Fine Creek Leather

Monitor said:

It looks like a poor Lewis Leathers knock-off, done by someone who doesn't understand what they're doing and why they're doing it, and all they know is that they hate making leather jackets and would rather sell properties. Motorcycle jacket at a choir coat length - Why even keep the waist straps if they'll sit at your hips!? Zippered sleeves that don't work. Mediocre, flat looking leather.

All in all, the jacket fits you okay for something you bought in Zara during a 2016 spring sale. Otherwise, if they paid me 2000 GBP, how much this must have cost, to wear it for one full year, I honestly would've said no, thank you.

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+1
This is a street fashion jacket completely missed the mark. This jacket is unsuitable for motorcycling. I f there is possibility to return the jacket, I would go with. I think that even a size smaller will not help this jacket will be suitable for motorcycling

Monitor said:

It looks like a poor Lewis Leathers knock-off, done by someone who doesn't understand what they're doing and why they're doing it, and all they know is that they hate making leather jackets and would rather sell properties. Motorcycle jacket at a choir coat length - Why even keep the waist straps if they'll sit at your hips!? Zippered sleeves that don't work. Mediocre, flat looking leather.

All in all, the jacket fits you okay for something you bought in Zara during a 2016 spring sale. Otherwise, if they paid me 2000 GBP, how much this must have cost, to wear it for one full year, I honestly would've said no, thank you.

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This is spot on

ton312 said:

^good call. Looks too big, awkwardly wide the forearm/wrist, and too long. Use this as a fit jacket and return it for something closer to your desired spec. These jackets are not priced for compromise.

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100% agree. At this price point, it has to be damn near perfect. If it isn't, go spend the money on a maker who does get it right.

TG3 said:

100% agree. At this price point, it has to be damn near perfect. If it isn't, go spend the money on a maker who does get it right.

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This jacket is a size too big. And that's the issue with FC. They cut a great jacket for a specific body type. But when they cut a jacket to intentionally fit other body types (e.g. standard US/Europe body type) they can't seem to maintain the design without botching the sizing.

This jacket style is designed to fit a very slim but tall 44. So I'd say either get a 42 and commit to slimming down so you can zip the jacket, OR, get an Aero and have it cut to your specific measurements. You can get an off the rack Real McCoy or Iron Heart but you're going to still struggle to find the perfect fit.

TLDR - FC doesn't know how to cut a jacket to fit average height athletic builds. Their jackets, like many Japanese designers, cut a very tapered jacket and then just add length to the sleeves/back to accommodate taller customers.

Monitor said:

It looks like a poor Lewis Leathers knock-off, done by someone who doesn't understand what they're doing and why they're doing it, and all they know is that they hate making leather jackets and would rather sell properties. Motorcycle jacket at a choir coat length - Why even keep the waist straps if they'll sit at your hips!? Zippered sleeves that don't work. Mediocre, flat looking leather.

All in all, the jacket fits you okay for something you bought in Zara during a 2016 spring sale. Otherwise, if they paid me 2000 GBP, how much this must have cost, to wear it for one full year, I honestly would've said no, thank you.

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I wonder if by your logic, the IH denim jackets would be a poor knock off of Levi's and Lee seeing that many complained about the cut and returned their jackets.
I don't own any FCL and don't plan on buying one. I just don't understand all the hate on FCL and all the love for IH when both seem to be selling botched copies of classic designs.

Blackadder said:

I wonder if by your logic, the IH denim jackets would be a poor knock off of Levi's and Lee seeing that many complained about the cut and returned their jackets.
I don't own any FCL and don't plan on buying one. I just don't understand all the hate on FCL and all the love for IH when both seem to be selling botched copies of classic designs.

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I don't hate FCL at all. I'm probably the only person actively posting their... Can't recall what they named it but you know, that Schott Perfecto copy, in the Jackets Owned by Others thread and I don't hate any maker. I do however strongly dislike bad jackets that are being sold for a lot of money and this is a prime example of one. Sizing issues are the least of the problems with it. It's just a piss poor product that costs 2000 USD and people buy it only because of that little tag on the back of the neck.

