TheDonEffect
Practically Family
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This was a long time coming with some hiccups along the way, holidays, unforeseen delays in manufacturing, all the stuff with living in today's world, but several entertaining visits. We made it, but first, the story, so tuck in.
First, shoutout to JL. The whole process was just enjoyable. From the initial consultation spit balling ideas, to getting down to business getting a design together, to Damon sizing me up, then the fit jacket, the in process, and then finally getting the jacket. It's a personal experience akin to getting a tailor made suit, and Damon and Alan are just great guys to work with.
Several months ago, the itch to make a full button up jacket returned after a random ad for a Horween jacket popped up in my Facebook feed, which led me back down the damn rabbit hole again.
The process began with wanting a Horween CXL jacket, and it pretty much went from there. I deeply considered brown considering all the recent posts of beautiful brown CXL, and because I already have a black crosszip, even considered the #8, but a black teacore jacket was what I always wanted, so black CXL it was.
I didn't want 3+oz, which is what CXL ships in. In retrospect I could've maybe went with a Dublin or something, but I really wanted to teacore and well, I wanted CXL. For the local climate, the weight is just unnecessary, and the weight just makes it a chore to wear. I hear what everyone says that it breaks in, but I also see a ton of catch and release. Damon agreed and offered a solution, skive it down to 2-2.5oz. So skived CXL black it is.
Now, as mentioned in other threads, there is a wide variety of finish on CXL, many are matte and uniformly smooth, others are grainy/wrinkly with a lot of shine. Many of the jackets in JL fell in the former, Damon offered for me to give final approval on he hide but I told him surprise me. And that he did. When I first saw the unfinished jacket I was like woah was this CXL, some of the wrinkles were the product of the manufacturing process but it still had a ton of character which caught me by surprise since I was expecting something more matte and uniform look, but as I looked at it more, I just loved it more, gives me some low key Shinki vibes, but still very much CXL, and of course it just felt great.
For design, the inspirations were obvious, Maxwell, Klondike, Canucks, but blazers and car coats. JL had stock car coats that we used as a base and went from there, pretty much changing all the details along the way. My goals were to make this as wearable and comfortable as possible.
One of my favorite movies is Gone in 60 Seconds, and I love Nick Cage's blazer jacket, but I don't like leather blazers for me, and I don't like the length. But the perceived functionality, versatility, and simplicity was what always drew me to the jacket, so that was another inspiration.
I knew I wanted a minimalist design. Growing up, it was instilled in me that quality leather jackets had fewer panels, because you would need large pieces without flaws vs being able to scrap together good parts of bad hides. I have since learned of course that this is not necessarily true, but it's just one of those things that to me says quality, and I tend to not like a bunch of stuff anyway, so I stuck with it. So no half belt, shoulder lines, adjusters, etc etc. I speced one piece back, clean front panels. Biswings for me was absolutely necessary. I considered the other action back styles, but decided to stick with the tried and true design as it wouldn't mess up the clean back aesthetic.
Buttons, I knew I would be using two 95% of the time, and I knew exactly where I wanted them. I went back and forth between 4 to 6 buttons pretty much to the final hour, decided on going with 4 buttons.
Pockets, I went with a slightly longer chest pocket to ensure that it'll fit whatever I need to put in there, passport, wallet, papers, etc. I could've went with ball and chain, but I'm a YKK simply kinda guy and stick to things I know work, and for some reason I just keep thinking the ball and chain would get it caught on something. And I wanted hand warmer pockets with no zips of flaps. I wear a watch, and I don't like the idea of a zipper scuffing my watches. And while a blazer style jacket would've looked better, the angled hand warmer pockets are just flat out comfortable for me.
Cuffs, Damon and I went back and forth about this, the obvious would've been button cuffs. I really like zipper cuffs actually since it's just easy to operate, and I knew the button cuff was just be ornate and I don't like dragging it on stuff or getting caught on stuff. In the end, we decided on American cuffs, it would match the overall clean look and since this would be a tailored fit jacket, I figured the fit will get it to where I need.
Fit, I knew I was going for a looser fit for this jacket. I didn't want something that looked great while standing but was a chore otherwise. I want space for layers, easy put on/take off, if the vending machine eats my money I want to be able to punch it, and then hug it when it spits out my chips. So the marching orders to them was to give me as much space while trying to make it look flattering, no small feat as I've been known to enjoy buffets. JL does an exceptional job at nailing my shoulders, and I could spend an eternity constantly retweaking the rest of the fit, but overall they met my expectations regarding the fit. I may bring it around the waist in the future as there's a bit of a tin man situation going on right now, but I'll wait until the leather breaks in and becomes pliable because I could see it draping really well, and frankly I'm happy with the fit since it's more of a casual fit than a formal fit.
Length, I wanted to hit right around crotch to ensure good coverage when bending over and what not, but I didn't want a coat if that makes sense. So it's between a jacket and a coat.
