I have an Everyman but not a Dustbowl, but I spent a fair bit of time looking at both before finally buying the former - I think the Everyman has narrower shoulders (all else being equal) and less of a taper to the body, plus it has slimmer sleeves that also taper less than in the Dustbowl. I may be wrong but that was the conclusion I came to - if that helps?Hey all, I’m wondering what the fit and style differences are between the Everyman and Dustbowl models.
Indeed, thank you very much!I have an Everyman but not a Dustbowl, but I spent a fair bit of time looking at both before finally buying the former - I think the Everyman has narrower shoulders (all else being equal) and less of a taper to the body, plus it has slimmer sleeves that also taper less than in the Dustbowl. I may be wrong but that was the conclusion I came to - if that helps?
From what I have experienced, their longer coats don‘t have this issue. The Barnstormer I owned briefly didn‘t have it, my Veste de Rallye doesn‘t. All their shorter styles appear to have the issue though except maybe for the Grizzly, I recall @Carlos840 noting he didn‘t have the issue on his.I have just started looking into Aero jackets. On fit pictures I noticed they seem to have a prominent fold that starts at the neck and spreads across the chest in an “A” pattern. It makes it look a bit like the jacket is hanging off your neck. Do they have any patterns where you do not get this fold?
All their shorter styles appear to have the issue though except maybe for the Grizzly, I recall @Carlos840 noting he didn‘t have the issue on his.
I currently have 12 Aeros across different models - the only one where I have this issue noticeably is the Cafe Racer. It is still ok but you are aware of it sitting more on the neck than it should do after a while - it is in a midweight hide and I can wear it all day quite happily, but I imagine it could become a bit tiresome for extended periods in CXL. I think it affects different folk and patterns, but for me I have no issues with fit on the following - Slimfit MC (aka Ridley x 2), A1, M422a, Boardracer (x2 - the second of these has a mild dose of this issue), Premier Highwayman, Wayfarer, Everyman, 1930s Halfbelt (x2). Most of mine are also in midweight hides - badalassi, vicenza, goat - that helps with the drape too and a third are custom orders. But my heavy CXL Wayfarer is fine and does not have this issue - it was also OTR. I know Carlos has had issues here, so it may vary from person to person. The definite and one maybe above are both racers with mandarin collars and that might contribute to it to some extent, and the Cafe Racer is a quite extreme pattern in several dimensions imo and my overall poorest fit across my jackets. Having said that, I do wear all of them and don't find them uncomfortable - but the CR is just a bit off relative to my others. I hope that helps? I am v happy with Aero overall and have two more currently in production - they seem to be a good fit for me, although I have to say Lewis Leathers do the best job of all in this respect, if you are thinking of looking at other makers?The Grizzly is fine, as are their Levis/LVC patterns like the Bird of prey or the Rockafella.
I would add to this that I think their Premier range, and the Boardracer are in fact noticeably slimmer still than their 30s cuts, and often with higher armholes and narrower shoulders and sleeves, so I would group them into 3 rather than 2 “clusters”. The 50s fits don't work for me - the 30s and Premier patterns are better in general for me, but the Boardracer is right at the extreme edge - definitely zero scope for layering there!From what I understand, Aero has two fits, 30's cut and 50's cut. And basically 30's cut is one size smaller than 50's cut.
In my experience, down size to get the P2P does NOT work with Aero. The neck hole will be too small or the back will be too tight.
Most of my Aeros are 50's cut. And this cut is exactly the same cut as regular American sizing. For example, I wear size 40 (Medium) suits in American brands, regular cut, not slim fit. And size up to 42 (Large) for European brands, and 44 (XL) for Asian and Euro luxury brands suits. My point is, Aero's 50's pattern is very American. And their 30's pattern is more European. Stick with your suit size and NOT the P2P measurements.
It is also critical to point out about the neck hole size. Aero's size 40 neck hole is only 16" ish round, while the P2P can get up to 24.5". I downsized to 38 to get a tighter P2P and now the neck hole is too small, 15" ish round.
Aero's design is cut according to the correct era, and not to the modern tighter fits. That's why the P2P can get up to 24.5" for the 50's cut in size 40.
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One other thing to point out is the way the shoulder seams is sewn. I find that when the back panel is tucked into the front panels (action backs and shoulder gussets), it is more comfortable, because the whole jacket rest across the entire front shoulder. But when the back panel is sewn over the front panels, the weight hangs on the back of the shoulder. And if the shoulder slope or the neck hole doesn't fit right then it will hang solely on your neck, which is a no no, but other brands also have this problem. This is NOT an Aero exclusive problem, it's a general size and fit problem.