Of course Iron Heart is a Levi's knock off to the extent Levi's had to step in and say guys at least just change the back pocket decoration to something else for crying out loud, but IH makes a good product. They've also had a few flukes (that Storm Rider was a disaster) but in general, IH's jackets and pants are great products and IH sticks to the original patterns, which is what people often whine about. Oh, oh, my Type-3 isn't covering my ass, it's too short and stretching the pattern came with another set of people, whining about how it's no longer accurate.

This is simply a crappy jacket. Look at the sleeve on Jroddious' jacket! Although zipped, they at the same time still somehow actually flare out! That's a definition of a junk, cheap jacket and you literally could be better off buying something from Zara.

...come to think of it, why exactly are so many people willing to drop high street fashion money on amateurs trying to get into high street fashion?
If you're spending several thousands of monies on what is primarily fashion leather jacket, get one done by professionals who really know what they're doing.
Here, essentially the same style, done by YSL. Fits great! Would wear.

Just heading out for a stroll in my high fashion Zara jacket

Monitor said:

This is simply a crappy jacket. Look at the sleeve on Jroddious' jacket! Although zipped, they at the same time still somehow actually flare out! That's a definition of a junk, cheap jacket and you literally could be better off buying something from Zara.

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@Monitor , I genuinely respect you, but the foregoing is simply not sound logic. FCL made a design choice to employ wider sleeve ends on this model and certain others. I personally do not care for the wider sleeve ends and, therefore, I narrowed my sleeves. That said, wider sleeves ends are not, by any stretch of the imagination, the "definition of junk, cheap jacket." Rather, it is merely a design choice by the manufacturer. FCL jackets are very well made, including the wider sleeve ends. The leather tailor who narrowed my sleeves, and specializes in leather jackets, commented on the stellar construction that he had to replicate. You may not like the design -- neither do I -- but characterizing a jacket as the "definition of junk" and "cheap" simply because you do not like the wide sleeves is, IMHO, not well taken and a non-sequitur.

Monitor said:

anything over 300 GBP is a scam.

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Definition of scam: "a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scam

If someone else posted this preposterous suggestion, I would assume that they were being facetious. However, given your other posts in this thread, it appears that you are dead serious. According to your logic, anyone who purchases a new leather jacket from anywhere but Zara is getting scammed. That is 95+% of this community. Moreover, by this same logic, FL, LW, Aero, Schott, Vanson, and even Five Star are scammers who scam each and every customer that pays over $300 GBP for their jackets. I respectfully disagree.

I'll say it again @Monitor: I respect you immensely. That said, your shock and awe style of posting, rife with ad hominem characterizations -- "scam" and "junk" -- can be off-putting. It would be much more respectful and palatable to simply state your preference for a different style and/or your election not to exceed certain pricing, without going over-the-top with "scam" and "junk" labels that indirectly disparage those who purchased the "junk" and, according to you, got "scammed" in the process. Just a humble observation from someone who is likewise trying to remove the course edges from his posts.

As a salute to your sharp criticism of the "junk" produced by the "scammers" at FCL, I took a quick photo of my FCL Tyler for your visual enjoyment. Feel free to avert your eyes.

I'm going to back up @Superfluous here. It is well known that I am absolutely not a fan of this brand, but as much as I greatly dislike their wider sleeves, it doesn't make the entire jacket junk. Is it part of a bigger issue of their designs and patterns being extremely questionable? In my OPINION, yes it does, but the jackets I handled were well made (not the best IMO, but still excellent) and they certainly are not a scam. Heck, if they were a scam, they would at least charge more than Freewheelers, wouldn't they?

Yeah, you guys are right. I wanted to get entirely different & not even related to how it turned out, point across but obviously failed. Y'all know who's the only person on TFL posting FCL pics in Post Pics of Jackets etc. thread so clearly, I do not hate the maker. I hate bastardizations by any brand, though and that's what that jacket is. Being passionate about jackets also means I a purist in that regard & I strongly believe that if you're copying a certain style, don't change to what it's not supposed to be 'cause then you end up with... Well, the jacket in question! Either come up with your own style or don't fix what ain't broken. Look at what their Vanson Sportrider knock-off ended up looking like - Tho I see some people on Styleforum buying (into) that shit as well so I dunno. . .

