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What was your first leather jacket?

Dredgen Yor

Familiar Face
Messages
56
Location
Portugal
Very cool to hear and see your stories! My wife showed me an old picture with the first leather jacket I can remember that wasn’t from the gap or hollister, it was when we first started dating and it is still her favorite, tho long moved on, it was a schott 626 collaboration with lucky.
 

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AeroFan_07

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,747
Location
Iowa
My first was a black version of this "JC-Pennys" monstrosity. This is "close" but not exactly it:

1718678279949.png


For all I know it might have been pigskin. Like many other Wilsons/Pennys/Sears/Mall jacket of the time, it was trying to be about 14 things at once. But hey - at least there were a lot of folks actually wearing some type of leather jacket, although most of there were cheaply made.

My first jacket I "loved" was a buddy in college's Excelled Crosszip, his actually had chains at both shoulders and an eagle hand-painted on the back. For sure something like this caused my life-long love of motorcycle jackets.


1718678554595.png


---And I have never recovered since. :)
 

Buick

Familiar Face
Messages
82
The first I had was bought by my parents in the mid 80s and was a cheap a2 inspired black jacket from a mall. It didn’t last very well and ended up covered in mould after getting wet in the rain and me not knowing enough to care for it appropriately.

The first leather jacket I bought myself was a Lewis Leathers Monza
 

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Doctor Strange

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,255
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
In 1981, inspired by Raiders, I got my first leather jacket at age 26. I don't have a picture, but it was an undistinguished, imported-from-Argentina black cowhide from a department store. Thin, smelly cowhide, A-2 style collar, basic brass zip with no windflap, slash pockets, side-waist straps. I paid around $50.

In 1983 I got my first serious leather jacket, a Schott 674, on sale at a downtown boutique for $99. At the time, there were four variants of this model: brown or black, both with either a faux-fur collar and lining or plain collar and quilted lining. I went for the brown fur version:

oldSchott674-1983.jpg

I wore the hell out of that jacket through several NY winters, and it eventually looked it. After it had hung unworn for years, I donated it to goodwill around 2001.

My next jacket, circa 1988, was a black Cooper cafe racer (also bought on sale for around $99) that never quite fit me right, and my ex ended up wearing it more than I did. There were no other leathers in the 90s.

After 9/11, my already longstanding interest in military jackets (e.g., I'd worn a couple of N3-Bs throughout high school and college) got pushed to eleven, and I joined the new online communities like this one and began seriously researching.

Both of my parents had served in WWII, Mom in the Marines and Dad in the Air Corps (as a photographer, not a flyer, but: "I always envied those snazzy leather jackets my flyboy buddies had!") To honor that, my sister and I got Dad a Bradley Associates A-2 replica. Anybody recall those? In those days, it was a pretty good, not entirely inaccurate cowhide jacket for $199. (And he pronounced it "exactly" like the jackets he'd handled in the war, which was a valuable lesson in not trusting distant memory.)

A2sidDig.jpg

A few months later, I got my first "legit" repro. A Gibson & Barnes (stlll called "Flight Suits" then) Civil A-2 in black goatskin that cost $225.

A2MSG.JPG

This one has remained my most frequently worn leather jacket, despite the others that have come and gone over the last 23 years. And it's held up splendidly, the zip, knits, lining are all solid. I mean, I love my Good Wear too, but sometimes you just need more pockets!
 
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TLW '90

Practically Family
Messages
761
I only have a few leather jackets at the moment because I'm into wool a bit more.

This was my 1st leather jacket, an unissued 1990 dated Taylor's leather wear Chicago PD surplus jacket that I bought from Sportsmans guide for $250 about 4 years ago now.
20221202_091054.jpg

As far as I'm concerned it's a great jacket, and I'm extremely happy with the fit which seems just right to me.
It's a quite utilitarian jacket in a bland dark brown color, but it's also very practical.
 

shadowtek

New in Town
Messages
7
My first was a Member’s only jacket second hand I think? I was probably 13-14 so we are talking like 1998-99. Then it was a Wilson’s leather used, then a Gap used, then a Superman Returns leather with an S on it all lambskin probably? Then a grey lambskin from Florence Italy, then a Five Star whiskey HH, then a Wested Legacy LC, then an unlined Schott 582.
 
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Trouser Bark

One of the Regulars
Messages
198
Location
I exist in your head
I was gifted an A2 by an old roommate many years ago. I have no idea who mfg'd it but I wore it everywhere and once I had blossomed beyond its intended limits I didn't buy another for many years but thought about it. I now have several (no A2's) and wonder what kept me from taking the plunge for so long.
 

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