So this is the second jacket I made from Tony Leather in Shanghai. I am happy with the fit and construction with the first jacket with Tony so I placed another order soon after I recieved the first jacket.
I based this jacket on the Mister Freedom Campus Jacket in raw hide but darker. Kind of like after the raw hide has been aged and darken.
Sourcing the leather: Since the leather choice from Tony is quite limited. I asked if I could send over the leather of my choice and have him make it. The leather I went for is the Badalassi Carlo nappa in cognac. The sourcing for the leather is really easy here in China. I just went on Taobao and found a leather supplier. The leather arrived to Tony's workshop in a day or two after I made the purchase.
Leather: From what I understand the leather used by Aero is the Badalassi Nappa Lux. The Lux means a high shine finish. Mine is the just the Nappa which means it has kind of a matte finish. However I'm not sure if this one I have is the exact same as the one Aero uses because I think I read somewhere that Aero skives their Badalassi leather down. I'm not 100% sure but I think Nappa is a 3-3.5oz leather and should be just right for jackets. The heavier version is called Minerva and are more used for boots.Maybe Aero skived the Nappa down even more or they ordered something thicker like the minerva. I have a tobacco Badalassi Hooch Hauler in production with Aero and should arrive sometime next month. So I can compare the 2 Badalassi leathers more.
The surface of my cognac Badalassi is quite grainy. Not as stiff and shiny comparing to Tony's in house steerhide. That makes break in quite a bit easier. I have been wearing it around the house for 2 days and the edge are already starting to darken . The leather is a lot softer already and creases on the sleeve are setting rather quickly as well. This leather should patina quite drastically which is interesting to see.
However this leather is quite prone to water. I already got some water marks on the cuffs from water splashing on them while washing my hands. This might be due to the leather lacking the Lux/Oil shine finish as a protective layer. I might wet the whole jacket with damp cloth to darken the jacket and even out the water marks. Also since the colour of the leather is pretty loud and orange-ish. I am really tempted to try something to darken it. Maybe first attempt should be just wet it evenly and see how it goes. Then maybe a light layer of neatsfoot oil with sunlight after if I still want to darken more. Maybe someone with more experience can chip in on this matter?
Fit: I'm happy with the first jacket I got from Tony besides the length being a little to long. Also the jacket is a T-shirt fit(2" + my chest measurement) and I can't layer under. I want to be able to layer with this one. So for this jacket we increased the p2p by 0.75", shoulder by 0.5",bicep by 0.2" and Hem by 1". The length reduced by 1.5".
I'm quite happy with the result. The fit is nice and comfortable right out of the box. It works with just wearing a T shirt and also works with wearing a denim jacket under. The new length is quite short but still covers my belt easily. All in all I'm happy with how it turns out.
Next project: For the third project I ordered some shinki Navy horsehide. It should be the same kind that Field leather uses. For the style I would go for a some simple half belt. Still in discussion with Tony about the details. Really excited for how that one turns out!
Sorry for the not so good pics though. Also the colour is quite hard to capture. It seems more brownish in natural sunlight and more orange indoor.
I based this jacket on the Mister Freedom Campus Jacket in raw hide but darker. Kind of like after the raw hide has been aged and darken.
Sourcing the leather: Since the leather choice from Tony is quite limited. I asked if I could send over the leather of my choice and have him make it. The leather I went for is the Badalassi Carlo nappa in cognac. The sourcing for the leather is really easy here in China. I just went on Taobao and found a leather supplier. The leather arrived to Tony's workshop in a day or two after I made the purchase.
Leather: From what I understand the leather used by Aero is the Badalassi Nappa Lux. The Lux means a high shine finish. Mine is the just the Nappa which means it has kind of a matte finish. However I'm not sure if this one I have is the exact same as the one Aero uses because I think I read somewhere that Aero skives their Badalassi leather down. I'm not 100% sure but I think Nappa is a 3-3.5oz leather and should be just right for jackets. The heavier version is called Minerva and are more used for boots.Maybe Aero skived the Nappa down even more or they ordered something thicker like the minerva. I have a tobacco Badalassi Hooch Hauler in production with Aero and should arrive sometime next month. So I can compare the 2 Badalassi leathers more.
The surface of my cognac Badalassi is quite grainy. Not as stiff and shiny comparing to Tony's in house steerhide. That makes break in quite a bit easier. I have been wearing it around the house for 2 days and the edge are already starting to darken . The leather is a lot softer already and creases on the sleeve are setting rather quickly as well. This leather should patina quite drastically which is interesting to see.
However this leather is quite prone to water. I already got some water marks on the cuffs from water splashing on them while washing my hands. This might be due to the leather lacking the Lux/Oil shine finish as a protective layer. I might wet the whole jacket with damp cloth to darken the jacket and even out the water marks. Also since the colour of the leather is pretty loud and orange-ish. I am really tempted to try something to darken it. Maybe first attempt should be just wet it evenly and see how it goes. Then maybe a light layer of neatsfoot oil with sunlight after if I still want to darken more. Maybe someone with more experience can chip in on this matter?
Fit: I'm happy with the first jacket I got from Tony besides the length being a little to long. Also the jacket is a T-shirt fit(2" + my chest measurement) and I can't layer under. I want to be able to layer with this one. So for this jacket we increased the p2p by 0.75", shoulder by 0.5",bicep by 0.2" and Hem by 1". The length reduced by 1.5".
I'm quite happy with the result. The fit is nice and comfortable right out of the box. It works with just wearing a T shirt and also works with wearing a denim jacket under. The new length is quite short but still covers my belt easily. All in all I'm happy with how it turns out.
Next project: For the third project I ordered some shinki Navy horsehide. It should be the same kind that Field leather uses. For the style I would go for a some simple half belt. Still in discussion with Tony about the details. Really excited for how that one turns out!
Sorry for the not so good pics though. Also the colour is quite hard to capture. It seems more brownish in natural sunlight and more orange indoor.
