Yes, but its not about the standard or design, thats not what I meant, apologies if i gave that impression... and the quality would be the same... ELC won't compromise on their production standards.
Standard patterns, but generic labels...perhaps.
After fit and screen tests, its very possible ELC would be required to add length or reduce length to a sleeve for example, for a specific 'Hero' jacket. Not changing any pattern. (And I'm not saying they did, at all. Only ELC would know that for sure).
Although ELC does not 'customise' or fiddle with patterns, almost every ELC I have had, has had slight modifications to length, between an inch added in the body and 1 to 1.5 in the sleeves. If they've done this for me, I'm sure they would do it for a large film contract, IF REQUIRED.
But, I agree, I doubt this was required for this series. Just saying, it happens.
They sometimes do have to experiment with different finishes, due to how the leather is interpreted by the cameras and lighting conditions.
What I do know, is the jacket Christopher Abbot "Yossarian" wears, has a collar stand, and ELC's House model does not have a collar stand.
(As far as I recall, their House model is based off a RW, but besides having no collar stand, its a little bit more of a generous pattern also).
So, either that jacket in the pictures above is a RW27752 with a generic label, or its a House A-2 with a collar stand... So neither is technically correct by ELC's production standards.
ELC won't make this 'mistake' lightly, unless it wasn't a mistake and just a film production thing.
I highly doubt ELC would add a collar stand to a House jacket. Its more likely they just used generic labels for some production jackets, in this case a RW27752.
I would interested to know if these movie 'production' jackets have the horsehide label and the various other stamps and bits that the standard retail jackets have.
And that collar of Yo-Yos jacket in the series, looks an awfully lot like a RW27752 to me, especially the recent ones.
I may be totally wrong, but the RW has more collar at the back than a House A-2, for the same given size.
I was also in film production and all I'm saying is just my opinion, but based on what I see on screen and what I know of film production, a number of jackets would have been sent to the Production wardrobe dept for fit and screen tests, based on the actors sizes and measurements provided to them.
A cross section of jackets would have been selected for the actors, based on a number of factors. They would try and get some variation in there, which they clearly did.
Then... say a RW27752 (for example) was chosen to be Christopher Abbot's screen jacket, this 'test' jacket was likely a standard off-the-rack RW27752 with contract label and everything. Same thing you or I would get from ELC.
(After fit and screen tests, its entirely possible that the wardrobe dept would request this jacket, but with length added to the sleeves for example. Again, I'm not saying this happened, only that this is the part and parcel of the production process, depending on budget, time and size of production).
Then they would say, "ok we need three of these", for example... and its entirely possible again, that the ELC film production team then made 3 RW27752s but because of the nature of film production, just used generic labels. Of course, I may be wrong.
(The promo photoshoot jackets, are likely from a mixed bag of jackets, that were provided for the shoot, not necessarily the same jacket the actors wore in the series).
Remember ELC was not involved in actual production. They were given the orders and had a certain time limit to get all these jackets to wherever the powers that be required them... then the wardrobe production dept did their thing. Its a massive process for a series of this scale. And these guys do not care about A-2 contract variations or labels.... Their main focus is continuity, that everything looks the same. They would be more concerned about thier own Yo-Yo labels and that Yo-Yo's jackets were all stored together and accounted for.
There would even be prod assistants who's job was to make sure the jacket was given to him before a scene, and then taken from him after the scenes wrap, and then placed in a very specific place, so it doesn't get dirty, damaged or lost!
The Mother series was a small production, only a handful of jackets were made and used, all off-the-rack jackets, standard fits, all with the Timeworn process applied... a RW, a Star, a Werber and some others... and those were returned directly to ELC. I spoke to Rob about it at the pop-up a couple of years or so ago, handled them all and even tried the RW and the Star on. Catch-22 was a much larger production. Much bigger budget.
Edit: In fact, those 1 or 3 jackets, could also account for the process from first try on, fit and screen test, through to final 'Hero' jacket.
In this process the detailing is not important. Its all about fit and screen appearance etc... So, those jackets could possibly not even have made it onto set.