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British zips on foriegn jackets and roughly dating australian jackets

dinomartino1

A-List Customer
Messages
338
Location
Perth, Australia
British zips on foreign jackets and roughly dating Australian jackets.

A lot of you already know but some don't so don't assume a vintage jacket is made in England because of the zips.
Aero and lighting were the biggest British manufacturers and their zippers were widely exported to British commonwealth countries, I don't get why you see them on Canadian jackets though unless they were cheaper than US made zippers.

Most Australian clothing used aero zips they opened a factory in Bankstown NSW in 1955 and also lightning zips, this was due to high tariff's on non British imported products,. There were also locally made zips but not many, I don't know all of them cucksons were one, became cuckson scovill in 1969 and eventually fully bought out to become Scovill Australia.

"Up till the late 1940s, there was only one manufacturer of zippers/slide fasteners in Australia. This situation changed when between 1948 and 1950, Eric Cuckson and his seven colleagues emigrated to Australia to form W. E. Cuckson & Son Pty. Ltd. Cuckson and his colleagues had come from South Wales, where they had been working on the design and manufacture of high speed zipper chain machines."
They sold rondo zipador branded zips.

The other company may have been triflex, ceased buiness after the war ended.
"Richard Goldner left Austria and arrived in Australia in March 1939. He was formerly a violinist with various orchestras and ensembles in Vienna. In Australia he was considered an ‘enemy alien’ and was unable to play in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Instead, he and his brother Gerard began manufacturing women’s jewellery under the name ‘Natty Novelties’.
During the war, Richard came up with a useful invention. He was told of an urgent need for a zipper that would operate in three dimensions and that would not jam even when filled with mud.
He arrived at a solution and then created a company named Triflex and began manufacturing the Triflex Fastener. It was used for joining marquees and tarpaulins, dive-bomber pressure suits, jungle suits, navy equipment for the Australian and allied forces in the Pacific, and it was adopted by the American Army and Air Force."

If your jacket has ykk zips its 70s or later, British 70s or earlier.
Aero zips were also used on Australian military clothing and equipment untill the 1970s



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dinomartino1

A-List Customer
Messages
338
Location
Perth, Australia
Lightning Fastener Co. Ltd. Canada 1937
Lightning Fasteners Ltd Birmingham UK 1919 part of Imperial Chemical Industries ICI, I don't what year they stared producing zips.
Aero, not sure 1939 or 1940?
 

Jasonissm

Practically Family
Messages
526
Woah, that's right down from where I am, interesting! Would love to find some older 50's jackets made in Australia, I forgot about an auction for a 50s Australian jacket (with a Lightning zip) and I still regret it!
 

CombatWombat

Familiar Face
Messages
57
I've actually got a fantastic looking jacket made my Aero Sydney with Aero zippers on it!

The jacket design ended up being used by both Australia Post (headache inducing vomit yellow)and our MP's on motorcycle duty (baby poo green and "Poo Boot" brown)
Thankfully my jacket is in a more appropriate black blue
 

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