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How do you decide when it's time to sell a jacket?

Doctor Damage

I'll Lock Up
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4,318
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Ontario
They're only jackets ... bits of stitched dead animal that we hang off our shoulders .... and not really that important TBH ( and certainly not "ART" as some would have us believe) but that's just MHO.
Oh that's a harsh post... you're lucky this is an online bulletin board, not a real-world one, or someone might jam a push pin into your finger or something! ha ha
 

Doctor Damage

I'll Lock Up
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4,318
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Ontario
I tend to wear the sh*t out of one item for year or a few, then sideline it. I just did that with my fav old trench coat: I've been wearing it every winter, all winter, for the past five or six years, getting it quite dirty in the process. I just had it dry cleaned and have now put it into the closet. It's still in great condition, but it's time to wear something else for a few years. I had a nomex CWU 45P jacket a few years back I wore all winter for a year, but then sold it to someone. Right now I've got a couple of Burberry raincoats, one with liner, which I figure I'm going to wear constantly for the next few years, then... well, we'll see what I do with them.
 

nick123

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6,371
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California
Saying a jacket can't be "art" is kinda odd. Of course it can be. Just because one wears it doesn't mean it's not capable of being classified as such. So, to make the night fun while I setup a new server, what is "art"???

If I recall from Art Appreciation 101, balance is central to much of fine art. In the case of jackets, balance is similarly a central focus. Heavier components in a piece, such as buttons or pockets, serve to give a piece its visual weight, by disrupting a large space of leather; ie front panel.
 
Messages
17,468
Location
Chicago
Saying a jacket can't be "art" is kinda odd. Of course it can be. Just because one wears it doesn't mean it's not capable of being classified as such. So, to make the night fun while I setup a new server, what is "art"???

I'm my eye, ART is anything that can be appreciated for its intrinsic value, function or beauty, whatever that might be. One could easily argue that anything and everything is art. Art is a point of view, a way in which you view and interpret the entirety of everything you encounter. Art is what you assign it to be. Is a nut and bolt not a work of art?

Now, don't bogart that joint my friend. Pass it over to me.[/QUOTE]
 
Messages
11,133
Location
SoCal
My neighbor called a Goodwill truck, and my wife has been going through the garage trying to help make the haul bigger. I went theough my closet too, and gave away lots of stuff... The upstairs one- not the downstairs one in the office that smells so good :)
So, I guess for now my jackets are all present and accounted for.
 

El Marro

My Mail is Forwarded Here
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3,581
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California
As much time as I spend reading, writing, and talking about jackets you better believe I see artistic value in many of the jackets we discuss here. I will concede that most of these jackets were originally designed to serve a purely functional purpose, be it protection during a motorcycle crash or just to keep from freezing. Some jackets though, such as the A2 and the Buco J-100, are so elegantly designed that we appreciate them for much more than their original purpose or function. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say.
 

jonesy86

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4,610
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Kauai
I only have one jacket. But am already planning, and looking for a second, or third. My issue is who am I going to leave them to in my will. Only had girls.
 

AeroFan_07

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5,659
Location
Iowa
Having One Time been in the house of a true horder (couple), let's just say the Butte is exactly correct in what he mentions in his post a while back. Looking at toothbrushes more than 20 years old still in the toothbrush holder at the sink in the only bathroom in thier house is, well, a perspective altering experance. That was only one tiny fraction of what I saw in a 5-minuite time in thier house, and it was far more than enough. :eek:
 

Seb Lucas

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7,562
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Australia
Saying a jacket can't be "art" is kinda odd. Of course it can be. Just because one wears it doesn't mean it's not capable of being classified as such. So, to make the night fun while I setup a new server, what is "art"???

Jeez - big question. Well my view is that people are pretty loose about what art is and tend use the word whenever they really like something - "It's so good, it's a work of art." I personally don't think this means that something is art. Generally when referring to a jacket you are talking about a craft. A great craft in the case of Aero especially Goodwear. It is artfully made craft, but not art as such. And nor does it need to be art to be a great object. Perhaps some of the paintings on the back of A2's qualify as art. But even the word art is not much of a recommendation in itself. There is a lot of bad or mediocre art. In fact most of it, probably. In my view great art tends to be bold, vital, fresh and challenging. Very little art is that. But let's face it, the whole question, What is art? is a essentially a matter of opinion or ideology.
 

Plumbline

One Too Many
Messages
1,271
Location
UK
Saying a jacket can't be "art" is kinda odd. Of course it can be. Just because one wears it doesn't mean it's not capable of being classified as such. So, to make the night fun while I setup a new server, what is "art"???