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And lastly, Aero is a very good CUSTOM maker, but not a BESPOKE maker. With Aero you can customize different finishes, but not the pattern, that's BESPOKE. Even makers who advertise as Bespoke often just alter their standard blocks to fit better. I believe it is unfair to judge Aero using bespoke standards. Yes, other makers like Lewis will tailor their standard pattern to fit the customer better. But none have the depth of Aero's customization options when it comes to finishes.
I grew up in the late 80s/early 90s. So I gravitate towards the Aero's 50's cut. It doesn't fit like other brands, but that's also the point and why I have a bunch of them. My Aero mistake was trying to tweak the fit by downsizing. While I probably would not order another custom Aero, I would not hesitate to get one on the sale page. I am waiting for their next 25 off sale. They do offer the best value for CXL products imo.
And as a side note, P2P actually don't mean much at all, because every pattern has different arm hole height. A lowered arm hole will give you wider P2P while a high arm hole will give you much smaller P2P, and both will work, just different look.
From what I understand, Aero has two fits, 30's cut and 50's cut. And basically 30's cut is one size smaller than 50's cut.
In my experience, down size to get the P2P does NOT work with Aero. The neck hole will be too small or the back will be too tight.
Most of my Aeros are 50's cut. And this cut is exactly the same cut as regular American sizing. For example, I wear size 40 (Medium) suits in American brands, regular cut, not slim fit. And size up to 42 (Large) for European brands, and 44 (XL) for Asian and Euro luxury brands suits. My point is, Aero's 50's pattern is very American. And their 30's pattern is more European. Stick with your suit size and NOT the P2P measurements.
It is also critical to point out about the neck hole size. Aero's size 40 neck hole is only 16" ish round, while the P2P can get up to 24.5". I downsized to 38 to get a tighter P2P and now the neck hole is too small, 15" ish round.
Aero's design is cut according to the correct era, and not to the modern tighter fits. That's why the P2P can get up to 24.5" for the 50's cut in size 40.
View attachment 357318
One other thing to point out is the way the shoulder seams is sewn. I find that when the back panel is tucked into the front panels (action backs and shoulder gussets), it is more comfortable, because the whole jacket rest across the entire front shoulder. But when the back panel is sewn over the front panels, the weight hangs on the back of the shoulder. And if the shoulder slope or the neck hole doesn't fit right then it will hang solely on your neck, which is a no no, but other brands also have this problem. This is NOT an Aero exclusive problem, it's a general size and fit problem.
View attachment 357319
And lastly, Aero is a very good CUSTOM maker, but not a BESPOKE maker. With Aero you can customize different finishes, but not the pattern, that's BESPOKE. Even makers who advertise as Bespoke often just alter their standard blocks to fit better. I believe it is unfair to judge Aero using bespoke standards. Yes, other makers like Lewis will tailor their standard pattern to fit the customer better. But none have the depth of Aero's customization options when it comes to finishes.
I grew up in the late 80s/early 90s. So I gravitate towards the Aero's 50's cut. It doesn't fit like other brands, but that's also the point and why I have a bunch of them. My Aero mistake was trying to tweak the fit by downsizing. While I probably would not order another custom Aero, I would not hesitate to get one on the sale page. I am waiting for their next 25 off sale. They do offer the best value for CXL products imo.
And as a side note, P2P actually don't mean much at all, because every pattern has different arm hole height. A lowered arm hole will give you wider P2P while a high arm hole will give you much smaller P2P, and both will work, just different look.
I would add to this that I think their Premier range, and the Boardracer are in fact noticeably slimmer still than their 30s cuts, and often with higher armholes and narrower shoulders and sleeves, so I would group them into 3 rather than 2 “clusters”. The 50s fits don't work for me - the 30s and Premier patterns are better in general for me, but the Boardracer is right at the extreme edge - definitely zero scope for layering there!
Some good advice here but I cannot second the „stick to the suit size and the neck hole will be big enough“-experience. I am a 39“ chest and sized up to a 42 in my Aero A-2 and the neckhole is still too small and the jacket effectively resting on my neck. And my neck is not particularily thick or anything.
Excellent info these past few posts. I too felt there was something off with the shoulder seams. I thought it might have been a tension issue with how much "pull" they used when sewing and maybe that's what explained why some have and some dont. But the tucking in vs tucking over makes total sense along with the shoulder slope example.Not trying to make it any more complicated. But I found this write up which helps to explain the "Aero pattern problem" is just different body shapes, slope shoulder vs square shoulder.
http://lineofselvage.blog/?p=4247
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Different body shapes will crease the jacket in two different ways. This explains why only some folks would experience the "/ \" crease, and others would experience "\ /" crease, on the same jacket.
