Belstaff and Emilia stuff

[himelator]

Imho,any film company that uses Belstaff to recreate vintage style is not taking the project seriously.Belstaff is now purely a fashion brand.It is obvious from the quality of the products they produce that they have no concern for quality.The styles tend to be poor imitations of the originals,or bear no resemblance at all.
This whole movie thing smacks of marketing and product placement.

I suspect that is mostly the case. If you look at my blog you can see a lot of the jackets used in the film. I will do a more complete posting, when the film comes out so I dont make a jackass of myself with "claims" that are not true. I can tell you that I worked with the costume department to fix "authenticity" problems they were having with the leather. I can also tell you as I have said on my blog that Belstaff doesnt really do real period leather, the jackets are really "vintagesque". That is fine, there are plenty of well to do thin 34 to 55 year old men who shop at Harry Rosen and Holts that need a real fake looking pre aged fashion jacket. That is not my taste but certainly it is some peoples.

 

[joeson]

Imho,any film company that uses Belstaff to recreate vintage style is not taking the project seriously.Belstaff is now purely a fashion brand.It is obvious from the quality of the products they produce that they have no concern for quality.The styles tend to be poor imitations of the originals,or bear no resemblance at all.
This whole movie thing smacks of marketing and product placement.

I suspect that is mostly the case. If you look at my blog you can see a lot of the jackets used in the film. I will do a more complete posting, when the film comes out so I dont make a jackass of myself with "claims" that are not true. I can tell you that I worked with the costume department to fix "authenticity" problems they were having with the leather. I can also tell you as I have said on my blog that Belstaff doesnt really do real period leather, the jackets are really "vintagesque". That is fine, there are plenty of well to do thin 34 to 55 year old men who shop at Harry Rosen and Holts that need a real fake looking pre aged fashion jacket. That is not my taste but certainly it is some peoples.

Everybody seems to think that the big threat in the modern world is terrorism.I think it is really mediocrity.

 

[fleet16b]

Imho,any film company that uses Belstaff to recreate vintage style is not taking the project seriously.Belstaff is now purely a fashion brand.It is obvious from the quality of the products they produce that they have no concern for quality.The styles tend to be poor imitations of the originals,or bear no resemblance at all.
This whole movie thing smacks of marketing and product placement.

joe

I think we all need to remember that movie companies are not as critical as some of us.
Their general opinion is that if it looks good on screen and fools most of the people then its good enough.
Most of us here would disagree but the average viewer does not care.
The Belstaff coat made for me is good enough on screen though up close I can't say I am overly happy with it. (it does seem to be fairly sturdy stitching but thin in the leather).
I have handled many many vintage aviation jackets and the Belstaff coat does take on the character of many I have seen. At first glance it appears to be pretty close in appearance to E.A. 's jacket. but I would need to compare it to the real thing to be sure.
Apparently many movie companies like using Belstaff and I see that they are claiming all the leather work on "Benjamin Button " and the Aviator as well. I for one being in aviation all my life had only ever remotely heard of Belstaff and knew them only as a motorcycle jacket maker.
Pearl Harbour used ELC for their jackets. ELC makes a far more superior jacket than Belstaff( from an aviation point of view) and being that I use an ELC 1401 Russet A2 for flying I can say this first hand.
In Amelia , Hilary also wore a leather flight Suit that appeared to be Belstaff also but I am not 100% sure. Perhaps " himelater" has more to add about the flight suit.
Hope the leathers don't ruin the movie for you and you still enjoy it.

