A tale of two Storm Riders

[El Marro]

Over the last year I found myself wanting (needing) a Lee Storm Rider jacket. I spent some time looking at them on eBay and Etsy but the vintage ones in my size were all pretty pricey, and quite short as well.
Around the beginning of the year I decided that rather than hope and wait for the right one to pop up somewhere for sale I would commission Ciano Farmer to make one for me. I have ordered jeans and jackets from Ciano before and found him to be very good at what he does. I spoke to him over the phone and he said that he had made several Storm Rider clones already and would be happy to make one for me.
We discussed various options as far as which denim to use and I decided to go with his Osh Kosh blue, a particularly spectacular shade of powder blue 12 oz denim. I chose Mexican Saltillo fabric for the liner because I love the vibrant colors and I thought it would complement the denim as well. When I got home from work today the jacket was waiting for me and it is everything I had hoped for:

That was my first Storm Rider of the day, now for the second.

This weekend I googled Lee Storm Rider for the 1000th time and one of the first links to pop up was a Japanese seller on Rakuten who had the jacket available in my size! This is made by Lee Japan and I believe it is a copy of the 1950 model. As one would expect from a Japanese jacket maker they have gone very far to make sure all of the details: tags labels, etc. look just right. One thing that I particularly like about this one is the lining which is a wonderfully soft luxurious wool. I paid for the jacket on Sunday evening and it arrived here from Tokyo this afternoon. This one is also a beauty:

Apologies for the lackluster fit photos but it has been a long day. A long satisfying day though since I now have the Storm Rider scene covered.

 

[Psant25]

Wow killer jackets!

 

[JMax]

Two home runs!! Congrats, very cool.

 

[navetsea]

both look stellar, the lining on the ciano repro though reminds me of old PC color monitor

 

[dudewuttheheck]

both awesome looking jackets

 

[Edward]

Both of these look great. The first one is strikingly different from therun of the mill jeans jacket, like it a lot.

 

[El Marro]

Thanks everyone for the nice comments!
Edward,
That was my idea with this jacket. Since I knew it was not going to be a carbon copy Storm Rder I was happy to do something a little different. The navy corduroy on the collar was Ciano‘s idea and I think it was a good one.

 

[dubpynchon]

Great choices, congrats.

 

[red devil]

Very nice jackets!
I like the fact they look so different despite being the same pattern

 

[Mich486]

The Lee Rider/Storm Rider is probably the best designed classic jean jacket and I say this as a Levi’s fanboy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Colin G]

Amazing jacket combo El Marro. That Osh Kosh blue is great since it is not the typical colour you see.

Is the Japanese Lee boxy or a slim fit? I'd love a Lee but don't care for the shorter traditional fit of old ones.

Does Ciano do custom options? I'd kill for a denim jacket with underarm gussets.

 

[Benny Holiday]

They look great El Marro! Congrats!

 

[El Marro]

Amazing jacket combo El Marro. That Osh Kosh blue is great since it is not the typical colour you see.

Is the Japanese Lee boxy or a slim fit? I'd love a Lee but don't care for the shorter traditional fit of old ones.

Does Ciano do custom options? I'd kill for a denim jacket with underarm gussets.

Colin,
The Japanese Lee is around 25 1/4” long in back so it is longer than many originals but not by much. It is pretty boxy as well but not in a bad way. I think I prefer this to the slim cut of my Iron Heart jacket.
Ciano will build you the jacket of your dreams as long as you are willing to wait for it. I don’t mean wait years and years, but each of the three jackets he has built for me have been about six months from the day I ordered them to the day I received the jacket. Every time I called to check the status he had an interesting story to tell and always assured me that my jacket would be on the way in a week or two. Despite this I highly recommend him, his enthusiasm for all things denim is quite infectious and I enjoy collaborating with him.

 

[Bfd70]

I gotta say, if i only saw a pic of the 1st jacket alone it’d be a “uhhhh no” but you really pull it off!

 

[El Marro]

I gotta say, if i only saw a pic of the 1st jacket alone it’d be a “uhhhh no” but you really pull it off!

Thanks man!
And that’s nothing, just wait till I post the photos of me wearing the jacket with the matching jeans!

 

[navetsea]

lol

the light blue jacket seems like begging for vintage looking patches

 

[El Marro]

 

[Colin G]

I want one of those patches.

 

[Bfd70]

In that outfit I’m picturing you as part of the cast in “Once upon a time in Hollywood.”

 

[Edward]

Thanks everyone for the nice comments!
Edward,
That was my idea with this jacket. Since I knew it was not going to be a carbon copy Storm Rder I was happy to do something a little different. The navy corduroy on the collar was Ciano‘s idea and I think it was a good one.

It look supeerb ,really sets it off well. I have a powder-blue Harrington jacket that I often wear casually with a pair of slacks and a shirt and tie- casual, Sinatra style; your Ciano is a very similar hue. I should think that will make it wearable with a lot more than "only" jeans, whereas a regular denim jacket to my eye never looks quite right with anything other than jeans. The Storm Rider is a nice base design; I've always liked it far more than the Levis TYpe III. I also love the Wrangler 124MJ. I see Wrangler are donig that model again now in a nice rigid indigo, though they advertise it as having slimmer arms and a longer body than the original, which is off-putting without the chance to try one on.