Horsehide: shaping the collar of an Aero A-2 | pics

[RainLikeGravel]

Hi gents, I'm a seldom poster (more often reader) here, so here's a brief introduction of myself:

my name is Thomas - I have a small collection of Aero, Eastman and Buzz Rickson's flight jackets over the years. I'm more into replicas - I want to wear these jackets without caring too much.

My last purchase was a nice russet Aero A-2 from their sale section before the prices raise in October (guess this may be an apprentice made jacket, because the seams are a not fully correct, but overall ok for me). Especially the collar of this A-2 was in an odd shape for my taste - I think the A-2 look depends much on the collar and I like it to look neat.

I decided to reshape the collar with the hot water treatment so I filled a small bowle with boiling water, added cool water - it maybe had 50-60 degrees Celsius - and stuck the collar in for about 2 minutes, letting it soak. Then closed the jacket, also collar hook and press studs and reshaped the collar to my taste and then let it dry overnight sitting in an armchair.

The result: perfect shape! You can see it in the pics (sorry to have no pics before the treatment). I was amazed how smooth this shaping went and that the new shape seems to be stable now. Cheers!

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Looks good,Thomas.
I've done all my new HH jacket collars in a similar way shortly after they arrive and taken out of the box.
Cheers
HD

 

[RainLikeGravel]

Thanks HD - will treat my Aero 1950's Bomberjacket the same way now. Guess it cannot harm the leather if you don't enforce drying.
Cheers, Thomas

 

[Brettafett]

Hey Thomas. Is that the smooth russet HH?

 

[RainLikeGravel]

Hey Brett, they just call it Russet HH, but Amanda told me it's basically the same als "Smooth Russet" or "Smooth Russet Mid Weight" - also on their Sale page. In fact I owned (and sold) several A-2s from Aero (oil pull HH, jerky seal and regular midweight seal HH) but this russet one is definitely a keeper!

 

[armscye]

Collar shaping

I've shaped numerous collars-- including one of the infamous Cooper A2 "disco collars"-- after washing the whole jacket in cold water and allowing to air dry in position. This works not only for A2 and G1 collars, but also to get a nice outward curl out of the mandarin collars used on scooter/cafe racer jackets.