Ask a Question, Get An Answer About Outerwear

[aorange]

So it'll turn a sort of grey/black color similar to how black wash jeans will fade?

 

[LeatherHunter]

Question on my mind. What are your thoughts on jackets that have the expanding leather at the bottom of the jacket like the one pictured. It has always reminded me of like a 1980’s style and I always dismissed a jacket if it had this. Now, I see jackets that I otherwise like and I am warming to the accordion style.

 

[Zoro]

I quite dislike it on leather garments, so I automatically discard them. Basically the same as you in the past

 

[photo2u]

Haven't seen one in the flesh, but it's certainly been done.

View attachment 728973 View attachment 728974

The original design is a classic. LW in my view is superior to any currently reproduced 'LEATHERTOGS' 'B'.

 

[Trouser Bark]

Question on my mind. What are your thoughts on jackets that have the expanding leather at the bottom of the jacket like the one pictured.

I'm not a fan of the accordion style waist bands which seems odd to me as I don't mind pics of the cuff style elastic waistbands which don't seem entirely different. I do think the accordion style fails sooner than the alternative so I guess I don't care for their appearance or long term performance.

 

[BarryMcCockiner_PhD]

For those that have owned / handled Johnson phantom horsehide, what is it like? I'm mulling over having something made by them in black horsehide and am not too fond of CXL for the design im pondering.

 

[Zoo]

The dreaded leather jacket collar patina from skin oil and sweat. This wouldn't be an issue, except the dye is breaking down and staining shirts.
I have done a few rounds of Dawn dish soap and a paste of baking soda (not at the same time). There was progress, the left side facing cleared up noticeably. Not seeing any improvement in the rest at this point.

Time to go to conditioner and then Obenouf on the jacket, or straight to Obenouf?

I appreciate your input!

 

[canvas]

Thinking about adding a shearling liner to a Filson Mackinaw. The plan would buy enough shearling and take it to a tailer to add the liner. Has anyone done this before (not necessarily with a Filson)? Were there any surprises that came up?

 

[Zoro]

Thinking about adding a shearling liner to a Filson Mackinaw. The plan would buy enough shearling and take it to a tailer to add the liner. Has anyone done this before (not necessarily with a Filson)? Were there any surprises that came up?

Shearling is thick and bulky. You may no longer fit inside the Mackinaw if you do that. If you do it in a bigger size, you might not like the result either due to it looking oversized or be a miss in some measurements (for example, sleeves may become too long).

 

[unhatted]

Anyone know anything about sizing (or quality) for the B-McCoy’s line? Interesting looking one locally and measurements look workable but I can’t quite believe that a Japanese 34 could be anything other than tiiiiiiiny?

 

[floater]

Anyone know anything about sizing (or quality) for the B-McCoy’s line? Interesting looking one locally and measurements look workable but I can’t quite believe that a Japanese 34 could be anything other than tiiiiiiiny?

I don’t have experience with that particular brand, but I do have a couple japanese sz 34 jackets, both measure around 49 cm p2p, one has 44cm shoulders, and both have sleeves and back body length around 59-60 cm.

I also have a vanson collab with a japanese designer that is labeled “SS” and I believe translates to a sz 34 and that one has slightly narrower chest and shoulders, slightly shorter body, and sleeves around 60 cm as well.

Btw, I also have a few japanese sz 36 and sz 38 with similar measurements, in fact my smallest sz 38 is slimmer than my biggest sz 34.

Hope that helps.

 

[postpaper]

I have always wanted to ask the question about how people kept themselves waterproof before the age of Gore-Tex and other synthetic materials with natural materials such as cotton or leather. I have tried a few synthetic waterproof layers but I always hated how stuffy it gets because it was not breathable at all.

 

[twistdh]

I have always wanted to ask the question about how people kept themselves waterproof before the age of Gore-Tex and other synthetic materials with natural materials such as cotton or leather. I have tried a few synthetic waterproof layers but I always hated how stuffy it gets because it was not breathable at all.

The only real waterproof boot are made from Leather (treated with grease or wax/oil), gore-tex *****…

For the upper i have to try waxed cotton…at the moment have some synthetic jackets that are ok when new, but after a couple of year they are no more water resistent…and they never stop Wind like Leather do.

So for me only Leather and in the future waxed cotton

 

[Zoro]

I have always wanted to ask the question about how people kept themselves waterproof before the age of Gore-Tex and other synthetic materials with natural materials such as cotton or leather. I have tried a few synthetic waterproof layers but I always hated how stuffy it gets because it was not breathable at all.

I like goretex (and similar products such as Patagonia's H2NO or TNF's DryVent), but I wouldn't consider it breathable. Actually the whole "waterproof but breathable" has always seemed like a big ruse to me.

