Two-tone Goodwear Arcadia Idea

[Deleted member 16736]

My turn in line is fast approaching and I'll need to give John my order details pretty soon. As of now, I'm down to two jackets: one conservative and one "out there." My conservative order would be a Monarch A-2 in seal brown horsehide. Rotated inset sleeves and a slim profile make it more civilian in appearance than other A-2's, which I like.

The "out there" jacket is a two-tone Arcadia with the front, back, and sleeves made from light russet horsehide and the small bits -- collar, pocket welts, half cuffs, and half belt -- all made from seal brown horsehide. I thought the seal would offset the light russet nicely. Although I think it would look cool, it also might be a bit too flashy. I was hoping to get some opinions from the Lounge on this one. You have to use your imagination.

Here's the Arcadia front in seal:

http://www.goodwearleather.com/photos/Californian_Arcadia_No1_42/Arcadia.jpg

And back:

http://www.goodwearleather.com/photos/Californian_Arcadia_No1_42/reverse_view1.jpg

And samples of both horsehide:

http://www.goodwearleather.com/pages/leather.html

Thanks for your opinions.

 

[tonypaj]

My imagination is gone for this week, Friday night coming It would be great if you (or anyone) could photoshop it, if at all possible.

 

[Mojo1975]

My turn in line is fast approaching and I'll need to give John my order details pretty soon. As of now, I'm down to two jackets: one conservative and one "out there." My conservative order would be a Monarch A-2 in seal brown horsehide. Rotated inset sleeves and a slim profile make it more civilian in appearance than other A-2's, which I like.

The "out there" jacket is a two-tone Arcadia with the front, back, and sleeves made from light russet horsehide and the small bits -- collar, pocket welts, half cuffs, and half belt -- all made from seal brown horsehide. I thought the seal would offset the light russet nicely. Although I think it would look cool, it also might be a bit too flashy. I was hoping to get some opinions from the Lounge on this one. You have to use your imagination.

Here's the Arcadia front in seal:

http://www.goodwearleather.com/photos/Californian_Arcadia_No1_42/Arcadia.jpg

And back:

http://www.goodwearleather.com/photos/Californian_Arcadia_No1_42/reverse_view1.jpg

And samples of both horsehide:

http://www.goodwearleather.com/pages/leather.html

Thanks for your opinions.

The two-tone jackets are spectacular! Insurrection is having Aero make one of our customers a black and brown FQHH Slimfit Two-Tone Bootlegger with Insurrection fit specifications derived from our vintage collection! The key on these is fit...you've gotta get it spot-on!!!

The left breast pocket will be moved farther to the left for a more aesthetically pleasing welted chest pocket...

 

[tonypaj]

The one above looks excellent to me... Got me thinking, which is bad.

 

[Deleted member 16736]

Can't do photoshop, but here's a nice two-tone. Not as nice the one Insurrection posted. Nice.

http://rivet-head.blogspot.com/2011/05/1930s-horsehide-harley-davidson-riders.html

 

[Deleted member 16736]

Mojo's jacket has me thinking about a Mojave in dark seal and light russet goatskin...

 

[Graemsay]

Mister Freedom do a two tone Cafe Racer-ish sort of thing.

And this one came off The Art of Vintage Leather Jackets blog, which I believe is written by our very own Himelator.

Colours aside, it's not a million miles from what you're proposing.

I'd be half tempted to go for a two-tone. The A2 is a bit of an obvious choice, and that jacket could be much more of a personal statement. It'd probably tone down a bit with wear too.

Wade, that two tone Bootlegger sounds as though it'll be spectacular when it's done. I like the back design, but would be tempted to add a Pioneer style gusset to it. Please post pictures when it arrives.

 

[Cooperson]

Arcadia in seal would be my choice. Two tone jackets just don't appeal to me for some reason.

 

[Deleted member 16736]

Thanks for your replies. I think a Mojave in dark seal/light russet goatskin is starting to appeal to me the more I think about it. Here's a picture of the Mojave:

http://www.goodwearleather.com/photos/Californian_Mojave_No1_46/front_view2.jpg

http://www.goodwearleather.com/photos/Californian_Mojave_No1_46/reverse_view2.jpg

You make the front and back light russet goat. You make the sleeves, collar, pocket welts and yoke dark seal goat. What do you all think?

 

[pauleway]

I like the Arcadia style. The only thing I would do different is on the collar.I would have Seal Brown on the Under-Collar and the Top Light Russet. I am also a big fan of the goatskin!

