Tell a story about your first leather jacket...

[Peter Mackin]

My introduction to leather jackets started at a very young age, I grew surrounded by vintage clothes, and was mainly dressed in vintage clothes (something as a slightly older child i didn't always appreciate).'The Thrift Shop' in Battersea was my play ground (we lived above the shop) where I would play and hide in amongst all the rails and rails of jackets, jeans and Hawaiian shirts. Lots of fond memories visiting the Rag Yard that was underneath the rail way arches at Clapham junction and when my Dad was busy sifting through all the bails of clothes, I would be climbing all over them using them often being chased by Max the owners Doberman.

My first leather jacket was a late 1940's 'bomber' jacket. I was 5 at the time and this was the first of many many jackets. My Dad had it painted by a local artist Paul Stagg, 44th Bombardment squadron patch on front and a Flying Fortress ( my favourite plane as a child) "That's all folks" on the back. We still have the jacket and it is on display in our showroom in amongst some of our archive pieces. I dug it out today for some pics. The jacket is lined in alpaca, although the alpaca has certainly seen better days, original knits and it has had a zip replacement at sometime. View attachment 41667 View attachment 41668 View attachment 41669 View attachment 41670 View attachment 41677


Next to one of its big brothers for comparison.
View attachment 41673



Another jacket although not my first only a year or so later, I think I was 7 and going to a fancy dress party like a little Sid Vicious. ( Photo in the Thrift Shop )
View attachment 41672

Haven't changed a bit lol

 

[Jim B.]

Summer 1972, just finished 9th grade. Was visiting grandma in upstate NY. She took us shopping for clothes, downtown to Klines Men and Boys Store where the owner showed us a new G-1. I didn't know what it was other than it was awesome and I wanted it. $100, in todays dollars-over $550. My grandma was well off and bought nice clothes frequently for the grandkids. Being summer it went on layaway and when fall came I got it for my Birthday. I learned what I had in time, a real mil spec (but like a mid 60's quality, real mouton collar and beautiful grained dark brown goatskin) G-1 that was a commercial jacket made for Peters All-Weather Wear by Star Sportswear. I wore that jacket most everyday, three seasons a year, riding on and off-road motorcycles, riding horses and working around the stables. Cuffs, zipper and waistband had to be replaced in two years. Seams opening up in a couple more years. My friends were always trying to buy that jacket off of me. It was my first and still the best I ever had. Wish I could buy one that was as good as that one but they don't make them quite like that anymore.

 

[handymike]

Take a look at Mr Chapman's G-1 Jim, it is really beautiful!

 

[eugenesque]

Was on the Trans-Siberian through Russia in 2012. Train took a half an hour stop at Ulan-Ude in the night. Disembarked to see and capture a photo of the largest bust sculpture of Lenin in the town square. Wore only my leather jacket because I thought it would be a quick one. Got lost on the way to the town square and didn't get a good photo because it was dark and flash on camera wasn't working. Had to run back to the train in the cold and I barely caught it. Fortunately wasn't stranded but I told myself that even if I missed the train, at least I had my wallet, passport and more importantly my leather jacket.

 

[sola fide]

My first leather jacket was short lived. It was 1985 and our ship the USS Midway was visiting Pusan South Korea. I ventured to a market thats seemed to sell almost everything along with some leather jackets. I ended hanging out with a pair of brothers who were the shop owners the remainder of the evening who also sold me a gray/green leather jacket for $50 along with showing me the sights of their fair city. Great guys and nice jacket, but lost it while attached to the USS Kittyhawk hanging out with some folks in near NAS Lemoore. Nice jacket while it lasted, but I really like my Montgomery Wards horsehide jacket that I am only, now, breaking in. Thats my first leather jacket story

 

[pgoat]

This thread needs reviving. Love all these stories and pics.

