Recent content by zoomer

I would say "Good Eye," but you missed the stormflap. It's on the wearer's left!

A mfr/retailer will usually recomment a smaller size because the close fitting, v-shaped look is always stylish on a smaller customer, and a larger customer is rarely a positive image for their brand.

Swing bandleader Jimmie Lunceford, l, suited up for a trainer ride in 1940.

Just an A-1. Check the collar. It was squadron/group COs, at first anyway, who got the "XA-2s." We know of Blessey, Brett, Dargue, Hoyt, Johnson, and Spatz, plus a few unknown pilots in the 1932 Selfridge pic.

Zombieing the thread to note that the new Werbers could easily have been from contract 34-518P, let Sept. 5, 1933 for an unknown quantity of A-2s. No examples of this contract, nor Werber Coat's original A-2 32-6225, are known to survive.

And no 37J1s use the heavy weight?

It involves my Cockpit 37J1 made with wrong-side-out Bedford Cord (they’re all that way).

Bronson’s stuff is a lot lighter weight, 9-10oz/yd as most Bedford cord is. The Buzz stuff is around 14oz and only one mill (in Japan) can make it any longer. It’s available ONLY to the ready-to-wear trade. You can't get it. Neither can your tailor.

she's from my town, Ames, IA - grew up about 6 blocks from me

So's mine, if i do say so myself.

Looks like Donegal barleycorn to me...but if it is, it should feel soft.

That is really sharp...basically a Cossack style with a fold collar. Waistband could be gathered or non-gathered giving the option to wear it like an Indy Jones - but it's much more stylish. Battered steer would be the leather choice for me here!

Swede Vejtasa, hero of the Coral Sea and Santa Cruz engagements, wore this Aero 37J1 (the model BR replicated). If mine turns this color I'm happy...and if it doesn't I'm still pretty happy.

Made up. AIUI no one outside Japan knew anything about the cloth 37J1, or cared to sort thru the National Archives to get the spec. W & G honcho Burt Avedon, a former naval aviator himself, simply sketched up a jacket from a very few old pictures and dubbed it "NA-1." One such pic was...