New Aero Irvin compared with an original

[John Lever]

I can only see one repro in that photo,am I missing something ?

Yup. One Repro, alongside three originals

You are not missing anything, John

Top left looks very fresh....

 

[sloan1874]

Perhaps I meant 'forebears' rather than 'cousins' . And the colour in the pic much closer to its real one, though I would say that all four are a slightly warmer chestnut tone in real life and the fleeces more golden.

 

[Roughwear]

Picked up my Irvin today, completely delighted with it. Here's a wee pic of it sitting with some of it's cousins in Aero's factory showroom. Understand that the two on the left will be up for sale sometime soon. The lower left one is interesting in that it has a very shaggy internal fleece.

I am interested by the great variety of panel configurations used on later War jackets. This was largely because they were made from recycled flying trousers. For this reason you see originals made of close pile, longer pile and everything in between! Sometimes the makers would re-spray the panels a uniform colour, but often they did not bother. Often the colour and width of the seam tapes varied as some from original flying trousers were re-used together with new ones. You can usually pick up a decent wearable late War jacket for significantly less than a new repro.

 

[John Lever]

I still feel that the jacket top left looks new somehow, it has quite fluffy wool.

 

[sloan1874]

Here it is in a more formal setting, John:

 

[Dr H]

Is that really pictured top left? It looks more like the jacket top right.

 

[Otter]

That is top right, the seam pattern identifies it.

 

[Dr H]

The top right looks a peach - great looking jacket. :mrgreen:

 

[John Lever]

Is that really pictured top left? It looks more like the jacket top right.

Yes !
Pub this week ??

 

[Dr H]

Sounds like a plan - I'll check the family calendar this evening and PM you.
I'll bring the BK A-1 along.

 

[blackrat2]

Count me in on the pub if you could..I know we have mentioned it before

 

[Dr H]

No problem - we'll sort out a day ASAP (anybody else in the Guildford/Hants/Surrey border?).

 

[sloan1874]

That is top right, the seam pattern identifies it.

Apologies, I misread John's message. You're right the collar top left is very fresh looking, though the rest of fleece is closer to the others, but they're all in good nick. I wish I'd taken close up pics of the other two - they'd come into Aero that day. They'll turn up on for sale on web site in due course. Annoyingly, the pics don't quite catch the colours, because they've got some fantastic shading - oranges and reds. They all sit well together, no?

 

[Otter]

Color re production is always a pain,fuji colour always gave you more blue green than Kodachrome, equally as bad in the digital age.

 

[coalman]

I realize the repro is a larger size than the original, but does anyone else think the collar on the repro looks almost too large in comparison?

Found an original Irvin company advertisement in an old copy of Flight dated approx. 1938, it states the collar of the jacket is 7" high, so no matter what the size of the jacket is the collar height should not change.

 

[sloan1874]

Found an original Irvin company advertisement in an old copy of Flight dated approx. 1938, it states the collar of the jacket is 7" high, so no matter what the size of the jacket is the collar height should not change.

My Aero sits just on the 7" mark, though I can't imagine, given the scale on which these were produced and the different manufacturers involved, that they didn't vary slightly in height, even if it was by 0.5" either way.