Looking like Virgil Hilts For Under $250.00, Can it be done ?

[B-Man2]

With the boredom of the Pandemic and staying around the house most of the days, I have very little to do, other than the usual “honey do’s”, you know “honey do this or honey do that”, so I occupy myself by coming up with strange new ideas. One such idea was, could a person pull off a classic Great Escape Steve McQueen / Virgil Hilts look for under $250.00 US.? Now, I’m not talking about the exact look, but a pretty close and reasonable Hilts look that would be acceptable for that amount of money . I’m talking A2 jacket, Chinos , boots , and sweatshirt for under $250.00 US.
At first thought, it seems improbable, but with a little searching around between eBay and a few thrift shops, it just might be a possibility . So ,I‘ve accepted my own challenge and I’m going to take a crack at it and give myself one week to try and put together a Virgil Hilts impression for under $250.00. Ok stay tuned to this thread for the results .
Cheers Guys!!

 

[Micawber]

Cooler!!

 

[Thomas Koehle]

Interesting project Burt ...

Looking forward to any results

 

[London Cabbie]

Maybe in the meantime we could all post a Virgil fit pic attempt...?

 

[ausreenactor]

Maybe in the meantime we could all post a Virgil fit pic attempt...?

When I was in lockdown for five months.. Went a little cooler crazy..

 

[mulceber]

Neat project, Burt! So will you be going for the name plate and captain’s bars as part of it?

 

[B-Man2]

Not giving anything away buddy , you’ll have to wait to see how it all plays out

 

[London Cabbie]

With the boredom of the Pandemic and staying around the house most of the days, I have very little to do, other than the usual “honey do’s”, you know “honey do this or honey do that”, so I occupy myself by coming up with strange new ideas. One such idea was, could a person pull off a classic Great Escape Steve McQueen / Virgil Hilts look for under $250.00 US.? Now, I’m not talking about the exact look, but a pretty close and reasonable Hilts look that would be acceptable for that amount of money . I’m talking A2 jacket, Chinos , boots , and sweatshirt for under $250.00 US.
At first thought, it seems improbable, but with a little searching around between eBay and a few thrift shops, it just might be a possibility . So ,I‘ve accepted my own challenge and I’m going to take a crack at it and give myself one week to try and put together a Virgil Hilts impression for under $250.00. Ok stay tuned to this thread for the results .
Cheers Guys!!

Not on your ‘Tom, Dick or Harry...’

 

[mulceber]

Maybe in the meantime we could all post a Virgil fit pic attempt...?

My contribution to the Hilts fit pic game.

 

[B-Man2]

Well, surprisingly I just scored my first bargain in my attempt to pull together a working mans Great Escape/ Virgil Hilts Impression. Just so we’re all on the same page on this, what I’m trying to do is have a nice Virgil Hilts look, while keeping within a budget of $250.00. So accuracy and authenticity will suffer, but we won’t be paying some of the prices we’ve seen such as $125.00 for a Repro Hilts sweatshirt or $135.00 for repro WWII Chino khakis with the correct thread count. Or $1,975 for an ELC Great Escape Rough Wear 27752. Remember we are going for the Hilts “look“ but not necessarily the authenticity of each item we purchase to get that look. So with that I just scored my first deal . A pair of rough out boots that almost duplicate a pair of WWII repro rough outs that normally sell for $225.00 to $295.00 per pair . I just got these boots off EBay for the sum of $70.00 with free shipping , and the maker is none other than ..... Ralph Lauren. They are a very good example of the rough out boot and even have a corded sole like the USMC rough out boot. There’s a thin pull strap on the back of the boot and a small identification piece of leather both of which can be cut away and once they are dubbed you won’t be able to tell them from a high end repro rough out boot selling for a couple of hundred dollars more . So, obliviously I don’t have them yet but in the interest of time ( I only have a week to put this together), here’s a photo of my first Hilts purchase

So we now have $70.00 invested with a balance of $180.00 to complete the project .
As soon as these arrive I’ll post some photos .
Cheers

 

[Brettafett]

Some decent vintage leather baseball mits on the 'bay for under $20

What jacket are you using? Or are you looking for one also?

 

[MikeyB-17]

Two hundred and fifty? You’re crazy. You outta be locked up!

 

[London Cabbie]

I couldn’t get the hair right...

 

[Pilot]

The A-11 watch!
With a special reinforced case/housing! ( note the larger more angular horns/lugs if comparing to a standard Bulova A-11).

 

[ausreenactor]

There goes the budget!

 

[B-Man2]

LOL !! Great Watch
But can’t do any accessories with that budget.

 

[B-Man2]

Ok so first off
Let me say thanks to all of you, for your participation in showing some of your Virgil Hilts / Great Escape photos. You guys all looked pretty cool. Once again I have to stress that we are going for a look here, not historical accuracy. Something that you could wear at a fun day at an air show or to a cult showing of the Great Escape, and no one would know you weren’t historically and period accurate. So for a little bit of background information, last week when I was thinking about this idea, I read Dmitry's’ post on his acquiring a pair of high thread count military chino khaki pants . I figured that if I was going to try putting this impression together, I would need to find a pair of Khaki pants that closely resembled WWII US military Chino khaki pants. Original pants would have been great as they are still available but the high prices of $125.00 plus, would destroy the $250.00 budget. So I needed to find something else that would work and look the part . The pants had to be vintage cut with a high waist , a flat front, no pleats, 100% cotton, no cuffs and look like WWII issued pants. I checked out S&M Wholesale but their prices were $139.00 a pair . For that price I could buy originals . No good ! Then I looked at the What Price Glory website and their WWII pants looked great, and the price of $45.00 a pair was good but I still needed to go cheaper. That was when I was checking eBay and once again stumbled upon our buddy Ralph Lauren and a pair of his vintage military repro chino khakis, 100% cotton , heavy thread count. After a bit of reading up on those pants, I decided to go after them, and I got them for a total of $27.29 shipping included

Well they arrived today and they’re great. I posted some photos of them and their interior labels in case anyone wants to find a pair that look similar to WWII chinos at a good price. So now back to our budget :
Boots ................$70.00
Pants ................$27.29
Total .................$97.29
Balance remaining .$ 152.71
Well , I still have to find slate colored sweatshirt with cut off sleeves but more importantly an A2 jacket for some very cheap money .... I’m thinking I may have “screwed the pooch” on this deal...I guess we’ll just have to wait and see

 

[Flightengineer]

Waiting for the jacket, Burt

 

[mulceber]

Patience, he’s only on the pants. I reckon we’re in for a sweatshirt and a baseball glove to go before he builds up to the jacket.

 

[B-Man2]

Patience, he’s only on the pants. I reckon we’re in for a sweatshirt and a baseball glove to go before he builds up to the jacket.

Ahhhh .......Thou art wise Grasshoppa