wire brush while sitting by the pool at her hotel the night before shooting was to begin at the Nazi U-Boat pier in La Rochelle, France. The aging test was a success and this jacket became the hero jacket.
According to Nadoolman, ten jackets were provided by Bermans for the production. Some modifications were made to these jackets by the wardrobe staff during production, and there were “minor” variations between them and the original hero jacket. None were exact duplicates of the hero jacket and variations have been observed with the placement of the collar along the top of the storm flap, the size of the patch pockets and the configuration and design of the gussets. There were even variations between the ten jackets themselves, i.e. it was assumed in the rush to fill the order that several people may have worked on elements in slightly different ways. None were considered “mistakes,” just “differences.”
Incidentally, stuntman Martin Grace’s jacket from Elstree became the de facto “hero” jacket for Ford during the final location filming in Hawaii.
Modifications performed by the wardrobe staff on all jackets were as follows:
• Zips were painted with brass paint. In certain lighting, the aluminum zips were too shiny especially once they received some wear.
•D-rings were replaced with metal rectangular slides painted black (the d-rings would not hold the thinner lambskin side straps sufficiently, especially once aged, and some straps were actually sewn in place). As a result of some dogged investigation by Indiana Jones costume enthusiast, Stefan, it has been confirmed that the jacket straps in Raiders of the Lost Ark were fitted with two-pronged rectangular slide buckles normally used as waist tab adjusters for men’s tailored trousers. On at least one Raiders jacket, the buckles have a British country of origin stamp.
Jacket Variations
During shooting, an obviously different-patterned jacket was used to outfit Terry Leonard for the truck dragging stunt. The jacket used had no action pleat.
