Requesting some thoughts on the lapels on this 1930s/1940s jacket

[Red Leader]

Hello gents,

I found this coat the other day - an ultra cool suit jacket (most likely an orphan) for $2.

It has a '39 tag and I'm thinking it is closer to the beginning of the time frame since it has roped shoulders and a very suppressed waist. I love the thing...but what is giving me pause is the lapels....

I think that they might have been chopped. Now, I have only had my hands through a handful of 1930s/1940s SB jackets with notch lapels, but these appear odd to me. You can see in the picture they are slightly off balance. Also, when viewing the edge of the lapels, there is some sloppiness in the way they are stitched together, which is inconsistent with the rest of the jacket...

Also, the notch seems very top heavy, which is unlike any notch lapel I've seen before.

So, with that said, here are the questions:

1) Not wanting to just assume, was there ever known to be a lapel style like the above?
2) Wanting to assume, can we assume that they have been (poorly) altered to be slimmed down?
3) Can they be fixed?

Now, I realized that last question is a bit of a can of worms. This jacket is so cool...I would very much like to return it as close to its most likely form of glory. Now, I know very little about jacket construction, but I took a look inside:

I notice that the inside of the lapel (which flips out to be the outside) is attached to the lining, which has a pleat. This pleat is consistent with the other 1940s jackets I have, so I don't believe (unfortunately) that the extra material was just bunched back into the jacket and sewn in place. However, I'm wondering if there is a way to unstitch the main piece, then 'tilt' it out so-to-speak, then reattach the lining further out and sew a thin patch/strip on the back side of the lapel where there wouldn't be any 'make up' fabric. It wouldn't be visible so I wouldn't be as concerned. There is about 3/8" of lapel material behind the lining. Perhaps with a combination of using that extra fabric and pulling the lining out just a bit would give about 1/2" or so to make lapel work. There is also about 1/4" of extra material on the edges of the lapel where the two are sewn together.

I realize this is a fairly significant surgery I'm talking about but for $2 I feel that maybe I can experiment without too much risk and if it gets the jacket back closer to original appearance, I'd be game.

But that is the question...original appearance.

What say you?


Thanks for any and all feedback!

 

[Fastuni]

Pretty certain that this was a peak lapel trimmed down to notch lapel.
If my eyes aren't playing tricks... is there some rough point at the edge of both lapels? Looks like this... might be the traces of lapel buttonholes... if so this could well have been a double breasted altered to single breasted.
The collar looks suspiciously like that of a DB peak lapel. The lack of a decorative buttonhole seems to confirm this.

I would go the easiest way: trim down the width of the collar to correspond with the lapel. To make it look more like an actual SB add a decorative buttonhole to the notch lapel. You can do this without making a hole... just add the buttonhole-stitching.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Agreed, altering the collar is the best option.

nice fabric!

 

[Red Leader]

Thanks fellas - totally missed that it could have been a SB peak lapel - I hardly come across them so it didn't cross my mind.

The lack of button holes is a giveaway. My goodness how I wish someone hadn't altered it like that. I'm a big fan of the SB peak lapel jackets.

I will take it to a tailor to see what they can do, and maybe see if they can clean up the lapels a bit...they are a little 'messy'. Definitely agree with the collar. I'll take some measurements from other early 1940s jackets I have to get a ballpark.

And yes Baron, the fabric is killer! Has a very nice 3D 'pop' effect.

 

[Red Leader]

Fastuni,

I re-read your post and realized that you had speculated that the jacket might have been a DB peak lapel. You may be right.

I do not detect any areas higher up that would have been where the top buttons were attached, but I do detect some irregularities around the bottom closure of the jacket where a sharp edge to a DB jacket was rounded to accommodate the look of a SB.

Next chance I get I will take it to the tailor and see if I can give it the justice it deserves. I wish they would have left a little more meat on the lapels as they don't quite have the larger geometric flying wing type shape, but do remind me of some of the slightly thinner lapels on the 1930s jackets. I will look at my other 1940s SB jackets closely and review the images on this website closely and try to come up with a lapel/collar shape that gets it right for the era.

Thanks again for the thoughts.