asiamiles
Well-Known Member
I recently found not one but two Buzz Rickson A-2's on the secondary market. The prices were reasonable so I took a chance. I admit I was ready to be disappointed, but when they arrived I got a very pleasant surprise.
The first good news was that after my size 38 RM Rough Wear felt about half a size too small for me, both of these jackets fit me very well...sure they could maybe be an inch longer and an inch wider in the shoulder to be absolutely perfect on me, but hey, they're A-2's, so no complaints there. The second good news was the leather. Neither may look like 60 year old jackets but that's because they're not; I do think they come pretty close to how such jackets might have looked after a few months or a year of wear back in the day, which is probably because that's the amount of wear they've had. I have to say when I see BR A-2's on the rack in stores they don't look so appealing, but in this state both jackets look rather beautiful. Both are horsehide; a little research tells me the top one being BR's so-called Bronco hide. The bottom one has the kind of mismatched grain that you find on originals; by that I mean a natural mismatch...I've seen a couple of repro jackets where the mismatching of panels looks too deliberate.
I confess I don't know how spot on they are as reproducing originals. Perhaps others can comment on that? So I've avoided actually saying what models these are...perhaps you can ID them without looking too hard at the labels?
The first good news was that after my size 38 RM Rough Wear felt about half a size too small for me, both of these jackets fit me very well...sure they could maybe be an inch longer and an inch wider in the shoulder to be absolutely perfect on me, but hey, they're A-2's, so no complaints there. The second good news was the leather. Neither may look like 60 year old jackets but that's because they're not; I do think they come pretty close to how such jackets might have looked after a few months or a year of wear back in the day, which is probably because that's the amount of wear they've had. I have to say when I see BR A-2's on the rack in stores they don't look so appealing, but in this state both jackets look rather beautiful. Both are horsehide; a little research tells me the top one being BR's so-called Bronco hide. The bottom one has the kind of mismatched grain that you find on originals; by that I mean a natural mismatch...I've seen a couple of repro jackets where the mismatching of panels looks too deliberate.
I confess I don't know how spot on they are as reproducing originals. Perhaps others can comment on that? So I've avoided actually saying what models these are...perhaps you can ID them without looking too hard at the labels?