Chinese Horsehide - Mulholland Clone

[jay_cali]

I was curious about chinese horsehide and mulholland was just out of my budget.
Ordered this from Aliexpress and quite impressed for the price.

Total price: $220 for jacket + $20 tax + $8 shipping.
It took 40 days to arrive, you can choose $60 shipping for Fedex/DHL 4 days delivery.

The leather is lightweight, stiff but not as stiff as Horween Horsehide I got from Alan.

Sizing: As per table provided by seller with 1-2cm errors.
Ordered: Shoulder: 18.5 , Sleeves: 24.8 , length: 24.8 , P2P: 22 (Tagged XL)
Received: Shoulder: ~18.2 , Sleeves: 25 , length: 24.5 , P2P: 22

Pros: horsehide for this price
Cons: Hardware is flimsy, hand pocket zipper pull already broken.

More pics: https://imgur.com/a/7qc9mBa

 

[Blackadder]

Thank you for the photo and review. There are a few different Mulholland clones on Taobao. It seems to be the most popular style in China now.

 

[jay_cali]

@Blackadder Taobao has few custom jacket makers too. I saw one custom Buco J100 horsehide seller. Other than Hardware all other things seems acceptable.

 

[Blackadder]

I bought a Tenjin leather vest clone on Taobao and the leather was absolutely horrible (orange sofa leather in stead of natural tan as stated) so I don't buy leather jackets on Taobao anymore except perhaps roughout/suede jackets. My experience is that most of the very affordable clones are made of sofa/upholstery leather as it is the cheapest thick leather that is readily available.
I have seen some expensive FW or RM clones with very promising promotional photos but I have not handled them in person.
My fd got a Langlitz clone from one of the early custom makers on Taobao. Quality is acceptable but the pattern (proportionality) seems a bit off. Having said that the pattern is also off on some Japanese brands like Westride (they reduce the drop of their Langlitz clones and the cut ends up a slim straight like a Lewis leather).
I will wait for a good condition 2nd hand Muholland on Yahoo auction JP. I have the Joe McCoy 30s Mobster jacket from which the Muholland came or evolved. FW's owner used to be the director of the Joe McCoy line and most likely created the 30s Mobster back then.

 

[Guppy]

A lot of sellers on AliExpress use shamelessly stolen photos of original jackets. I see a lot of photos of Theodoros, who apparently spends a lot of time in China moonlighting as a model for Chinese ripoff makers. Or maybe the Chinese clone the maker as well as his jackets. There are some good vendors who sell their goods with actual photos of the stuff they sell, and then there are a few who list with a mix of their product's photos, plus photos of the jacket they copied. You can maybe get them to tell you what they're really selling if you message them, but how can you trust any of it? I guess if you like gambling, you might get what you pay for.

 

[jay_cali]

@Guppy That's true about Ali, some sellers do that. No seller agreed to send real pics. They are more like middlemen and the actual jacket is at somewhere else. The jacket I bought goes for ~$120 on Taobao plus shipping. If you are buying through Taobao using an agent, they send you QC pics, video and you can choose to return items if not satisfied. Taobao using agent is more preferred and used a lot by folks on Reddit. I found custom jacket sellers too. After you receive the jacket returning it is not an option.