I was harsh because I just wanted the dude who asked about the jacket to return it because it's honestly not a good jacket nor a good look for him, that's all and that's a truckload of money to waste on something that's not doing him any favors at all. It's a bad fitting jacket on him and when it comes to 1700GBP price tag, honesty is the only option.

Your jacket came out great, @Superfluous but you still had to alter the sleeves to get it right. Seriously, why didn't you get LL? I know, Shinki, but is that really the reason? LL guarantees you best fit on the market while you had additional expenses to get another brand closer to the original; ie. sleeve openings narrowing. I'm all for such alterations of course, don't get me wrong but I'm not sure I'd ever deliberately go with a brand that I know doesn't make it right. And there is a right way to do it, which is, the way you've had your jacket altered 'cause you could see the sleeves looked stupid out of the box yourself.

Having non-operational sleeve zippers - Or decorative sleeve zippers, if you will - even as a design choice is a step closer to what we're all tryina get away. We've had plenty of that crap on mall jackets, which is what got us into this hobby. You wanted a good jacket! I did, too. And it looks to me, some design choices lately are steering things toward what we were trying to change in the first place.

There are two sides to every coin of course, which is why I brought up Zara and H&M, as thanks to heritage revival, big companies has upped their game to and are actually producing fantastic stuff nowadays and that's why I do kind of believe it doesn't really pay off paying Zara money for any other, brand new leather jacket by any maker, be it Aero, FCL or Schott, because frankly, I can't really keep pretending anymore that I know exactly what I'm getting for all the extra money I throw into it.

Aah, sorry for the train of thought but y'know, I just keep thinking about it and can't find an answer that makes me happy...

Tl;dr; I was harsh so that Jrrodius doesn't keep the jacket that doesn't fit him & I love FCL. I mean, this shit can't possibly fit or look any better. . .

Monitor said:

...come to think of it, why exactly are so many people willing to drop high street fashion money on amateurs trying to get into high street fashion?
If you're spending several thousands of monies on what is primarily fashion leather jacket, get one done by professionals who really know what they're doing.
Here, essentially the same style, done by YSL. Fits great! Would wear.

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2000 bucks will only get you two Dolce and Gabbana hoodies. That YSL leather jacket will cost you two FCL. Any high fashion brand leather jackets will set you back at least USD 4000 unless you are able to get them from their warehouse sale.
Agree that the more recent FCL jackets look weird because of the added length but as you said there are more fashion oriented people who would be into these style.
As for LL MTO, I have to say MTO is not for everyone. Especially for someone who has a round body type. Both Dude and Super have had MTO jackets that came back a disaster. Makers usually follow a standard proportion following a mode in the population so they would be right most of the time (reason why Carlos does not have to care about the shoulder width while some others have to take that into account.) MTO makers can take in an inch or two of the chest shorten the sleeves a bit but they usually don't do well with proportion e.g. they generally would not tighten the armhole or taper the sleeves accordingly. You need a tailor for that sort of alteration. So you would end up having to take your MTO to a tailor like you would do so with a RTW jacket. What's more is you cannot return a MTO jacket.
As for Zara, I have a few Zara leather jackets I bought years ago but Zara don't make leather jackets anymore, they are using PU now which will start to disintegrate in your wardrobe after a year. The last real leather jacket I have seen at those shops is a H&M highwayman replica but that was 2-3 years ago. AFAIK Zara has not been making any real leather stuffs for almost 10 years.

Blackadder said:

2000 bucks will only get you two Dolce and Gabbana hoodies. That YSL leather jacket will cost you two FCL. Any high fashion brand leather jackets will set you back at least USD 4000 unless you are able to get them from their warehouse sale.

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Yeah, you're right & I know but what I said before, I don't see what would possibly make you stop to consider YSL too pricey if you've got enough $ to drop on FCL or Freewheelers or Himel. Even Aero's pushing it but if you have $2K to pay for a leather jacket, price tags kind of stop having any meaning whatsoever. Maybe I'm wrong, looking from a perspective of someone who's relatively poor but y'know... Two FCL's or one YSL. Not much difference, in reality.

Monitor said:

Yeah, you're right & I know but what I said before, I don't see what would possibly make you stop to consider YSL too pricey if you've got enough $ to drop on FCL or Freewheelers or Himel. Even Aero's pushing it but if you have $2K to pay for a leather jacket, price tags kind of stop having any meaning whatsoever. Maybe I'm wrong, looking from a perspective of someone who's relatively poor but y'know... Two FCL's or one YSL. Not much difference, in reality.