My first leather jacket truthfully was a very weatherbeaten suede fringed Schott jacket I found in a nasty old thrift store - all the clothes were filthy and tossed around on the floor, etc. (the place didn't stay in business too long). I paid $25 (sounds cheap but that was about $70 in 2018 dollars) and it was a size too small, but as a high school senior I had very little money, so it held me over until I could afford something nicer. Among other things, I recall laying in the warm spring sunshine on a grassy field with a lot of Dead heads at my first Dead show in VA several years later wearing that jacket. And freezing while wearing it in Central Park during Simon & Garfunkel's reunion concert in '81. Regardless, it was way too tiny and I never fully bonded with it...I wound up giving it to a gf. Mine was in much sorrier shape (fringe missing, shiny patina spots, torn pockets, etc.) but it looked exactly like this:

The jacket I really wanted in HS was more like a vintage horsehide half-belt. I din't know what they were or what they were called but one of my heroes wore a great one:

Eventually, another pic of Fleetwood Mac convinced me I needed a proper MC jacket, although I was still a few years away from owning my first bike:

When I was 19 I bought a new Branded Garment jacket at a local flea market - style 808, it listed for $300 and was selling for $120 ($750 and $300 in today's money). I was working a minimum wage job just out of college, so I bought on layaway. Owned that jacket for almost ten years, till I sprung for a Schott 125 and sold the Branded to a fellow biker. Regretted it almost immediately and the guy refused to sell it back, to 'teach me a lesson' about impulsive behavior and materialism, etc. The Schott was undoubtedly a better grade of leather, but the Branded was extremely well made and, of course, as my first jacket with almost a decade of memories attached, it was very special indeed. I still miss it.

 

[chollie]

I grew up in Washington DC and discovered the punk scene there in 9th grade, in 1985. Me and my friends knew we all needed leather jackets but were too poor to get the Schotts that they sold in the nicer shops. Someone told us about a head shop on Connecticut Ave way up in NW DC that sold biker jackets for $99. So we all saved our money and went up there to buy them together. They were the standard Excelled cross zips which are still easy to find on ebay. We all wore the same size and the three or four of us all walked out with a bundle of jackets. I think they all got mixed up in the bag or something, but we all lost track of which jacket had been picked out by who...you know all leather jackets are a LITTLE different, even in the same size and style. To sort it out we balled them all up in the parking lot and threw them up into the the night sky in a jumble and let fate sort our who caught which one.

I wore the jacket all through HS, eventually decorating it in the typical style of that scene by painting the names of bands on it etc. After HS ended it was in the possession of my GF at the time, who tossed it in the garbage without my knowlege during some quarrel that we were in. We are still friends but I've never forgiven her!

 

[HanauMan]

It was early 1979 and I had just turned 14 years old. I was getting a daily dose of popular culture, watching movies like Rebel Without a Cause, Grease and watching the Fonzie on TV and seeing all those cool black leather jackets. I knew that I needed one too. I saved up all my pocket money and birthday money to buy one. My family were living in West Germany back then and I went to the local PX to see what they had, but they had nothing that I wanted. Even went to the big BX at Rhein Main airbase but nothing there either. One day we went to a German department store in Schweinfurt and there was the jacket of my dreams. It was a black cow leather bomber style jacket, similar to a A2 but with slash side pockets, elasticated waist and wrist cuffs and a shiny black nylon lining. I put it on, it fitted like a glove. It was like a second skin, a suit of armor, a one way ticket to coolsville. Anyhow, we bought it and I wore it all the time (with the collar turned up) and thought that I was so cool in Junior High. I was friendly with a German girl my age who lived next to our housing area and she thought it was the bomb too. (Looking at the photo, however, I looked like a dork!). I don't recall now how much it cost nor do I know who made it but I'm guessing it was made by some German fashion chain. I outgrew the jacket before I left my teens and I no longer have the jacket, but I'll never forget it or what it meant to me.

 

[pgoat]

/\ Photo Booths FTW!

 

[dannyk]

My first jacket came from my father. He had a very old unlabeled horsehide Brando style jacket and a matching vest. I used to play dress up in these as a kid. Now I own a Schott 618HH and a Vanson Chopper in comp. weight. My senior yearbook wanted baby pictures. Notice the hat and vest. No Wonder I ended up being a member of this site!

 

[2jakes]

Although my very first jacket was a J.C. Penney faux leather material.
I would classify this as my first
"leather" jacket.

A-2 style horsehide by Avirex labeled "General MacArthur" edition.

It came in horsehide brown with no decals, patches or paintings.
I was young and influenced by John Wayne's "Flying Tigers" movie so
I painted this on the front:

And this on the back:

It still fits, but nowadays, I prefer plain leather with no markings.
I keep it because of the fond memories of my youth.

Btw: One day at work, David "Tex" Hill, Ace pilot of the Flying Tigers
came to visit my place of work.
First thing he said when he saw me...
"You got the CBI patch on the wrong side, son!"
He told me in a manner so as not to make me feel bad.
But oh how I wanted to crawl somewhere and hide for the rest of my life because
of who it was that was telling me.

