New guy here

[TLW '90]

Hello.
I'm mostly a blue collar guy who's idea of getting dressed up tends to be throwing on a clean shirt shining up my boots.
On Christmas I'll iron that shirt and throw on my favorite bolo tie.
I don't have much inclination towards fashion but like with most areas of interest for me I dislike the modern and prefer things classic, oldschool , timeless, or outright vintage.

Who doesn't love/ want a cool jacket right ? Especially leather.

I love jackets, I don't really inspire to be a major collector and have a ton of them, but I currently have about 10 jackets of various forms.
A number of them are just utilitarian though, only 3 are nice jackets with any sort of cool factor.
I'd like to up that number to 5 or 6 maybe.


I got my first leather jacket a year ago and I love it.
It's a sturdy jacket with some heft, I like it's clean simple style, and i quite like the cut of it and how it fits me.
The one thing I don't like so much is it's dark chocolate brown color that at times seems a bit bland and uninspired.
It's earned some sentimental value at this point and isn't going anywhere, but I recently decided to start looking for something in a lighter color with more appeal that can develope richness and depth over time.

That's why I'm here, I want to learn and discuss so I can find a good deal on my ideal vintage leather jacket.
Hopefully the knowledge here can help eliminate some of that trial and error, and help me shorten the journey to find that jacket.

I have recently made 3 purchases very cheap on Ebay, and I'm starting to see why nobody was interested.

The first turned out to be faux leather, the tag said " professional leather clean only " so the seller assumed, they refunded me my money.
The 2nd was just a late night mistake.
It is the the weirdest ugliest things I've ever seen. ( I'll post a little about that one )

The 3rd is on the way, I thought it was extremely cool when I saw it and still think it's cool looking but am second guessing myself a little bit.
I will elaborate more when I receive it and ask the questions I have.

 

[Will Zach]

Welcome!!! You came to the right place!

 

[Brandrea33]

Welcome aboard. I’m relatively new at this and learning a lot from the wise members. You’re in good hands here.

 

[TLW '90]

Thanks.
This seems like a great place.
I see Terry Mitchell's YouTube channel often and he's always mentioning this forum.

 

[TooManyHatsOnlyOneHead]

Welcome. Get your paypal and credit card info memorized

Plenty of great jackets on our classifieds and I suspect more coming as people start hitting the closets for the first time in many months.

 

[TLW '90]

Here are some pictures of the horrible 2nd jacket I bought on Ebay last week.

I'm starting to suspect that it may not be a mens coat but I really don't know.

There are no defined shoulders, so it's over 12" across the armpits

At first I thought maybe it's intended to have a liner because theres some extra smaller buttons inside, but theres nothing in the end of the sleeves.

Look at these weird flaps on the outside of the pockets that don't do anything.


I think it is real leather, but probably a relatively cheap leather.
The brand is Damselle LTD, I'm guessing it's from the 90's based on the YKK zipper.


It was late at night and I saw this American made leather jacket in a decent color for under $50 so I bought it.
The pictures weren't that great and I didn't realize just how weird this thing is.
It's like a leather windbreaker without a hood or something.
A small with the arm length of a small, but very big in every other dimension.

 

[sweetfights]

Hello.
I'm mostly a blue collar guy who's idea of getting dressed up tends to be throwing on a clean shirt shining up my boots.
On Christmas I'll iron that shirt and throw on my favorite bolo tie.
I don't have much inclination towards fashion but like with most areas of interest for me I dislike the modern and prefer things classic, oldschool , timeless, or outright vintage.

Who doesn't love/ want a cool jacket right ? Especially leather.

I love jackets, I don't really inspire to be a major collector and have a ton of them, but I currently have about 10 jackets of various forms.
A number of them are just utilitarian though, only 3 are nice jackets with any sort of cool factor.
I'd like to up that number to 5 or 6 maybe.


I got my first leather jacket a year ago and I love it.
It's a sturdy jacket with some heft, I like it's clean simple style, and i quite like the cut of it and how it fits me.
The one thing I don't like so much is it's dark chocolate brown color that at times seems a bit bland and uninspired.
It's earned some sentimental value at this point and isn't going anywhere, but I recently decided to start looking for something in a lighter color with more appeal that can develope richness and depth over time.

