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Compliments on Your Jacket

derleicaman

Member
Hi Guys,
Been a while since I've been real active here, but I thought I'd share something fun with you and see if this ever happens to you.

Living in the Chicago area is great for wearing all sorts of jackets from my A-2's and B3, B6 and D-1, depending on the time of year. Lately, we have been in the deep freeze with a high today of 5 degrees F. Good fleece weather! Lately I've been favoring my well-worn RMNZ D-1 I picked up from a fellow forum member a few years ago. In the past two days, I have gotten compliments from six totally random people while out and about running errands. Young and old, and from very diverse ethnic groups. "Great jacket man! I love your jacket! Is that an original?" It does feel good to get compliments on a jacket you are wearing and some positive reinforcement for our hobby!

Anyone else experience this? It is interesting to see what people notice and what they like.

Happy New Year everyone to my friends here on VLJ!
 

Miles

Active Member
Hi Guys,
Been a while since I've been real active here, but I thought I'd share something fun with you and see if this ever happens to you.

Living in the Chicago area is great for wearing all sorts of jackets from my A-2's and B3, B6 and D-1, depending on the time of year. Lately, we have been in the deep freeze with a high today of 5 degrees F. Good fleece weather! Lately I've been favoring my well-worn RMNZ D-1 I picked up from a fellow forum member a few years ago. In the past two days, I have gotten compliments from six totally random people while out and about running errands. Young and old, and from very diverse ethnic groups. "Great jacket man! I love your jacket! Is that an original?" It does feel good to get compliments on a jacket you are wearing and some positive reinforcement for our hobby!

Anyone else experience this? It is interesting to see what people notice and what they like.

Happy New Year everyone to my friends here on VLJ!

The first day I received my LW ANJ4 I couldn’t wait to open the box so I opened it at the post office. A guy comes up to me and asks - Hey is that an ANJ4? I have one from Aero... but... ( as I began to put the jacket on ) he said but... whoa that’s an intense collar! And the fur on my jacket isn’t that thick. Wow who made that jacket? The guy was literally stopped in his tracks dumbfounded. There’s nothing wrong with an Aero but the LW is just a monster. There’s no way around it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

sg1011

Active Member
Derleicaman

I’m also in Chicago and this weather is perfect for B-3’s or ANJ-4’s. I also wore my ANJ-4 all day yesterday. Not one compliment, but I like it that way as I don’t like to draw attention. My wife did comment that my jacket is very dominant and impressive in a sea of fake military jackets with fur hoods and cheap leather jackets. Lol. That’s crazy because she absolutely hates my style in jackets.
 

John Lever

Moderator
The first day I received my LW ANJ4 I couldn’t wait to open the box so I opened it at the post office. A guy comes up to me and asks - Hey is that an ANJ4? I have one from Aero... but... ( as I began to put the jacket on ) he said but... whoa that’s an intense collar! And the fur on my jacket isn’t that thick. Wow who made that jacket? The guy was literally stopped in his tracks dumbfounded. There’s nothing wrong with an Aero but the LW is just a monster. There’s no way around it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
wow ! Huge coincidence
 

MikeyB-17

Well-Known Member
I had an old, not especially accurate Martin Gould D-1, in what appeared to be redskin sheepskin, on which I put some multi-piece leather patches. I got more compliments about that jacket than any of the others I’ve owned.
 

Smithy

Well-Known Member
It's funny you should say that Mikey. My lowly Wested Raiders jacket has probably garnered more comments (positive I might add!) than any of my others. The Irvin has gotten quite a few as well and interestingly mostly from women who seem to go a bit gooey over it. I'd wager that you and that mo in an Irvin would have a devastating effect upon the female of the species :D
 

CBI

Well-Known Member
Rarely any and usually negative.

I should get an award for fighting the vintage jacket fight with a general public that totally doesn't get it!