In summary, a straight forward, minimalist, functional jacket. I've always been a fan of easter eggs and small little details/changes, so we had some fun with that.
So here it is.
First, shoutout to JL. The whole process was just enjoyable. From the initial consultation spit balling ideas, to getting down to business getting a design together, to Damon sizing me up, then the fit jacket, the in process, and then finally getting the jacket. It's a personal experience akin to getting a tailor made suit, and Damon and Alan are just great guys to work with.
Several months ago, the itch to make a full button up jacket returned after a random ad for a Horween jacket popped up in my Facebook feed, which led me back down the damn rabbit hole again.
The process began with wanting a Horween CXL jacket, and it pretty much went from there. I deeply considered brown considering all the recent posts of beautiful brown CXL, and because I already have a black crosszip, even considered the #8, but a black teacore jacket was what I always wanted, so black CXL it was.
I didn't want 3+oz, which is what CXL ships in. In retrospect I could've maybe went with a Dublin or something, but I really wanted to teacore and well, I wanted CXL. For the local climate, the weight is just unnecessary, and the weight just makes it a chore to wear. I hear what everyone says that it breaks in, but I also see a ton of catch and release. Damon agreed and offered a solution, skive it down to 2-2.5oz. So skived CXL black it is.
Now, as mentioned in other threads, there is a wide variety of finish on CXL, many are matte and uniformly smooth, others are grainy/wrinkly with a lot of shine. Many of the jackets in JL fell in the former, Damon offered for me to give final approval on he hide but I told him surprise me. And that he did. When I first saw the unfinished jacket I was like woah was this CXL, some of the wrinkles were the product of the manufacturing process but it still had a ton of character which caught me by surprise since I was expecting something more matte and uniform look, but as I looked at it more, I just loved it more, gives me some low key Shinki vibes, but still very much CXL, and of course it just felt great.
For design, the inspirations were obvious, Maxwell, Klondike, Canucks, but blazers and car coats. JL had stock car coats that we used as a base and went from there, pretty much changing all the details along the way. My goals were to make this as wearable and comfortable as possible.
One of my favorite movies is Gone in 60 Seconds, and I love Nick Cage's blazer jacket, but I don't like leather blazers for me, and I don't like the length. But the perceived functionality, versatility, and simplicity was what always drew me to the jacket, so that was another inspiration.
I knew I wanted a minimalist design. Growing up, it was instilled in me that quality leather jackets had fewer panels, because you would need large pieces without flaws vs being able to scrap together good parts of bad hides. I have since learned of course that this is not necessarily true, but it's just one of those things that to me says quality, and I tend to not like a bunch of stuff anyway, so I stuck with it. So no half belt, shoulder lines, adjusters, etc etc. I speced one piece back, clean front panels. Biswings for me was absolutely necessary. I considered the other action back styles, but decided to stick with the tried and true design as it wouldn't mess up the clean back aesthetic.
Buttons, I knew I would be using two 95% of the time, and I knew exactly where I wanted them. I went back and forth between 4 to 6 buttons pretty much to the final hour, decided on going with 4 buttons.
Pockets, I went with a slightly longer chest pocket to ensure that it'll fit whatever I need to put in there, passport, wallet, papers, etc. I could've went with ball and chain, but I'm a YKK simply kinda guy and stick to things I know work, and for some reason I just keep thinking the ball and chain would get it caught on something. And I wanted hand warmer pockets with no zips of flaps. I wear a watch, and I don't like the idea of a zipper scuffing my watches. And while a blazer style jacket would've looked better, the angled hand warmer pockets are just flat out comfortable for me.
Cuffs, Damon and I went back and forth about this, the obvious would've been button cuffs. I really like zipper cuffs actually since it's just easy to operate, and I knew the button cuff was just be ornate and I don't like dragging it on stuff or getting caught on stuff. In the end, we decided on American cuffs, it would match the overall clean look and since this would be a tailored fit jacket, I figured the fit will get it to where I need.
Fit, I knew I was going for a looser fit for this jacket. I didn't want something that looked great while standing but was a chore otherwise. I want space for layers, easy put on/take off, if the vending machine eats my money I want to be able to punch it, and then hug it when it spits out my chips. So the marching orders to them was to give me as much space while trying to make it look flattering, no small feat as I've been known to enjoy buffets. JL does an exceptional job at nailing my shoulders, and I could spend an eternity constantly retweaking the rest of the fit, but overall they met my expectations regarding the fit. I may bring it around the waist in the future as there's a bit of a tin man situation going on right now, but I'll wait until the leather breaks in and becomes pliable because I could see it draping really well, and frankly I'm happy with the fit since it's more of a casual fit than a formal fit.
Length, I wanted to hit right around crotch to ensure good coverage when bending over and what not, but I didn't want a coat if that makes sense. So it's between a jacket and a coat.
In summary, a straight forward, minimalist, functional jacket. I've always been a fan of easter eggs and small little details/changes, so we had some fun with that.
So here it is.