That's why I'm here, I want to learn and discuss so I can find a good deal on my ideal vintage leather jacket.
Hopefully the knowledge here can help eliminate some of that trial and error, and help me shorten the journey to find that jacket.

I have recently made 3 purchases very cheap on Ebay, and I'm starting to see why nobody was interested.

The first turned out to be faux leather, the tag said " professional leather clean only " so the seller assumed, they refunded me my money.
The 2nd was just a late night mistake.
It is the the weirdest ugliest things I've ever seen. ( I'll post a little about that one )

The 3rd is on the way, I thought it was extremely cool when I saw it and still think it's cool looking but am second guessing myself a little bit.
I will elaborate more when I receive it and ask the questions I have.

Welcome. Prepare for a journey and lots of fun reading.

 

[TLW '90]

Welcome. Get your paypal and credit card info memorized

Plenty of great jackets on our classifieds and I suspect more coming as people start hitting the closets for the first time in many months.

I hope not.
I've already got it with traditional knives, tools, and traditional American airguns.

I suppose if I approach this much differently than my other hobbies I can probably make it work.
If I've got a pocket knife some hand tools, or an airgun I'm just not using enough I will merely gift it to someone who will use it.

With jackets I'll have to learn to be more careful with what I buy, and get used to the idea of trading and or reselling something I'm no longer appreciating.

 

[Monitor]

Welcome!

Here are some pictures of the horrible 2nd jacket I bought on Ebay last week.

I'm starting to suspect that it may not be a mens coat but I really don't know.

There are no defined shoulders, so it's over 12" across the armpits

At first I thought maybe it's intended to have a liner because theres some extra smaller buttons inside, but theres nothing in the end of the sleeves.

Look at these weird flaps on the outside of the pockets that don't do anything.


I think it is real leather, but probably a relatively cheap leather.
The brand is Damselle LTD, I'm guessing it's from the 90's based on the YKK zipper.


It was late at night and I saw this American made leather jacket in a decent color for under $50 so I bought it.
The pictures weren't that great and I didn't realize just how weird this thing is.
It's like a leather windbreaker without a hood or something.
A small with the arm length of a small, but very big in every other dimension.

This is... Pretty bad, yeah. The price is okay. But you know what; If I had some extra $ lying around, I'd send this to JL or Dena and ask them to turn it into something wearable. It's made from what looks like a very nice, heavy sheepskin, the collar isn't bad... Slimming the sleeves down & cutting the coat in half and it'd already bee off to a good start. It would take some work but I would seriously do it just for the heck of it.

 

[TLW '90]

Welcome!



This is... Pretty bad, yeah. The price is okay. But you know what; If I had some extra $ lying around, I'd send this to JL or Dena and ask them to turn it into something wearable. It's made from what looks like a very nice, heavy sheepskin, the collar isn't bad... Slimming the sleeves down & cutting the coat in half and it'd already bee off to a good start. It would take some work but I would seriously do it just for the heck of it.

I don't even know what the style could possibly be.
What kind of fashion trend could have spawned this thing ?
Hop hop or something?

 

[AeroFan_07]

TLW - I can tell you'll be welcome and hopefully a regular around these parts.

I am also not much of a "dress up" guy and gave away my iron almost 10 years ago.

This was all I needed to see you already know some of our stuff here:
The 2nd was just a late night mistake.
It is the the weirdest ugliest things I've ever seen. ( I'll post a little about that one )

That jacket isn't horrible, but as Monitor said, might look up Dena at Great Leather (in illinois) as she might be albe to make that into something a bit more interesting. Welcome again!

 

[TLW '90]

This is the first leather jacket I bought.
I payed $250 for it as unissued Illinois state police surplus last year from sportsmans guide.
It was made by Taylor's leatherwear in 1990.




I like the overall fit, feel, and heft of the jacket.
The removable thinsulate liner, and the big sturdy 2 way LENZIP zipper are nice too.
I am happy to have gotten lucky in gambling on a first leather jacket that happened to be a perfect fit.

I wore this jacket the day I lost my last pitbull who was my absolute best and sometimes only friend of the past 14 years, I wore it the day I took her to be cremated, and the day I brought her ashes home from the vet.
While I may find the color a bit bland and be looking for something with more appeal, this jacket is not going anywhere.