Fleet16b

 

[joeson]

Imho,any film company that uses Belstaff to recreate vintage style is not taking the project seriously.Belstaff is now purely a fashion brand.It is obvious from the quality of the products they produce that they have no concern for quality.The styles tend to be poor imitations of the originals,or bear no resemblance at all.
This whole movie thing smacks of marketing and product placement.

joe

I think we all need to remember that movie companies are not as critical as some of us.
Their general opinion is that if it looks good on screen and fools most of the people then its good enough.
Most of us here would disagree but the average viewer does not care.
The Belstaff coat made for me is good enough on screen though up close I can't say I am overly happy with it. (it does seem to be fairly sturdy stitching but thin in the leather).
I have handled many many vintage aviation jackets and the Belstaff coat does take on the character of many I have seen. At first glance it appears to be pretty close in appearance to E.A. 's jacket. but I would need to compare it to the real thing to be sure.
Apparently many movie companies like using Belstaff and I see that they are claiming all the leather work on "Benjamin Button " and the Aviator as well. I for one being in aviation all my life had only ever remotely heard of Belstaff and knew them only as a motorcycle jacket maker.
Pearl Harbour used ELC for their jackets. ELC makes a far more superior jacket than Belstaff( from an aviation point of view) and being that I use an ELC 1401 Russet A2 for flying I can say this first hand.
In Amelia , Hilary also wore a leather flight Suit that appeared to be Belstaff also but I am not 100% sure. Perhaps " himelater" has more to add about the flight suit.
Hope the leathers don't ruin the movie for you and you still enjoy it.

Fleet16b

The proof of the pudding will be in the eating,but I am not holding out too much hope.Getting it right is not that difficult,you just need to employ people that give a damn.With the huge budgets that movies have nowdays there really is no excuse.If a british tv series like "life on mars" can do their research,and get it right,surely Hollywood should be able to.

 

[fleet16b]

[/quote]
The proof of the pudding will be in the eating,but I am not holding out too much hope.Getting it right is not that difficult,you just need to employ people that give a damn.With the huge budgets that movies have nowdays there really is no excuse.If a british tv series like "life on mars" can do their research,and get it right,surely Hollywood should be able to.[/quote]

During the movie I lent the wardrobe people many original examples so that they could recreate them.
I don't rent to anyone because of the fear of loss or damage.
In most cases they wanted to be very faithfull but as is usually the case budget would not allow them.
For instance one vintage 1936 flight suit(cloth) I provided would have cost them 3600.00 to recreate.
I made them aware of Goodwear and ELC but again price was a factor on this movie. Not that I am defending them but as I said they are out to satisfy the everyday person and don't really care about what peole like us think. ( close is close enough mentality)
I will say that they recreated the flying helmets really well and used original goggles.
Anyway we could go on about authenticity in film forever but whats the use. I personally have rarely seen an aviation film that was accurate in the use of it's equipment or to aviation in general
B of B, Blue Max, 633 Squadron, Fly boys etc were all ridiculous when it came to flying equipment and aviation authenticity.
As for the movie itself, Hilary took great pains to play A.E. accurately right down to practicing her facial expressions etc.
Many times she stopped an aviation scene to consult me as to whether or not the line or action she was doing was "aviation accurate".
The recreation of the Lockheed Vega and the Fokker Tri-motor are really good. Both a/c are now in Museums on display .
In fact the Vega was sitting at the airport one evening and two well known Vintage a/c collectors walked within 10 ft of it and were fooled.
It now sits in Paul Allens world class aviation Museum in Seattle W.A.
I wish they would have taken that kind of care with the leather Jackets .
Anyway if you watch movies only for the wardrobe then chances are most of the time you will be disappointed.
As for employing people that give a damn, most of us really did and expressed this but alas we don't control the purse strings.

 

[himelator]

Im sure it will be a fantastic movie...I did my best to get people up to speed regarding a lot the historical issues both with wardrobe and Amelia. For example Amelia lived and discovered her love of flying in Toronto. A lot of people dont know that. Toronto to New York flying races baby!. Flying equipement of the period was quite primitive, if I get a chance I will scan some of the early flight suits for this site or my blog. Belstaff aside, the flick was very low budget, Im sure it will not be 100 percent accurate, but whats important is that it is entertaining and looks good. I m always proud when movies are shot here in Toronto, and it sounds like our man was an excellent aviation consultant!

 

[Tommer45]

Fleet I think that officially being allowed to pretend to be Ms Swank probably qualifies you as the most famous person on the Forum then

Damn I've been dethroned!! (shameless plug to follow!)

http://www.tomplacestunts.com

Tommer