Today, my only regret is that I had the
chance to talk with a real genuine hero of mine but didn't.
I have a copy of the diary from another "Flying Tiger" pilot,
Charles Bond, which is great...
but nothing beats having a "one on one".
I have so many questions .... not just
about the leather jackets, but of his
days in China prior to WW2.

 

[kampkatz]

My first leather jacket was a black Schott civilian style flight jacket that my parents gave me for Christmas of 1970. Some people would mistake it for a motorcycle jacket, but I would just sigh and say it didn't have enough zippers. I just about wore it out over the years and gave it to a thrift store about 10 years ago.

 

[Guppy]

My very first leather jacket was a brown 70s car coat purchased from Goodwill for $6 in 1993, which I wore for about 15 years or so, fairly regularly. It held up quite well. Lightweight, it weighs maybe 3lbs. I still have it, but it's a little bit small on me now. I liked the anti-fashion style of it.

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

Greetings All:
This is the first leather jacket i bought with my own money. I sold a killer 69 Z28 and bought a Marantz stereo system and this jacket then joined the Marines. The year was 1973. The jacket was bitchin cool then and i think pretty ok today. It’s been hanging in closets for 3-4 decades. I just Pecarded it a couple days ago. Still fits like it should. Still listen to the Marantz every day.

Be well. Bowen

 

[Eamonsieur]

well its new years eve and I am feeling somewhat nostalgic (and old)...

I will go first - it was December in 1981 and i went into the Walter Dyer shop on Route 9 in Framingham MA ( the building still stands as of today). A cramped, fantastic place full of the smells you would expect in a leather shop. He had two signature products: moccasins and a collarless, three pocket M/C jacket.

my buddy and I went in to purchase M/C jackets. Mr Walter Dyer himself was there - a great big, grey bearded santa claus looking fellow... after some talk about what we wanted, he sized me up and said "you look like a pretty big kid - if you can beat me arm wrestling, I will take 50 bucks off the jacket price..."

I would like to tell you a tale of a titanic battle followed that seemed to last forever... a struggle that left us bruised and bloody... a battle that ended in a tie...

nope - I left the store with a new jacket at a discounted price. A few months later, I enlisted in the US Army and was out of the area for a long time. That particular jacket I gave to a buddy who later became a hero in an obscure, forgotten place, dying way too young for a cause soon forgotten as well... in pax requiem D.H. - see you on the other side...

when I returned to the area years later, the shop still looked and smelled the same but Mr. Walter Dyer had passed on. The shop was now full of imported jackets and not knowing any better, I purchased my first flight jacket, a black lambskin A-2 complete with hand warmer pockets and escape map lining...

after seeing a small print ad for Lost Worlds, I sent for the catalog and began my journey... AND STILL CONTINUES.

First post!

Hey there everyone,

My first leather jacket was a cheap corrected grain Gap car coat I bought for $5 at the Salvation Army so I could fit in with the cool kids in university. It had more plastic in it than leather, squeaked something awful when I moved about in it, and barely provided any warmth. It did score me a date with a sorority chick, however, so there's that.

I don't have any good pictures of it, though. If you Google "Gap black leather jacket", it's the first image result.

 

[AeroFan_07]

^^ Welcome sir to Fedora Lounge!! May your wallet survive...

I am very glad to see this thread revived, and quite a few new stories coming along...keep 'em coming.

 

[handymike]

Marantz were the best!!!!

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

Marantz were the best!!!!

Ha...STILL the best(vintage)!!
Still knock the walls down and send you back in time! B

 

[dubpynchon]

Funnily enough I was just reading an article comparing a 30 year old Cyrus amp with the latest version, and there isn't much between them. I used to have a Marantz system myself, still miss the colour it'd give the music.

https://www.whathifi.com/features/was-then-mission-cyrus-two

 

[Edward]

I'd still buy a Marantz 2070 at the right price and condition - alas, they're less common in the UK than the US. For now, I have a Pioneer SX870 (if memory serves). Similar look. A little bass-heavier in the sound, which is great for the speakers (no need for a separate subwoofer or huge bass drivers). The 70s was a golden era for hifi equipment. I'm building a new system slowly around that Pioneer, along with new CD gear and a current version of a turntable not significantly changed since its 70s debut. The PIoneer, as long as I look after it will still be worth what I paid in twenty years; the CD player will probably be worth nothing!