Been cold here, been wearing my Laundromat brand made in Nepal fleece lined wool knit hooded sweater and received more compliments in the past 6 days than my hobby jackets in years........argh!
 

johnwayne

Well-Known Member
Been complimented twice recently on my patched (original) Skyline MA1, possibly due to the current high street clones as both compliments came from what I imagined were in their early 20's! My last acquisition, my BR berry knitted B10 has also been given the thumbs up, one being from a rather lovely blue eyed young lady, made my day I must say!!
 

Tenfifteen

Member
Never had any compliment in the streets here in France... that's prtty much obvious but nobody here knows how to recognize a real flight jacket.. unless you go to an air show like the "Ferté Alais" or at the Bourget.

The only time I've had a "comment" (I think it was more the combo "jacket+helmet") was a day when a cop told me to slow down at a trafic light... the exact terms were "Eh Maverick, calm down you're not taking off from an aircraft carrier" --- shame ---
 

Earloffunk

Well-Known Member
Same here - where I live no one cares about flight jackets. Leather flight jackets are just ‚regular‘ jackets and nylon jackets are mostly worn in silly colors by a special clientele...
 

Tenfifteen

Member
Don't konw if it's the same in US/UK but there is a "bomber" revival.. you can see cheap MA1 copy with silly colors as you said and silly patches every where in the street !
 
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Earloffunk

Well-Known Member
Haven’t seen many patched jackets yet but maybe it will take some more time until I see them - my hometown is not too big.
 

sg1011

Active Member
Don't konw if it's the same in US/UK but there is a "bomber" revival.. you can see cheap MA1 copy with silly colors as you said and silly patches every where in the street !

There is definitely a ‘bomber’ revival in the US. In Chicago, everyone and their mother has a MA-1 knock off with a fur lined hoodie. That’s the big thing now. Military type jackets with today’s fashion touches.
 

Nathan Flowers

Administrator
There is definitely a ‘bomber’ revival in the US. In Chicago, everyone and their mother has a MA-1 knock off with a fur lined hoodie. That’s the big thing now. Military type jackets with today’s fashion touches.

This must be why young people keep commenting on my MA1/A lately. Usually people don't notice my clothes at all.
 

Smithy

Well-Known Member
The nylon flight jacket thing is big here and has been for the last year or two. H&M/Cubus/etc are full of the things. Too cold for them now but I bet when the weather warms up a tad again in spring they'll be back in force.
 

Earloffunk

Well-Known Member
I never really had an understanding for that kind of hype over clothing. Maybe I am just too old - back when I was in school we used to have plain MA1s in sage green and black, later I changed to CWUs but that was about it - no silly patches or hoods. By the way, we even wore them during winter.
 

johnwayne

Well-Known Member
As commented earlier, high street clones, the subject of which was chatted over about a month or two ago in the nylon section here but shamefully I must admit, I actually bought one! From Uniglo, a black MA1 (of sorts) that was in their sale for £15.00!! They do some great quality stuff at very reasonable prices especially at sale time when they genuinely reduce the price rather than ship in 'sale items' that was never in store previously like some big names do. I only bought said jacket as it'll be great come spring time and being black and very lightweight should prove quite versatile, I hope. Plus as the wife reminded me, it's not another brown leather jacket!!!
 

Earloffunk

Well-Known Member
Your wife is very understanding. Mine doesn’t care if it’s brown, black, leather, nylon, fur collar - to her it’s all the same. o_O
 

GyreneGreen

Member
I was wearing my Buzz Rickson B-15 (patched to the 587th BS) in Asheville, NC last weekend when a guy at the bar asked me about it. He said he really liked the jacket and wanted to buy one for his Dad, who was in the Air Force in Vietnam. I told him it was a WWII era jacket and he told me that his grandfather was a B-26 pilot who was shot down over France and married one of the French Resistance members who rescued him. I ordered this book about him and I am looking forward to reading it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1929763719/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
 
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