I decided to add a few personal touches to class it up a bit.
On the left side attached through the badge hanger is an antler tip whistle I made which I used call my dog in from the backyard with, her last License tag, and 2 dog bones going through the nametag hanger on the right side.
One for her and one for the new pitbull puppy that follows me everywhere I go.

 

[Will Zach]

It is great to have a story and memories attached to a jacket. You fit right in here!

 

[Monitor]

Taylor's is a great jacket and that's a really cool style you bought. These guys know how to build a jacket. The touches are really nice, though sad. This beast that's usurping my house is sleeping right next to me right now but while we're both getting old, I fear he's gonna beat me to it and I don't want that to happen. Even though he scratched the heck out of my pricey boots today for no reason whatsoever.

In any case, I'm curious to see no. 3.

I still remember my third good jacket. It was a Schott.

 

[TLW '90]

Taylor's is a great jacket and that's a really cool style you bought. These guys know how to build a jacket. The touches are really nice, though sad. This beast that's usurping my house is sleeping right next to me right now but while we're both getting old, I fear he's gonna beat me to it and I don't want that to happen. Even though he scratched the heck out of my pricey boots today for no reason whatsoever.

In any case, I'm curious to see no. 3.

I still remember my third good jacket. It was a Schott.

Those scratches can probably be blended pretty well.
I have this thing called a Bolero shoe buffer that works wonders to blend scuffs and scratches in my boots.

I have one thats falling apart that came out of my dads boot shine kit, probably purchased from the BX at FT Bliss TX in '78.
I did some asking on another unrelated forum I belong to and someone was able to identify it and turn up a NOS example available cheap on Ebay.

 

[TLW '90]

Here is the Ebay sellers picture of the 3rd jacket I bought which is supposed to arrive tomorrow.
I payed $26+shipping for it.



The label is " it's a holiday " Boston Ma USA.

I can find no information about the brand or company, but I am assuming it's probably from one of those 1970's pop up leather shops in a mall or something?
At Least I've heard those were a common thing.

I liked the color and I really like the collar, the style of the lower pockets I think is kind of cool but I'm not too crazy about those things on the breast of the jacket. I am assuming they are a decorative faux pockets.

The pictures aren't the best, but I was pretty confident that it is real leather and appears decent to me.

 

[TLW '90]

Did someone say jacket #4 ?

That damn Ebay keeps sending me alerts and they got me again.
This time they took a bit more from me, yep they got a whopping $53.
But it wasn't so much of a gamble this time because I did a little homework and read up on things here first.

Hopefully I did good at that price for this Brooks cafe racer.






I don't think my journey is going to be done just yet but it will be one more stepping stone in finding out what I really like in a jacket.
I'm used to a jacket of any kind having a collar, so It will be interesting to try one without a collar for a change.

 

[MrProper]

Welcome and have fun here.

 

[Robbie79]

Welcome to the lounge and have a wonderful journey here but spending too much time in the lounge can sometimes end with a full closet and an empty wallet I can't wait to see your first pics wearing the jackets, especially the Brooks gold label Cafe Racer.
Cheers,
Robbie

 

[Carlos840]

Here are some pictures of the horrible 2nd jacket I bought on Ebay last week.

I'm starting to suspect that it may not be a mens coat but I really don't know.

There are no defined shoulders, so it's over 12" across the armpits

At first I thought maybe it's intended to have a liner because theres some extra smaller buttons inside, but theres nothing in the end of the sleeves.

Look at these weird flaps on the outside of the pockets that don't do anything.


I think it is real leather, but probably a relatively cheap leather.
The brand is Damselle LTD, I'm guessing it's from the 90's based on the YKK zipper.


It was late at night and I saw this American made leather jacket in a decent color for under $50 so I bought it.
The pictures weren't that great and I didn't realize just how weird this thing is.
It's like a leather windbreaker without a hood or something.
A small with the arm length of a small, but very big in every other dimension.

It closes right over letf and has fake pockets, IMO its a women's coat.
Also the brand name sounds like a wordplay between "Damsel" and "Elle" which is retty feminin.
Lastly, if you google "Damselle leather jacket" you only find women's coats with that brand name...