Peter Botwright (Wested Leather), RIP

[Doctor Damage]

Here's a bunch of random publicity photos from the movies. The last photo (the one with Senor Spielbergo) shows the side of the jacket really well.

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[tropicalbob]

Oh, Man. I was just looking at the site and saw they have a Snake Plissken jacket on sale. In my size! For about $200! And I just paid for the AVI LTHR jacket. Ah, well, maybe it'll still be there in a few weeks.

 

[Sloan1874]

Here's a bunch of random publicity photos from the movies. The last photo (the one with Senor Spielbergo) shows the side of the jacket really well.

The D-rings are there and he's hunched over, so it's hard to see the bi-swing.

 

[Seb Lucas]

D.N., the Raiders costume designer was notoriously inaccurate about her own design. The jacket that toured in her costume exhibition was actually a Last Cursade jacket (it is different to the Raiders jacket, most obviously in having snaps on the wind-flap - the Raiders does not) and DN kept referring to this Last Crusade jacket as the one she had picked and distressed herself from Raiders. Most notoriously she did this in a youtube interview in front of the costume with Adam Savage (a friend of hers) who looked somewhat confused as he is a movie gear fanatic.

Actually, this jacket worn with Sean Connery in those shots is an improved design based on the Raiders jacket. Different collar, pockets and leather and better fit. It was designed by Anthony Powell who wanted to put his spin on the original.

The jacket for Temple, the second film was not made by Peter (as he himself told me) as far as we can establish it may have been made by Neil Cooper. It is also quite different to the Raiders jacket - tiny pockets and a different cut.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Here's one of the film used Last Crusade jackets with snaps and different pockets. Currently lives at the Smithsonian. This is Peter's final Indy film jacket. The last movie jacket ( a terrible pre-distressed cowhide) was not made by him, it was a Tony Nowak.

 

[Edward]

I always thought Aero's battered steer would have a cracking look for an Indy style. In terms of a period accurate style, I don't think the Indy is so far off some jackets that were available at the time, with adaptations to suit the requirements (as memory serves, the A2 style knits were done away with partly to 'de-militarise' the look and partly to allow easier access to the gun/whipbelt. The short vents at each side in the rear were to ease access to the whip.

For my money, if the reboot people have the creative freedom to vary thins ever so slightly, they couldn't go far wrong with an Aero Royale as an alternative to the original Indy design.

The company's website is back up again, so it appears they are trading again after taking a break after Mr Botwright's passing.

According to the statement made when Peter Botwright died, the intention was to close up the site for a period of mourning, then the family were going to continue the business. I'm sure I read tat on the site itself at the time.

Decided to post a photo of the Raiders Hero, the one with “weird” fitting, but in my opinion an understated jacket worthy a high place in the hierarchy of vintage style leather jackets. Why? True that the Indy jackets are made up designs, but one could also argue there could have existed such a design in the 40s or 30s, though this contention could be a stretch. Anyhow, while the Last Crusade & rest of the sequel jackets are “boring” standard action jackets made for the movie, the first jacket actually features a quirky rotated sleeves & an asymmetrical shoulder seam, resulting in a backward dropping shoulder look, such that the neck hole tends to open & fall back, hence a lot of the photos from the first movie Ford appears to be in mid action or just done with a fight! I was wearing the Raider jacket walking around & it looks that way every time I move my arms. I always like a quirky fit jacket as it’s more interesting & shows more character, otherwise I’d wear a suit.

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Looks nice - that's the first 'Hro' I've seen in the wild. Once I lose the weight, I'm tempted to try one of those. I'd like to have two Westeds - one in goat, one in maybe the cow or horse they do; having one Raiders and one 'Hero' might be an excuse further for two...

The jacket's designer Deborah Nadoolman told me that the bi-swing traveled deep into the back - she emphasised this by shoving her hand into the flap on my Aero, saying 'I made it much deeper than this', so that Harrison could move freely during filming. She also stuck D-rings down at the bottom so that they could be pulled tight at the waistto give him a 'heroic' silhouette.

If only a couple of D-rings were all I needed to give me a "heroic silhouette"....

The jacket for Temple, the second film was not made by Peter (as he himself told me) as far as we can establish it may have been made by Neil Cooper. It is also quite different to the Raiders jacket - tiny pockets and a different cut.

As memory serves, the Temple jacket was made an inch longer (being as this was meant to be the same jacket but set a year earlier, maybe this was an effort to mimic the Shrinking Jackets of legend ). In my memory it always seemed markedly darker. I didn't know they'd come back to Peter B. for the Crusade jacket - some reason, I thought Wested only made the Raiders jacket. Must have picked that up wrong. The Crusade jacket was closer the Raiders jacket than the Temple. As I recall the key differences were the windflap studs and they also made the pockets bigger to accomodate the Grail Diary.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Movie making is a callous business. Peter did put in a bid and sample to supply Indy 4 (a pattern Wested sold as their Last Crusade/Crystal Skull jacket with double seams on the shoulders) but the film went with an LA based maker that suited Ford's costumer better.

Ironically, Peter did get his hands on a film used Temple jacket to copy some years back (it was owned by a friend and film costume supplier Noel Howard) and now Wested can make an accurate Temple jacket too.

Sally, Peter's daughter is now looking after Wested.

 

[Doctor Damage]

More random photos.

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[Doctor Damage]