The All-Star Game: Looking at Originals and Reproductions of the Star 28557

[mulceber]

Introduction and preliminary photos

Jan

Hi all, it’s been about a year since I did a jacket comparison review with Burt, and we felt like it was time for another one. In November of 2020, my new BK Star arrived in the mail, and we decided to do another comparison thread. At about the same time, Phil (@Lord Flashheart) proposed comparing my BK Star to his Eastman version, so we decided to combine the two project ideas. Our aim is to take a nice long look at one of the most stylish A-2 designs and explore how different makers reproduce those details. No repro is perfect, and if it was, this project would be pointless. As before, if anyone has an original or a repro they’d like to share, please chime in!

First, some history: AC 28557 42-18245-P, an order for 30,000 jackets, was the only A-2 contract issued to Star Sportswear Manufacturing Company of Lynn, Massachusetts. It was issued on the 18th of May of 1942, on the same day as the contracts for Knopf, Poughkeepsie, Spiewak, United Sheeplined, and the first Bronco contract. In sum, contracts were let for 199,000 A-2 jackets that day, roughly a quarter of all A-2s made in the 12 years that the jacket was produced.

None of these companies had ever made an A-2 jacket before, so the materiel division was going with unknown commodities here, and it isn’t hard to see why: in the previous two months, large A-2 contracts had been given to most of the usual suspects: Aero, Dubow, Rough Wear, and Cable. Some of these (and other) companies were also working on contracts for other types of flight gear. The usual suppliers were busy and the AAF opted for some new faces here.


Burt

Nice lead in Jan!

The Star A2 has always been one of my favorite contracts. At 30,000 jackets, the Star may not have been one of the largest jacket contracts issued, but it was a substantial contract for a first time manufacturer. Each jacket was produced at a cost of $8.10 US, according to Gary Eastman’s A2 Manual. Additionally, the tannery that supplied the leather to Star substituted a bunch of cowhide for Horsehide on this contract. So, if you’ve recently purchased a repro of a Star A2, either Horsehide or Cowhide would be correct for this contract. The original jacket sports an M-42 Talon No.5 auto lock zip, made in dull nickel and the small type United Carr Ball type Snaps (according to Eastman’s A2 Manual). I’ll bow out at this point and let Phil round out this introduction.

Phil

Having seen a few Stars on the Forum the collar and detailing always looked sharp. The ELC repro has proved very wearable by design as hopefully this review will demonstrate. There are two variants of the spec label found on original Stars W535 AC-28557 and 42-18245-P and that’s not the only difference you’ll find.

Collars

Burt

The Star was made without a collar stand. Collar stands were a strip of leather about ½ inch wide that were originally designed to give the collar a “ rolled” bend crease, rather than a sharp crease at the point where the collar meets the neckline. They made the collar sit up higher and made the jacket look a little more formal. Collar stands took additional time to make and attach to the collar and the jacket. They also required additional materials. Around 1942, manufacturers began to drop the collar stand and simply attach the collar directly to the neckline of the jacket. This saved time and increased jacket production to a small degree. My personal opinion is that the Star collar is one of the nicer looking collars of all of the A2 jackets . It sits nicely on the wearer's shoulders and back of the wearer's neck, and the Star collar, unlike the large collar of a Rough Wear, is proportional to the jacket . Back to you guys.

Phil

The ELC Star collar is a clear point of difference and, for me, makes it stand out from the crowd (apologies for the pun) in a positive way. The production costs of a collar stand in time, labour and materials are obvious. Star were making an A-2 for the first time and presumably weren’t saddled with the thinking of a previous design. They produced an A-2 that’s very practical in my opinion. The collar stays clear of your chin when seated allowing easy head movements all round which has to be a plus point when strapped in a cockpit.


Jan

I’ll echo the praise for the Star collar and add that successfully replicating it has been elusive. To my eye, no Star repro quite nails the distinctive curve of the collar, although I'm pretty pleased with mine. They all look nice, but for stitch counting accuracy, they should probably all be just a little bit rounder.

