Vintage Finnish Leather Jackets

[Gambetto]

What a great post. These jackets are really fantastic. Very cool designs. Thanks for sharing. Wish some of them were real jackets for sale still! I really like the creative front pockets on a few of them and the ladies look very sexy!

 

[Stephen1948]

Is it horsehide? Friitala jacket

Is it horsehide?
Can't upload image is there a restriction, seems to work but doesn't post it....??

 

[Mangrove]

Is it horsehide?

Do you have a photograph of a Friitala jacket? As I mentioned before, Friitala only marketed sheepskin jackets but made them also from horsehide if specially ordered. However all the photographs I have posted on this thread are from "the list" and thus made out of sheepskin.

 

[trapp]

What an interesting thread. Love those old photos--the type that make you wish you lived in another time.

 

[alsendk]

Great Jackets, and these finnish female models look stunningly beautiful...especially the model wearing the long jacket in pic no3
Actually it has always been known in Scandinavia, that finnish girls are special

 

[Mangrove]

However I found a bit of information that the Finnish Defence Forces used also horsehide jackets during the early 1930s. It is likely that these were made specially for the Army by Friitala.

Helsinki Truck Company used these jackets and posted a report based on their experiences in December 1934. They found out that the disadvantages were greater than the advantages and recommended not to order more of these jackets.

Advantages:
1) Elegant.
2) Morale booster.
3) Wind and greaseproof.

Disadvantages:
1) Hot during summer and cold during winter.
2) Cannot be washed due of the fixed lining, i.e. is unhygienic.
3) Thick leather inhibits movement due of the "cut to fit" anatomy of the jacket. Should be loose on the shoulders and have a low-cut collar.

The Finnish submarine crews also had their own leather uniform but unfortunately I have not seen any museum examples nor photographs of these uniforms.

 

[Mangrove]

An additional winter coat photograph.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

No, you got that right. That was my first thought too.

Is it just more, or is this a bit Tom of Finland?

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Nah, an awful lot of the early British ones are like No.2. Differing in the pockets, typically, but the cut and shortness is the same.

Lovely jackets! #2 looks very much like a denim trucker jacket - I'm surprised by this, as I have to admit I'd always thought that leather jackets in this style and cut only appeared in the Eighties!

 

[Mangrove]

Two of Friitala's 1950s production models.

 

[Big Bertie]

Very interesting - it suggests a quite affluent society before the war.

 

[Metatron]

Interesting how photographs like these give you a completely fresh perspective on history. That of the everyday normal things, and perhaps unimportant quirks that the history books mostly ignore.

 

[injunjack]

Finnish M/C racing jacket from late 50's early 60's
(posted on another forum long time ago)

 

[laukkanenJr]

an old Friitalan jacket

I just had a jacket passed down to me and stumbled upon this thread while I was searching online for information on Friitalan jackets. It seems like this is the right place for me to discuss vintage clothing! Here is the coat that made its way to me. I need to have it cleaned and a small hole in the sleeve repaired to get it ready for this winter.

 

[Mangrove]

A rather poor shot of one type of black leather jacket used by some of the Finnish Air Force pilots during the Continuation War. To best of my knowledge, these were not issued by the FiAF but bought by the pilots themselves from Friitala.

 

[Mangrove]

A few more. I would say the two most common jackets were either single-breasted with two breast pockets or double-breasted one with two breast pockets and two smaller pockets.

 

[majormajor]

Now, that IS nice......

 

[Grayland]

Wow, that is beautiful! Look at the thickness of the leather. Obviously made with that holster configuration in mind as the small flap pockets beneath the holster belt suggest.

 

[majormajor]

Here's a single breasted/zippered version from earlier in this thread. Inspiration!!

 

[Edward]

Now, that IS nice......

I love this one. Similar to some of the designs we now see reproduced as "Luftwaffe jackets".