To my mind I can appreciate good form but it should never supersede function ( I'm an engineer ... sorry :) ) The Ducati 916 is a stunning looking motorcycle however it's form is superceded by it's functional capability (albeit only just given the reliability and servicing issues - yes I did own one :( ) ..... and I see little artistic value in it as an item (though I appreciate others do and hang pictures of it on their wall or have actual bikes in their living rooms). Now I'm not putting a motorcycle or a leather jacket on my wall too look at and appreciate - this is at a very basic level my personal perspective on "ART".

Leather jackets are nice to look at and wear. I can appreciate the endeavor and skill in manufacture in the same way as I can appreciate a well built machine or a nice piece of furniture or a well made suit or a nice pair of shoes or a well cooked dinner .... but that doesn't make these things "ART". Socrates and Plato define it as ART as " Imitation of nature" " Imitation of things as they are" so maybe just reproduction jackets are ART though my Goodwear A2 or Aero ANJ-4 do little to imitate a horse or a sheep and I still think the original animal is a much better functional item than the resulting product :) :) :) :)
 

Thuggee

Practically Family
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900
Location
Australia
Personally if it fits and looks good It's a keeper, any doubts about the fit or how I think it looks on me (who really cares at the end of the day but yourself !!! ) it's gone


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,060
Location
London, UK
Art, like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Some people appreciate the finer details, others just want a traditional Last Supper with Twelve Disciples and one Chirst....


As much time as I spend reading, writing, and talking about jackets you better believe I see artistic value in many of the jackets we discuss here. I will concede that most of these jackets were originally designed to serve a purely functional purpose, be it protection during a motorcycle crash or just to keep from freezing. Some jackets though, such as the A2 and the Buco J-100, are so elegantly designed that we appreciate them for much more than their original purpose or function. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say.

I finde a certain beauty in utility. The Fender Stratocaster, for instance - there's nothing in the design of that guitar that wasn't added for utilitarian reasons (even the original custom colours had a practical purpose: the bodies used for guitars ordered with one of those were typically ones where the standard instrument finish of the day - sunburst - had gone wrong, andc they were set aside to be oversprayed with solid colours later on), and yet it's undeniably a thing of beauty in and of itself as an end result.

I only have one jacket. But am already planning, and looking for a second, or third. My issue is who am I going to leave them to in my will. Only had girls.

Girls can't wear leather?
 
Messages
11,363
Location
Alabama
I don't often post in the jacket threads as I don't have much to add but i do enjoy reading them, especially when the conversations go off on a tangent, as this one has. I'm often thankful that the jacket bug hasn't bitten me as I already have other obsessions that keep my pockets empty. I do have a couple of a2's that I enjoy, though I wouldn't consider either of them art. Both are production jackets. One mans art is another's junk, I guess. It's all so subjective.

I have given some consideration to the form vs function thought. I collect cowboy boots and I own some that I just consider functional footwear and never give them a second thought when I wear them and others that when I wear them I worry about every step, thinking if I scuff them up I'll have a come-apart. I think of these jacket and boot makers as craftsmen who must surely have an artist's eye to conceive of these designs and an artist's hand to apply that conception to leather and thread to turn it into something functional. Is it art? Not for me to say. What I perceive as art is more a feeling for me than anything.

Here is a pair of my boots that I handle and admire more often than I wear them. Don't know if they're art but they're artfully done. D. W. Frommer two piece (wellington) in French calf.
CIMG3508.JPG
 

Fanch

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,490
Location
Texas
I don't often post in the jacket threads as I don't have much to add but i do enjoy reading them, especially when the conversations go off on a tangent, as this one has. I'm often thankful that the jacket bug hasn't bitten me as I already have other obsessions that keep my pockets empty. I do have a couple of a2's that I enjoy, though I wouldn't consider either of them art. Both are production jackets. One mans art is another's junk, I guess. It's all so subjective.

I have given some consideration to the form vs function thought. I collect cowboy boots and I own some that I just consider functional footwear and never give them a second thought when I wear them and others that when I wear them I worry about every step, thinking if I scuff them up I'll have a come-apart. I think of these jacket and boot makers as craftsmen who must surely have an artist's eye to conceive of these designs and an artist's hand to apply that conception to leather and thread to turn it into something functional. Is it art? Not for me to say. What I perceive as art is more a feeling for me than anything.

Here is a pair of my boots that I handle and admire more often than I wear them. Don't know if they're art but they're artfully done. D. W. Frommer two piece (wellington) in French calf.
View attachment 86447
Interesting discussion. Living in Texas, I also have a collection of handmade cowboy boots. IMO the boots above are both well-crafted and artistic with the inlays toward the upper end of the tops, which inlays can sometimes double of even triple the cost of the boots as the inlays are time/labor intensive. The riding heels and narrow toes are also functional for horseback. With boots the most critical factor though is fit, even more so than with jackets, as ill fitting boots can absolutely ruin your feet. So, @Seb Lucas point is well taken regarding craftmanship, although the other factor af art form should not be overlooked.
 

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