About a year ago I started my hunt for a quality leather jacket. I've owned two cheaper leather jackets prior to my hunt, before I was ready to plunge into leather jackets in the 4 figure range. Actually my first "leather" jackets were two cross zip faux leather jackets from H&M and F21 back in highschool since that was all I could afford at the time, so they've always had a place in my wardrobe. Fast forward to my first job after graduating college, I wanted to get myself something nicer so I went to AllSaints for a black zip up during a seasonal sale. I enjoyed it for a bit, but ultimately was still unsatisfied. The pattern was plain, the fit wasn't great as the back length and sleeves were a bit long. The leather was of course....not very substantial, it was lambskin and although I'm aware there are quality lambskin jackets, that was definitely not one of them. I also purchased another leather jacket from Florence Italy in a boutique shop that's not really worth mentioning.
Enough backstory, my first real leather jacket purchase was a double helix western cowboy. I was drawn to the type 1 denim jacket pattern and I really wanted something in horsehide after watching a bunch of videos from heritage style influencers. The price was palatable for a made to measure straight from double helix works (about $1200) and this was before the new U.S. tariffs kicked in. I made a couple of adjustments to their pattern including a shorter body length, shorter sleeve length, and adding stitching around the rivets on the back cinch to reinforce the pleats. When I put it on for the first time, I felt like a million bucks which is not something I felt with any of my prior leather jackets. However, it still fit a bit tight even though it was made to measure. I chose my measurements based off a type 1 denim jacket that I own which fits great and has room to layer underneath. But somehow the double helix jacket still felt restrictive, there was technically enough room in the chest and shoulders are fine, but maybe where the arm holes sit causes it to feel tight when crossing my arms. I also f'd up on the sleeve length. 23in sits perfectly at wrist level but i didn't account for the tunneling which would shorten the sleeves slightly.
I tried convincing myself that the jacket would eventually mold to my body and wore it a bunch trying to break it in, but it is only bearable with just a t-shirt underneath even to this day. I still think it looks very flattering, and have received many compliments when I wore it, but the fit just doesn't work for me even though in pictures it appears to fit perfectly fine. Anyways I'm onto my next leather jacket and I was debating between a D pocket from RMC, hercules from rainbow country and lastly a half belt from Thedi. The half belt from Thedi was a wild card as they weren't even on my radar until I saw a reel of Kenan from wardrobe 19 wearing it. The aging on that bruciato horsehide and the half belt pattern is very unique. He had one more in my size and the measurements on the size chart seemed to have more space in the places that felt tight with my double helix, so I just went for it. I couldn't find a whole lot of information on Thedi besides forums here on TFL and even those posts are mostly just fit pics with a few ranking Thedi as their favorite maker out of a large list including top japanese makers. I wanted to make this post to see how others feel about his work in comparison to other high end japanese makers out there (I may still get a shinki leather jacket from a Japanese maker eventually)
Enough backstory, my first real leather jacket purchase was a double helix western cowboy. I was drawn to the type 1 denim jacket pattern and I really wanted something in horsehide after watching a bunch of videos from heritage style influencers. The price was palatable for a made to measure straight from double helix works (about $1200) and this was before the new U.S. tariffs kicked in. I made a couple of adjustments to their pattern including a shorter body length, shorter sleeve length, and adding stitching around the rivets on the back cinch to reinforce the pleats. When I put it on for the first time, I felt like a million bucks which is not something I felt with any of my prior leather jackets. However, it still fit a bit tight even though it was made to measure. I chose my measurements based off a type 1 denim jacket that I own which fits great and has room to layer underneath. But somehow the double helix jacket still felt restrictive, there was technically enough room in the chest and shoulders are fine, but maybe where the arm holes sit causes it to feel tight when crossing my arms. I also f'd up on the sleeve length. 23in sits perfectly at wrist level but i didn't account for the tunneling which would shorten the sleeves slightly.
I tried convincing myself that the jacket would eventually mold to my body and wore it a bunch trying to break it in, but it is only bearable with just a t-shirt underneath even to this day. I still think it looks very flattering, and have received many compliments when I wore it, but the fit just doesn't work for me even though in pictures it appears to fit perfectly fine. Anyways I'm onto my next leather jacket and I was debating between a D pocket from RMC, hercules from rainbow country and lastly a half belt from Thedi. The half belt from Thedi was a wild card as they weren't even on my radar until I saw a reel of Kenan from wardrobe 19 wearing it. The aging on that bruciato horsehide and the half belt pattern is very unique. He had one more in my size and the measurements on the size chart seemed to have more space in the places that felt tight with my double helix, so I just went for it. I couldn't find a whole lot of information on Thedi besides forums here on TFL and even those posts are mostly just fit pics with a few ranking Thedi as their favorite maker out of a large list including top japanese makers. I wanted to make this post to see how others feel about his work in comparison to other high end japanese makers out there (I may still get a shinki leather jacket from a Japanese maker eventually)
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