 

[Graemsay]

Here's the photo of the front of the Mojave.

I've tweaked Wade's jacket with my limited GIMP skills to have darker pocket welts.

And, as a bonus, here's a two tone Aero Ricky. This is one of my favourite Aero designs.

I think that you'd need to break up the front panel of the Mojave, as per Wade's. My instinct would be to retain the hand warmer pockets, but lose the chest pockets.

The back panel is already broken up, so that would be straightforward.

If you want more inspiration Lost Worlds do a few two tone jackets. I had a bit of a dig around their website and found the examples of the Trojan, Roadmaster, and Easy Ryder that went in for that look. There are a couple more in the sales section.

 

[handymike]

I've always thought the Arcadia was a stellar jacket, but if you're gonna go two tone, go big like that vintage shot, not just the trimmings ;-)

 

[Deleted member 16736]

Thanks. That LW Trojan jacket is interesting. I could go dark seal with russet pocket welts and back panels (b/w halfbelt and yoke). Or I could even go russet on just the two outside panels and dark seal on the middle one.

 

[Graemsay]

This jacket is (I believe) owned by another FL member. Might be another way to go.

I think that keeping it simple makes sense. It'll be easy to go completely over the top (and not in a good way), but get it right (and there are a few examples) and it could be awesome.

I'd suggest running things past John Chapman too, as he might have other ideas. If you're lucky then he'll be bored by the endless A2 requests, and relish doing something different.

 

[Graemsay]

Another suggest. Take a Good Wear Ventura.

Add a Western style yoke on the front, and (optionally) remove the chest pocket and wrist straps. This is roughly what I'm thinking, but with a zip.

Then split the colours up with seal sleeves and yoke, and russet below, as per the Ricky.

 

[Deleted member 16736]

These are all interesting suggestions. I doubt John would put a yoke on his Ventura. He doesn't like playing with the pattern. I agree it would look cool.

I found this dark seal horsehide on his website. Maybe I can play off the dark seal HH with his light russet. The contrast is greater than it is with the regular seal brown.

http://www.goodwearleather.com/star_darkseal/pocket.jpg

http://www.goodwearleather.com/pages/gwrw1401p_images3.html

 

[Graemsay]

The thing to do would be to ask John to see what modifications could be done to a pattern. I've got a feeling that he's more open to tweaks on a civilian than on a military jacket. But splitting up panels would involve a certain amount of surgery.

If you're sticking to the original panels then you're going to be restricted to something along the lines of the Trojan.

The dark and light horsehides would be a good option. There are also light russet and dark seal goat skins.

 

[Deleted member 16736]

The thing to do would be to ask John to see what modifications could be done to a pattern. I've got a feeling that he's more open to tweaks on a civilian than on a military jacket. But splitting up panels would involve a certain amount of surgery.

If you're sticking to the original panels then you're going to be restricted to something along the lines of the Trojan.

The dark and light horsehides would be a good option. There are also light russet and dark seal goat skins.

I noted the light russet and dark seal goatskin higher up in the thread. They are beautiful. I've handled the light russet and it's thick goat with a very even and durable finish. When it gets wet, it spots, but very quickly disappears. The seal HH will show those spots for days and days.

On the Mojave front, I'd do the pocket welts in light russet and the rest in dark seal. On the Mojave back, I'd do the yoke in dark seal, the three-panel section in light russet, the halfbelt in dark seal again, and the bottom piece in light russet. I like the way the opposing colors break it apart and highlight the different sections.

 

[Deleted member 16736]

Another option on the Mojave back would be to stagger the panels: dark-russet-dark or russet-dark-russet. I want the secondary color to offset the primary color, not compete with it, or as other posters have said, it would be jarring.

What do you think of these configuration?

Front:

Dark seal with russet pocket welts

Back #1:

Top - dark seal
Panels - dark-russet-dark
Halfbelt - dark
Bottom - russet

Alternately, I can reverse the halfbelt and bottom to create a "tombstone" effect:

Back #2
Top - dark seal
Panels - dark-russet-dark
Halfbelt - russet
Bottom - dark seal

Back #3: just make the middle panel russet and everything else dark seal.

Back #4:

Top - dark seal
Panels - all russet
Halfbelt - russet
Bottom - dark seal


I just made stick figure drawings of the different options and the nicest in my view is the last, Back #4: top and bottom dark seal and the panels and halfbelt russet.

 

[Graemsay]

I'd go with either back #2 or back #4.

I've just found this jacket via Google. It's a bit more subtle than the one Wade posted earlier, but might give you other ideas.