Before moving on, I’d like to discuss collar hooks. BK asserts that originals had their collar hooks attached with gold-finished brass eyelets, and that’s what you’ll see in Eastman’s guide. Burt’s original, however, has double-barrel eyelets, which were used on a whole bunch of other contracts, including the five other contracts issued on 18 May ‘42. Photos from John Chapman’s CD seem to have the double-barrel eyelets as well, although it’s hard to tell.

BK (and, to my knowledge, GW) reproduce the brass eyelets, while Eastman has regular nickel eyelets (which may even be accurate to some of the originals, I don't know and I wouldn't want to rule it out).

 

[mulceber]

Epaulets

Burt

The original Star has Epaulets that are stitched with double stitched seams at the leading and trailing edges . They are positioned just in front of the shoulder seam with attachment points where the shoulder meets the top of the sleeve. The Epaulets are tapered with the widest end at the shoulder seam tapering down as the epaulet reaches the attachment point at the collar/ neckline. The shoulder edge of the epaulet has a boxed and cross stitched symmetrical X, while the collar/neckline attachment point has a longer rectangular box with a cross stitched X . On this particular jacket the epaulets tend to lay fairly flat on the shoulder, however I have seen Original Star A2 jackets with epaulets that raise up a bit while the jacket is being worn. I would simply attribute this to wartime wonky production sewing. Back to you guys .


Jan

Comparing the photos, both the Eastman and the BK repro look extremely close to the epaulet details of Burt’s original. If I wanted to get into stitch-counting accuracy, it looks like the double-stitched seams narrow ever so slightly as they enter the shoulder-side x-box, but that’s certainly wartime variation. Both ELC & BK check this box (x this box?) well. My epaulets frequently lift up just a little from the body of the jacket, but as Burt said, that is common.


Phil

The Epaulettes on the ELC Star taper down from about 1 ½ inches at the shoulder to 1 ¼ inches at the collar. For those of you looking for wartime manufacturing authenticity ;-) the left and right epaulettes on this jacket sit flat but vary slightly in width.

Snaps

Burt

The snaps on the original Star A2 jacket are the small Ball Stud United Carr snaps that were prevalent at the time . They seem to have held up well over the 80 years that the jacket has been around.I personally prefer the small ball stud snaps over the larger ring snaps commonly found on the Aero, Spiewak and Poughkeepsie A2 jackets of that period. But that’s just my opinion. Ok guys, it's your turn.

Phil

John Chapman noted that the snaps are smaller at the collar than the pockets and this is true of the ELC Star. There’s a square leather tab behind the snap inside the pocket and this is a detail of the original design that has been reproduced by ELC.

Jan

I’ll second Burt’s preference for ball stud snaps over the ring snaps of later contracts. They just seem more “vintage” to me. Like Phil’s jacket, my repro has smaller collar studs than pocket studs, and the pocket stud is reinforced with a square piece of leather inside the pocket.

When I was ordering this jacket, the unique pocket tag was a detail Andy pointed out to me that he was particularly proud of. Indeed the BK jackets do seem to get that particular detail right, and it adds a nice touch of authenticity, although I’d be lying if I said that I notice it very often.

We're going to take a break right about here, because we wrote a LOT for this review (seriously - we had to take a week just to edit ourselves down), and we don't want peoples' eyes to glaze over. Phil will be picking up in a few days with the sleeves.

 

[London Cabbie]

Brilliant. Thankyou for the info, adding to my list once again…

 

[Kermit3D]

This is absolutely brilliant and very informative !
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.

 

[blackrat2]

Guys thanks so much
Just kicks things off nicely now we are back on track, totally makes Nathan’s work worth it

 

[Kennyz]

Thanks Guys, this is really interesting.

Ken

 

[WBOONE]

Very interesting indeed! Did the tanneries supply the leathers to the manufacturers directly, or to the AAF which then shipped it to the manufacturers?

