Jacket fit.

[Pilot]

that’s me! the fat major 2d from the right! my exact body type!

me too....

 

[Greg Gale]

Nothing wrong with being short !!

Nothing at all! Actually it makes one's life easier when it comes to jacket purchase, than being tall/slim

As for the OP, maybe the quartermaster ran out of his size -or didn't have it at all - so he gave him a size too big.

 

[zoomer]

“Tell ya what son...find a guy out there who’s too big for his and swap with him...you’ll be doing all 3 of us a favor ‘cause it ain’t my job!”

 

[raulm1961]

I’m sure as hell sure these pilots did not care how they looked in a jacket when they risked getting their asses blown out of the sky!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Exactly!! Who cares about how it fits. Just wear your A2

 

[Carl]

 

[Smithy]

Nice one Carl and look at how those originals drape!

 

[B-Man2]

This photo speaks volumes concerning the perfect fit. There’s 10 guys here and everything from “soup to nuts” when it comes to the fit of the jackets they are wearing. Enlisted guys in the back row look like their jackets are a smidge on the large size. Officers in the front row have a trimmer fit , some with short sleeves. Great picture Carl!

 

[Carl]

Nice one Carl and look at how those originals drape!

One reason why i posted it Smithy !

 

[Carl]

This photo speaks volumes concerning the perfect fit. There’s 10 guys here and everything from “soup to nuts” when it comes to the fit of the jackets they are wearing. Enlisted guys in the back row look like their jackets are a smidge on the large size. Officers in the front row have a trimmer fit , some with short sleeves. Great picture Carl!

I posted it ,just to reiterate to those who wonder if their A2 " fits" ? take a long hard look at the pic and then decide !!

 

[Smithy]

The thing which you can plainly see with these period photos is how the drape of originals is nearly always entirely different from the high end repros and especially the veg tanned stuff. It's the one thing which is missing with the big boy repros. The leather looks great but lacks the drape of the wartime jackets.

 

[Greg Gale]

Do you think it's the chrome tanning vs veg tanning that makes all this difference?

 

[Smithy]

Do you think it's the chrome tanning vs veg tanning that makes all this difference?

I'm no leather expert Greg but I think that's probably one of the reasons. My cheap arse WPG A-2 (chrome tanned goat) drapes more like an original although the leather lacks the depth of colour and character that you get with the high end repros. I think it's one of the things with the big boy repros, they choose leather to exhibit the character of a 75 year old jacket in a short amount of time but the trade off seems to be the drape of these leathers is much stiffer and less soft than the originals were at the time. Here's that famous photo of some of the 4th FG from the Russian shuttle mission, look at how the leather is draping in these jackets and especially the guys in the back row standing where it's very obvious...

 

[Carl]

" its all in the drape "

 

[Smithy]

" its all in the drape "

You got that right mate

 

[Carl]

You got that right mate

I know !!!

 

[johnwayne]

Not sure any of that motley crew could make 'dude of the day' - the guy on the far right back row looks quite scary! Nonetheless they were doing a tough job so respect where respect is due!!

 

[B-Man2]

I’ve had several repros but the only jackets that I can remember coming close to that draping effect right out of the box was a cow hide A2 from GW and a Goatskin ELC Cable. Sold both of them but I wish I still had the ELC Cable Goatskin.

 

[2BM2K]

Not sure any of that motley crew could make 'dude of the day' - the guy on the far right back row looks quite scary! Nonetheless they were doing a tough job so respect where respect is due!!

He is Benjamin Kelsey. A test pilot who flew the XP38 and developed the P38 and did much more besides this.

http://www.americanairmuseum.com/media/14332


https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/9-march-1906-3-march-1981-benjamin-scovill-kelsey/

 

[Pilot]

I do like all the photos, especially with the loose fit. Thx for sharing...
I disagree that the jackets made by the big boys will never drape this way.They do and will.
I do believe that they do if the wearer has the same frame as the pilots in the above photos, and/or the jackets are as loose on the wearer as they were here.
The movie makers like for Pearl Harbor , Red Tails or others, had a large choice of jacket makers..
They choose only the big boys and no others...and the castings looked as WW2 as possible... IMHO.
In the total contrast the IRVIN wearing RAF pilot in Dunkirk looked “funny” even if the movie and story was/is great... The Irvin they gave him was not as top level as the movie it self...IMHO.

 

[Smithy]

I disagree that the jackets made by the big boys will never drape this way.They do and will.

I disagree.

They may eventually but not initially in the vast amount of cases (and even then it's not guaranteed, look at Ken's 17 year old A-2 which has had the shit kicked out of it, it still after all that time and abuse doesn't drape the same way as one of the jackets in the 4th photo above). The fact of the matter is that virtually without exception the jackets today, even the really high end repros are not tanned in the exact same manner as the leather was in the 1930s and 1940s. For example a lot of the leather being used by the high end makers today is veg tanned leather which just does not drape the same way as the wartime vintage chrome tanned stuff.

You'd be very, very hard pressed to find a modern, veg tanned repro which has the same drape as that seem in the 4th FG photo above.