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People will always have different values. It does not have to make any sense to everyone. Does it make sense to you if I stop and think about getting a bottle of 30 dollars wine or one costing 60 dollars? How about a 2 dollars' bottle of beer or one costing 4 bucks?

Monitor said:

I don't hate FCL at all. I'm probably the only person actively posting their... Can't recall what they named it but you know, that Schott Perfecto copy, in the Jackets Owned by Others thread and I don't hate any maker. I do however strongly dislike bad jackets that are being sold for a lot of money and this is a prime example of one. Sizing issues are the least of the problems with it. It's just a piss poor product that costs 2000 USD and people buy it only because of that little tag on the back of the neck.

Of course Iron Heart is a Levi's knock off to the extent Levi's had to step in and say guys at least just change the back pocket decoration to something else for crying out loud, but IH makes a good product. They've also had a few flukes (that Storm Rider was a disaster) but in general, IH's jackets and pants are great products and IH sticks to the original patterns, which is what people often whine about. Oh, oh, my Type-3 isn't covering my ass, it's too short and stretching the pattern came with another set of people, whining about how it's no longer accurate.

This is simply a crappy jacket. Look at the sleeve on Jroddious' jacket! Although zipped, they at the same time still somehow actually flare out! That's a definition of a junk, cheap jacket and you literally could be better off buying something from Zara.

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One of the ironies to me is the tag, but I'm maybe backwards to some. I strive for quality and I'll gladly pay for it but I don't want to pay extra for the tag on the back of the neck just for the name. More than that though, I don't want to pay for a label on the outside. While the Lewis Leathers jackets look wonderful, and I would probably buy a Dominator with a stand collar, the tag right on the chest is such a turnoff to me. I also wouldn't ask a high quality maker like LL to take their name off of their product either.

Moontanning said:

One of the ironies to me is the tag, but I'm maybe backwards to some. I strive for quality and I'll gladly pay for it but I don't want to pay extra for the tag on the back of the neck just for the name. More than that though, I don't want to pay for a label on the outside. While the Lewis Leathers jackets look wonderful, and I would probably buy a Dominator with a stand collar, the tag right on the chest is such a turnoff to me. I also wouldn't ask a high quality maker like LL to take their name off of their product either.

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At first I felt the same about the LL label. But now that I own one I have become to appreciate the label as part of the overall jacket design and I think a Lewis Leathers would look odd without the label. I've heard that it's possible to get one without the label when ordering from their London store, but personally I wouldn't want one without it.

There's a dedicated thread about the LL label :

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/lewis-leathers-logo.93769/

Hello. I own a few higher end jackets and some lower end jackets. In my opinion the item that trumps everything and determines how much I will wear any jacket is FIT!

I like my fine creek type 3 a lot. Great grab and go jacket. Now here’s a crappy picture of me in a great looking and well made jacket.

RL204 said:

In my opinion the item that trumps everything and determines how much I will wear any jacket is FIT!

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100%. I’ve become the champion of lower end gear based solely on this sentiment.

Monitor said:

Tl;dr; I was harsh so that Jrrodius doesn't keep the jacket that doesn't fit him & I love FCL. I mean, this shit can't possibly fit or look any better. . .

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I love this jacket, slanted chest pockets are exactly where I want it, the shoulder drop exactly how I want it, and the zip even starts exactly where I want it

some other models are just weird elongated not very proportional, like the guy open a jacket picture in photoshop, make a square selection on the mid torso area after the armpit, and just vertically scale from mid torso down 120% longer, like that vanson replica and the one on previous page

so the guy who model it wear his jeans supper sagging hiphop style, making his torso to look super long, and all the thickness of his jeans waist band + his belt is at his widest part of his pelvic area no wonder they cut mid thigh most of their promotional pics giving illusion these jacket is worn by a tall dude. and no wonder they have hip flare in their longer design since it has to accommodate all that jeans waistband, belt, perhaps long wallet under the jacket

Supe's jacket looks 150% better after cuff mod, non functioning decorative sleeve cuff work for women's fashion jacket, but looks bad on men's jacket imo