 

[mulceber]

I'm not sure if there was an added step of sending the leather to the AAF, but I'm pretty sure that the military ordered the leather and had it shipped to the manufacturers, as opposed to just letting the manufacturers source whatever leather they thought was best. The people making the decisions probably thought the factories would cut costs by sourcing cheap leather if given half a chance.

 

[mulceber]

Just realized that, in mentioning the pocket tag, in the "snaps" section, I should have provided photos:

 

[Silver Surfer]

another star wth,multi pix????

 

[Flightengineer]

Thanks for this review gents, it was very interesting. As a long-term owner of ELC Star, I can say that this is a very convenient pattern indeed. Looking at the measurements on the website, it seems that the jacket will not fit and will be small, but in reality it is very comfortable and fits well. I love my Star.

 

[Chandler]

View attachment 67629
View attachment 67630
View attachment 67631

Just a detail note: anyone else notice the difference in the corner stitching on the Kelso pockets?

Looks like there was no direction on how to stitch those corners.

From the Acme Depot details on the Star: "Note the unusual triangular reinforcement stitching in the upper corners of the pocket."

http://www.acmedepot.com/a2jacket/a2images/star_pock2.jpg

This original is opposite Burt's original posted above.

 

[mulceber]

Just a detail note: anyone else notice the difference in the corner stitching on the Kelso pockets?

Looks like there was no direction on how to stitch those corners.

From the Acme Depot details on the Star: "Note the unusual triangular reinforcement stitching in the upper corners of the pocket."

http://www.acmedepot.com/a2jacket/a2images/star_pock2.jpg

This original is opposite Burt's original posted above.

Good eye, Chandler. This was something that attracted Phil's attention as well. This is one of several inconsistencies in the Star contract (the others being the different types of eyelets used on the collar hooks, and the 2 different kinds of spec labels used). The three of us looked at about 4 originals and saw the triangle stitching oriented both ways. What's more, there wasn't any rhyme or reason to which jackets had it (so it's not like the lighter-colored stars were one way and the darker stars were another, or the stars with double barrel collar hooks had one kind of triangle stitching, while the ones with brass eyelets had another kind).

another star wth,multi pix????View attachment 67703View attachment 67702View attachment 67702View attachment 67703View attachment 67702

Gorgeous Star, Vic! Is that a repro or an original?

 

[Chandler]

Thanks for this review gents, it was very interesting. As a long-term owner of ELC Star, I can say that this is a very convenient pattern indeed. Looking at the measurements on the website, it seems that the jacket will not fit and will be small, but in reality it is very comfortable and fits well. I love my Star.

Fantastic example. What "vintage" is your ELC? Have you done any sort of special aging or weathering, or just wear the hell out of it?

I only wish my own ELC would start looking like that.

 

[Flightengineer]

Fantastic example. What "vintage" is your ELC? Have you done any sort of special aging or weathering, or just wear the hell out of it?

I only wish my own ELC would start looking like that.

No any special aging, buddy. Just wearing and wearing. 3 yeras I own it.
For about 2,5 years it was my main leather jacket. I just wore it a lot, walked in it, drove a car and wear in plane during several technical flights.

 

[Lord Flashheart]

To pick up on your point Chandler we did hope others here with original Stars would share some of the details on their jackets like that pocket stitching. As Jan says there are some inconsistencies in this contract which are quite curious and don’t seem to have a particular logic from what we’ve seen … so far

 

[mulceber]

Very well put, Phil. There are variations in most contracts, but the inconsistencies of the Star go beyond your typical "they used more than one type of zipper," or "the pocket flaps vary in shape a bit."