Once your garment is wet, there's no way for your skin to breathe, as there's a liquid (wet/water) blocking any kind of gas (breathability) from crossing the Goretex barrier. This would only work on theory, achieving either waterproofness or breathability, but even in dry Goretex conditions I don't find it to be breathable by any measure.

 

[twistdh]

Agree partially. Never understood Goretex because IS NOT breathable, and IS NOT waterproof…at least for my standards.

I sweat a lot in the feet, with goretex after 1 hour in dry conditions i have the socks wet and everithing start to smell bad with the time…
In wet conditions at the beginning seems waterproof, but after some time (1 or 2 days in very wet conditions) all comes wet and the water ho inside…And it will never dry until after many days of drying

With my Leather boots and 100% merino socks in dry confitions i start to sweat after many hours but never smell bad and never get wet… In extremely wet conditions (use it every day in rainforest for 15 days under the rain, sometimes walking with 10cm of water) my feet stay dry all the time and the water never go inside.

If I had still been in those conditions I would have had to grease it again to maintain the impermeability. But with goretex there is no chance to stay dry (all other people with me had constantly completely wet boot after 1-2 days till the end).

 

[Zoo]

I guess I referred to the wrong product line in my question above.
What are people using as a topcoat for leather jackets these days?
Thanks!

 

[Zoro]

Agree partially. Never understood Goretex because IS NOT breathable, and IS NOT waterproof…at least for my standards.

I sweat a lot in the feet, with goretex after 1 hour in dry conditions i have the socks wet and everithing start to smell bad with the time…
In wet conditions at the beginning seems waterproof, but after some time (1 or 2 days in very wet conditions) all comes wet and the water ho inside…And it will never dry until after many days of drying

With my Leather boots and 100% merino socks in dry confitions i start to sweat after many hours but never smell bad and never get wet… In extremely wet conditions (use it every day in rainforest for 15 days under the rain, sometimes walking with 10cm of water) my feet stay dry all the time and the water never go inside.

If I had still been in those conditions I would have had to grease it again to maintain the impermeability. But with goretex there is no chance to stay dry (all other people with me had constantly completely wet boot after 1-2 days till the end).

Goretex is waterproof to a certain degree. Even within Goretex, there's different Goretex types (don't recall the names, there's one that's not as waterproof and one that's not waterproof but just windproof) and, like with everything, you have to add to that the manufacturer's quality. Same with different manufacturers' Goretex equivalents, they are not equal to each other (same as a watch can be water resistant up to 50m and one up to 500m).

In the same way people may discuss about French seams or stitches per inch when discussing leather jackets, a similar discussion would apply when talking about Goretex garments as these would be the first weak points in degradation.

In addition to this, Goretex has to be maintained. The waterproofness goes away and has to be reactivated (by washing it and drying it at a high temperature) or even reapplied with chemicals.

This said, it does sound like you have a somewhat extreme use case (or extreme to me), so it sounds like even a Goretex layer in tip top condition wouldn't suit your use case. It is great for my use case, which is basically heavy city rain and I've never had a problem with it.

 

[twistdh]

…

This said, it does sound like you have a somewhat extreme use case (or extreme to me), so it sounds like even a Goretex layer in tip top condition wouldn't suit your use case. It is great for my use case, which is basically heavy city rain and I've never had a problem with it.

My biggest complain is that it makes me sweat a lot (in the shoes especially) like all synthetics materials. That case is not my common case, but only to say that full Leather boot is way more effective than goretex (and i speak of high range goretex boot made by “la sportiva”, “salewa” and similar 300/500€ tech boot).

For the upper layer is easyer to me, so it’s ok. And for waterproof/windproof jacket Is possible to apply some product to restore the property. For the boots this is impossible. In any case with me synthetic materials smell bad.

I’m switching also for tech indument from synthetics to old-style/natural material…where is possible…

For example for sports i have to keep synthetic jackets (with goretex or similar) for practicality, even if the effectiveness is poor.

But for MTB (with enduro bike) I had my leather shoes made to measure instead of the rubbish that are around (vaude, fiveten, crank brothers…). At the moment is still a prototype, but works way better than all the others.

So, for top layer is ok…But In my opinion for some use cases there are better alternatives also there.

 

[NielsLyhne]

I’m tall and lanky. Long arms, narrow waist and hips.

Is there any type of shearling jacket that could fit me well enough without big alterations ?

 

[MrProper]

I’m tall and lanky. Long arms, narrow waist and hips.

Is there any type of shearling jacket that could fit me well enough without big alterations ?

I know tall, slim, narrow hips
That's why mine are all tapered. An Aero B-6 is a bit slimmer than the other models. Maybe worth a try.