The future of Jacket Collecting (Original and Repro)

[Skip]

Surely there are women out there that love this stuff too...

Skip i'd say she's rare. You wouldn't have too many more days of the year than me when you can wear an A-2 so when the cool weather's on I wear mine almost every day, which my wife just tolerates me doing... I do get a few comments from her when I take one of my Irvins away, as I did in NZ last year. She has a hard time understanding the care I take for that "smelly old sheepskin" and how it gets it's own bag for travelling.

With regard to collecting originals i'll keep a couple of really good ones (A-2's and Irvins) as long as I can, but I make sure that I have as much info on them as possible- history, provenance etc so they aren't just orphaned old leather jackets.

I get that comment alot Andrew, kinda feel I'm the luckiest guy on the planet. Our first date, she was more excited about the Alfa and it's Recaro seats, stuff the movies let's just go for a drive! Sometimes we'd drive to Williamtown hoping to hear an F/A 18 warming up on the tarmac before we'd rush to one of the nearby headlands and watch them doing manoeuvres out to sea...

Wollongong based now so we get the odd colder day every now and then. I thought about getting an Irvin, but dismissed it on the idea I'd have to move to Tasmania or at least somewhere where it snows to wear it. I'm sure just looking at makes you sweat. I'm drawn to the jackets more than anything else, as I love the machines they flew and its as close as I'll ever get to flying one. There's something about an A-2 or M-422 that just can't be replicated in todays modern gear. Better made, better materials, made with care (?) and oozing style. Sounds gushy but maybe its more the romance and adventure of those days, something long gone and almost extinct in todays fast paced world. Just wish I'd cottoned on to the real deal jackets 10 years ago... so much to learn and so little time.

 

[taikonaut]

What got me into flight jackets was after watching Memphis Belle in 1990. You know when everyone men and women wore an Irvine soon after that movie came out but I didn't like the Irvine because I had my eyes on the A2. I just left college and placed an order for a Cooper A2 from an ad in a Playboy magazine (we didn't have internet then and everything was a big deal including draconian censorship here in the UK) it was a month's wages which I still wear. These early Coopers were cut almost like their WW2 counterpart unlike the ones that came out later. While I was queuing at a newsagent in the university everyone had an Irvine (being swept by the Memphis Belle movie craze) but I had my Cooper A2. There were gasp and comments because they obviously seen it in the movie and it is way cooler then their repro Irvine and nowhere sells A2 unless they read Playboy

In an interview Gary Eastman said it was difficult if not impossible to get hold of original A2s in the 80s because many veterans were still alive. I've noticed there were lots of original WW2 jackets for sale 10+ years ago than they have now and prices have gone up considerably.

 

[Flightengineer]

What got me into flight jackets was after watching Memphis Belle in 1990. You know when everyone men and women wore an Irvine soon after that movie came out but I didn't like the Irvine because I had my eyes on the A2. I just left college and placed an order for a Cooper A2 from an ad in a Playboy magazine (we didn't have internet then and everything was a big deal including draconian censorship here in the UK) it was a month's wages which I still wear. These early Coopers were cut almost like their WW2 counterpart unlike the ones that came out later. While I was queuing at a newsagent in the university everyone had an Irvine (being swept by the Memphis Belle movie craze) but I had my Cooper A2. There were gasp and comments because they obviously seen it in the movie and it is way cooler then their repro Irvine and nowhere sells A2 unless they read Playboy

In an interview Gary Eastman said it was difficult if not impossible to get hold of original A2s in the 80s because many veterans were still alive. I've noticed there were lots of original WW2 jackets for sale 10+ years ago than they have now and prices have gone up considerably.

Can you post this Cooper A2 pics?