Aero 50's pattern in my experience has pretty flat shoulders, vs say LW.
Excellent info these past few posts. I too felt there was something off with the shoulder seams. I thought it might have been a tension issue with how much "pull" they used when sewing and maybe that's what explained why some have and some dont. But the tucking in vs tucking over makes total sense along with the shoulder slope example.
It's interesting with the CXL jackets because they have a bit of jeckyl and hyde in them. I left my natural cxl Ridley in the car last night and today we had 102 degree temps. Came out this afternoon to a buttery soft jacket that had been completely tamed LOL. I don't think I could wear CXL though in a really cold environment. In Los Angeles, between body warmth and most of the time probably 60-70s fahrenheit jacket wearing weather in Nov-Apr time frame, there are a lot of upsides.
Nothing looks like a CXL jacket though and I think this is why many of us have double digit jackets. At least for me, I've got a bunch of different cuts, looks, leathers, etc. If they all looked the same what would be the point? But there's something about a CXL jacket with the shimmer, color evolution and crease combo. My brown Sheene has like 10 shades of brown in it and I don't think it's full broken in yet.
My main issue with my Sheene is that it's a half size too small for me in the gut and now that you mention it, probably the neck hole too (Im usually a 42 suit and have a 40 Sheene). While it's true, if you can zip it up, it fits, an extra finger or two of space would have been nice. I fell victim to the Thurston Bros sizing where they are pulling the jacket to get the numbers. It was also one of my first nice jacket purchases and CXL one at that and I just didn't really understand how something was supposed to fit. I fell into the it needs to be snug trap. Well, there's snug and there's tight and this thing is just too tight on me. I'm probably going to sell because I just have other options to wear, but I sure do wish the sizing on it was better. I love it in every other way and anytime I'm in a brown jacket mood, it's the first one I grab. I just need to wear it unzipped. Not the end of the world and definitely first world problems. Other than that, I've got 4 other Aeros (2 of which are CXL as well), and they're great in different ways. Don't regret any of them.
I do love my CXL jackets, but they have the narrowest seasonal window of all mine, largely due to the thickness and weight making them a bit too much for summer wears and the tendency to stiffen with the waxes ruling them out in the coldest winter months - I tend to wear them mostly in spring and autumn as a result - with shearling or wool peacoats taking over when temperatures really drop, and badalassi, goat, vicenza and Lewis Leathers sheep and vegecow taking over when it gets too warm for CXL. All mine are really soft when warmed up - my stiffest jacket is actually a Vicenza, which is much stiffer than any of my CXL steer or horsehide….but then I bought all the CXL secondhand, after the previous owners had done most of the initial break-in! I have a badalassi Wayfarer with a shearling lining and mouton collar in production right now and I am hoping that will be the sweet spot that sits between the CXL and wheeling out the big guns of the ANJ4 for the winter…fingers crossed!The Sheen is based on the cafe racer right? I had two Cafe racer, returned first one and sold the second one. It is designed with a hunched back and torso tapers too aggressively. I saw one on their sale page that was a pattern test for an updated back pattern. I assume Aero is also aware of how silly this old pattern was.
The CXL works very well only at about 2.5 oz thickness. I have two CXL that came in this thickness. Has all the goodies of the deep finishes without the need to warm it up first. Even in the cooler NW, the thinner CXL works well. Too bad most of Aeros CXL is 3 to 4 oz. This also doesn’t make much sense to me. Who has a heated wardrobe closet? And what happens when we are out and about and the wax starts to stiff up? It makes more sense to have the CXL as the medium weight option and the non waxed and always softer Vicenza as the thicker option. I do see more and more thinner CXL advertised on their sale page.
CXL is really nice looking and feeling leather. Very low maintenance. It gets soaked through and dries and looks new again. Shinki handles water well but dulls a little after it dries and would need a little conditioning every now and then. Not CXL. I know thicker CXL is praised here, but I honestly suggest the opposite. 2.5 oz would work a lot better in everyday life.
Even in the 80s they were cut smaller. My old one in a 38 had 17.5” shoulders and 21.5” pit to pit. I’m not sure when they “grew”. I get that the body shapes might be based on certain decades, but even Aero states that the Highwayman is a “boxier American cut...” (ie larger) the Original 59’er should fit more accurately, right?
I think it would be a great move to standardize shoulder and pit to pit across their line. Then the “fit” of the decade design/ pattern would be more apparent.