 

[Lord Flashheart]

… and that makes this contract more than a little interesting

 

[Silver Surfer]

the one in my pix is a bk star purchased during the summer from maik [m from Berlin]. I purchased it with the express purpose of seeing just how close I could get to making a new repro look like an original. the work involved in facilitating a vintage look was a painstaking process of removing the original seal dye, redying, dye removal, wet-dry emery abrasion, soaking-drying, dinging, etc, and that repeating as needed. the chenille patch [from elc] was soaked in a tea bath to knock down the color brightness. now that I have had my way with her, I would consider trading her for another repro[ preferably a russet rw] size 42 a-2. that or offer her for sale.

 

[Lord Flashheart]

So, time for me to carry on with "Chapter 2" of our three way review picking up where Jan left off with some thoughts about the Star's sleeves.

Sleeves:

Burt
The sleeves on this original are inset into the body panel and held in place by a single stitch line. Probably the most interesting thing about the sleeves on the original Star A2 are how they are not as tapered as ELC Stars and some of the other top tier repro manufacturers who represent them to be repros of this contract . Having had an ELC Star repro, I remember that the forearms of the jacket were very tapered. However, this is not the case with this original. It will be interesting to see how the two repros we are discussing here measure up to the original in this area. What are your thoughts on this Jan and Phil?

Jan
My sleeves are more tapered than a Dubow (which isn’t saying much). The arms slide off pretty easily. I’d say they’re less trim than the pics I see of ELC’s Star (or any of the rest of ELC’s A-2s, for that matter - they all seem to have that problem).

Phil
I’d agree with Burt that the sleeves are noticeably tapered on ELC’s Star but this doesn’t affect its wearability or ease of removal.

Body Panels & General Comments on the Jacket

Burt
The body panels on the original Star are nicely made. They taper slowly at the waist giving the jacket a tapered look. However, as John Chapman noted in his description of the Star contract, the upper back and shoulder panels are cut wider and give the jacket a more comfortable fit. He noted that, because of this, the sleeves had a tendency not to ride up as in many other A2 contracts. I normally wear a size 46 A2, but I find that based on the cut of the panels and back of this jacket a size 48 fits me nicely. The jacket has the appearance of a WWII fit in that it blouses nicely and just works for me. The Star is one of my favorite contracts and this original is probably the one original in my collection that I would be reluctant to ever sell.
While I’m at it just a brief word about WWII fits and blousing. The elusive World War II fit has always intrigued me. It seems that everyone strives for “the look” with the trim fit and the blousing effect . I’ve come to the conclusion that those two attributes are at odds with each other. Here’s why: A jacket needs extra room in order to blouse, as has been seen in many period photos. A trim fitting jacket which is so trim that only a T-shirt can be worn under it , simply cannot blouse. There’s no room or extra hide to blouse . So that’s my thoughts on the matter, others may disagree. Let’s hear what Jan and Phil have to say .


Phil
I had expected the ELC Star to be a trim fit all round but it has proved more comfortable and flexible for upper body movement because of its wider upper body and noticeable taper in the sleeves. This makes it quite accommodating of torso movement. I do believe that ELC’s Star pattern has a longer back length than the originals though. ELC’s Star is Seal Brown and this particular leather has a deep bronze colour with Havana thread. The leather feels a bit heavier than the other A-2 repro’s I have.

Jan
I agree, Burt: the blousing effect and the trim jacket look are frequently, if not always, at odds with each other. When we do see pilots wearing originals with the blousing effect, it frequently isn’t an effect I’d want to replicate! Check out these guys:

Then again, there are fellows like this who square the circle and manage a trim fit with some blousing:

I agree with both of your assessments of the fit. The extra room in the upper torso is welcome, and it, along with the rotated sleeves, makes the Star a bit more comfortable when lifting your arms.

The color of the leather is another issue I’d like to discuss. Most Stars that I’ve seen are like Burt’s: a Hershey-brown that’s somewhere between russet and seal (and that, frustratingly, falls between the colors that most repro makers offer). That being said, Eastman’s A-2 guide and John Chapman’s CD both preserve originals that are a good match for the kind of seal brown offered by both BK and ELC.