Mayflower1620
New in Town
- Messages
- 7
Hey, guys, I really enjoy the forum. After years of combing through posts, obsessing over sizing, fit, color, and everything else you can also relate to, I decided on an Aero jacket.
I didn’t feel like messing with test jackets and such, so I merely took detailed measurements of myself and a properly fitting jacket at home. I spent a week emailing back and forth with Holly, of Aero, and she was exquisite with her expertise, concise, quick replies, and analysis.
I settled on the Aero half-belt deluxe in FQHH, color, brown. I’m typically a 40, but she recommended a 38, unless I wanted a very generous fit. At first I was going to stick with 40, but switched to 38 at the last minute—and I’m glad that I did so! Though I’m only 5 10”, I have an unusually long torso, and nothing makes me madder than short jackets. I asked for 27 3/4” length, and 24” arms.
Holly suggested I add 1/2” to arms to account for potential creasing, and suggested knocking 1/2” off the length. I obliged her arm suggestion, but held strong on the length. Well, during the 3 month wait, I managed to lose some weight and somehow found my way to the lovely world of high-rise pants. Please, tell me why low rise, or even mid rise pants ever came about? I never knew jeans could be so comfortable. So now that my pants were way higher, I lamented ordering a jacket so long. It was well past an appropriate time to modify an order, so I just relegated myself to the fact that the jacket was going to look pea-coat length and I would have to catch and release.
I got a spark of hope reading through the forums to find that many of your jackets arrived well below the suggested length. Ahh, there was hope. When the jacket arrived, the I broke out thr tape before I even tried it on—hoping and praying it wasn’t 27 3/4” long…or even worse, a margin of error length of 28 1/4! Egad! In proper fitting jeans, it’d look like a skirt. When the tape stopped shy of 27—something like 26 3/4”, I smiled with relief. I hitched up my jeans, wrestled the thing on, and smiled when I looked in the mirror. The fit was truly perfect.
I’m not sure whether it was Holly, or the master seamstress, Janice, who made the judgement call of trimming around 1.5” off of my jacket, but it was the right call and I won’t be releasing this thing!
Besides the custom sleeves and length, I requested a rock and roll label, OD drill for long-haul resilience, and a hard-wearing corduroy strip at the bottom to prevent the interior from separating. No internal pockets to cut down on bulk. I live in Oklahoma, which seems to be 10 months of summer and 3 months which look like winter, but feel like fall—so, I got no insulation. I run hot anyway, and I’ll be perfect in this thing down to the 20s.
Impressions: I have a Schott Buffalo Bomber, a Schott Captain America, and I bought my teenage son a Perfecto, so those items were my baseline. This thing isn’t even in the same stratosphere. Now I get why you guys freak out for Aero Leather and amass a varied collection of styles. This horsehide is next level. While supple and oily with a deep, lustrous hue, which will age gloriously, it also feels like battle armor. It’s crazy how different it feels once your body warms it up. At room temp, it will stand on its own, as if a ghost is wearing it.
I took some pics this morning to ask the experts how the fitment is. So please, let me know how Holly and I did with our blind sizing. Thanks for all the 2nd and 3rd hand advice given by perusing the forums. This place is a great resource! J-106 next!
Thanks!
I didn’t feel like messing with test jackets and such, so I merely took detailed measurements of myself and a properly fitting jacket at home. I spent a week emailing back and forth with Holly, of Aero, and she was exquisite with her expertise, concise, quick replies, and analysis.
I settled on the Aero half-belt deluxe in FQHH, color, brown. I’m typically a 40, but she recommended a 38, unless I wanted a very generous fit. At first I was going to stick with 40, but switched to 38 at the last minute—and I’m glad that I did so! Though I’m only 5 10”, I have an unusually long torso, and nothing makes me madder than short jackets. I asked for 27 3/4” length, and 24” arms.
Holly suggested I add 1/2” to arms to account for potential creasing, and suggested knocking 1/2” off the length. I obliged her arm suggestion, but held strong on the length. Well, during the 3 month wait, I managed to lose some weight and somehow found my way to the lovely world of high-rise pants. Please, tell me why low rise, or even mid rise pants ever came about? I never knew jeans could be so comfortable. So now that my pants were way higher, I lamented ordering a jacket so long. It was well past an appropriate time to modify an order, so I just relegated myself to the fact that the jacket was going to look pea-coat length and I would have to catch and release.
I got a spark of hope reading through the forums to find that many of your jackets arrived well below the suggested length. Ahh, there was hope. When the jacket arrived, the I broke out thr tape before I even tried it on—hoping and praying it wasn’t 27 3/4” long…or even worse, a margin of error length of 28 1/4! Egad! In proper fitting jeans, it’d look like a skirt. When the tape stopped shy of 27—something like 26 3/4”, I smiled with relief. I hitched up my jeans, wrestled the thing on, and smiled when I looked in the mirror. The fit was truly perfect.
I’m not sure whether it was Holly, or the master seamstress, Janice, who made the judgement call of trimming around 1.5” off of my jacket, but it was the right call and I won’t be releasing this thing!
Besides the custom sleeves and length, I requested a rock and roll label, OD drill for long-haul resilience, and a hard-wearing corduroy strip at the bottom to prevent the interior from separating. No internal pockets to cut down on bulk. I live in Oklahoma, which seems to be 10 months of summer and 3 months which look like winter, but feel like fall—so, I got no insulation. I run hot anyway, and I’ll be perfect in this thing down to the 20s.
Impressions: I have a Schott Buffalo Bomber, a Schott Captain America, and I bought my teenage son a Perfecto, so those items were my baseline. This thing isn’t even in the same stratosphere. Now I get why you guys freak out for Aero Leather and amass a varied collection of styles. This horsehide is next level. While supple and oily with a deep, lustrous hue, which will age gloriously, it also feels like battle armor. It’s crazy how different it feels once your body warms it up. At room temp, it will stand on its own, as if a ghost is wearing it.
I took some pics this morning to ask the experts how the fitment is. So please, let me know how Holly and I did with our blind sizing. Thanks for all the 2nd and 3rd hand advice given by perusing the forums. This place is a great resource! J-106 next!
Thanks!
