Aero Premium Half Belt - Help for sizing

[handymike]

I agree that the jacket is too big.
Shoulders should be narrower which should make the sleeves fine. The body is too wide/ boxy for the fitted 30s HB style.
It looks more like the 50s Halfbelt to me.

 

[ProteinNerd]

Hi ProteinNerd,
Thanks for the comparison.
I have a question about the sleeves: so the Premium version is supposed to have smaller sleeve holes, with sleeves implanted higher, this is it?


I also got feedback from Aero about the width at the bottom of the jacket. It seems it will need to be tapered, as Rudie advised.

Yes the premium has higher and smaller armholes.

The whole body is significantly slimmer as well

 

[TheFrenchGuy]

Hi everybody,

Thanks for your feedbacks! I forgot the back picture, my bad! Here it is And this would have confirmed you this is a half-belt, not a Highwayman as it could have been mistaken with.
So this is a really standard premium HB.

This is hard to answer point by point to so many feedbacks, but here are a few points:

- I really have a thin body structure, some chest and back muscles, but no belly at all; then shoulders that need this 40" size. I fear a 38" would be far too narrow for my shoulders, because I fill well the upper part of the jacket. My shoulders don't swim in this 40".

- A good taper is more than needed for the lower part of the jacket (let's say, from the middle, slightly above the half-belt, to the bottom)

I should add that I was highly surprised by such a large waist width from a jacket designed to be neat, in size 40". I often have trouble finding clothes that fit my body.

I was impressed by the quality of the jacket, though.

I hope this helps! Do you think arms should be tapered too?

 

[Seb Lucas]

Yes, based on those photos the jacket does look about two sizes too large and the shoulders look too wide. It would help to try out a 38 at least to see if your worry about shoulders is valid. It took me a few years to realize that I needed much smaller sizes than what I was wearing. I need a 42 I thought I was a 46. From the picture I'd be surprised if the smaller size didn't work really well.

 

[Monitor]

Yes, based on those photos the jacket does look about two sizes too large and the shoulders look too wide. It would help to try out a 38 at least to see if your worry about shoulders is valid. It took me a few years to realize that I needed much smaller sizes than what I was wearing. I need a 42 I thought I was a 46. From the picture I'd be surprised if the smaller size didn't work really well.

+1.

I honestly don't think you need to worry about the shoulders on a 38 - they are indeed too wide on this jacket. Same as Seb Lucas, I too used to wear 44-46 while being a 42, and that's with layering in mind. I recall being obsessed with shoulder width until I realized that you can only have jackets that are too wide in the shoulders, never too narrow. I exaggerate bit perhaps, but narrow shoulders on a jacket only takes from your sleeve length, nothing more.

 

[Sloan1874]

+1 on the wearing the wrong size. For years, I thought I was a medium, mainly because of the terrible baggy fashions of the late 80s, early 90s. The day I went to a tailor who told me I was a stone-cold size 36, and should dress as such, was a very good day for me.
Really, though, for a HB, that jacket isn't even a marginal fit - it should be a relatively slim-fitting that sits higher on the waist. I'd recommend sizing down and then adding length where needed, rather than trying lop stuff off on an over-sized jacket.

 

[TheFrenchGuy]

Thanks for your feedback!
I used to wear my clothes to large, in the past. Now, I size down as far as I can! Harder to do in such conditions though. My fear is to get too tightened in it, because this is close to be the case... From measurements made on my body, I was advised a 42" initially, which would have been painful to see.

I don't have any good picture of me without the jacket, just to let you see how my body is built and balanced between belly, shoulders and so on.

 

[TheFrenchGuy]

I will consider the 38" as an alternative though, after an ultimate try-on tonight.

MAJOR EDIT (After checking again, and measuring the jacket properly):

I've been chocked by the tremendous dimensions that I measured (strongly surprising, I even wonder if there was not a mistake made on the size tag):
- 119 cm (close to 47" !!) all around the chest. This is more than the usual rule saying Size+4" in circumference
- 111 cm (43.75") all around the bottom
(Measured outside the jacket though)

Beware, the "pit-to-pit" measurements don't give a good result if you measure it between the front pit seams, since there is a large stripe of leather (10cm) between the front and back panels of the jacket. This is also why I misunderstood the chest/waist measurements that were provided to me by Aero.

I've been abused by the stiffness of the jacket, for not seeing that there was way too much leather that it should be on the chest. Everywhere else, I noticed it, but the chest/shoulder part confused me. Maybe this is all this extra leather, creasing under the arms, that made me think I didn't have enough room, paradoxically.

Usually, I'm used to 40" (previously 38").
Now, the right choice is between 36" and 38"... I might go for 38" because of the thickness of the layer.

Thank you so much for opening my eyes!

I'll try to provide a small sizing guide for forumers interested in this jacket design, with main dimensions.