The sizing issue myth

[zoomer]

Forgive the zombie-ing of this 5 1/2 yr old thread, but here, fwiw, is a possible bottom line on sizing:

If you are on the large end of normal sizing today, a flight jacket may make YOU look good...
...but YOU wearing it may NOT make the manufacturer look good.
A lot of it is about selling an image, and that includes a body image.
That's business...and that's society.

There really is not as much diversity among jacket fans as you might think. Read around this forum sometime and you'll find we are surprisingly alike. Very few outliers. I am one, and not just in terms of my physique (I'm pretty physically active, but due to insulin dependency I cannot lose weight).

 

[Persimmon]

????
Ha ha.
I feel like a zombie reading this.

 

[zoomer]

Braaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiins.

 

[Silver Surfer]

braaaaaiiiiins, crunch, crunch, slobber, slobber gurgle. yeah, my kinda people.

 

[jeremiah]

Pretty ironic when the BK aero I won last week tagged 38 is said to fit more like a size 40 on the eBay sell page of BKchicago. Wonder what he would say to that?

 

[dmar836]

Won’t say anything here.

 

[stanier]

Forgive the zombie-ing of this 5 1/2 yr old thread, but here, fwiw, is a possible bottom line on sizing:

If you are on the large end of normal sizing today, a flight jacket may make YOU look good...
...but YOU wearing it may NOT make the manufacturer look good.
A lot of it is about selling an image, and that includes a body image.
That's business...and that's society.

There really is not as much diversity among jacket fans as you might think. Read around this forum sometime and you'll find we are surprisingly alike. Very few outliers. I am one, and not just in terms of my physique (I'm pretty physically active, but due to insulin dependency I cannot lose weight).

Definitely agree with the bit in bold.

Don't think I agree with the rest though. I think there's a huge amount of diversity, just like wartime pics, its just the diversity has generally moved to larger (read wider, disproportionately to taller), which doesn't always have the best impact on a wartime design with a 70 plus year old image.

I do agree that from reading the forum over the years I seem to have developed general semi-unconscious perception that (on the forum at least) folk in the US are generally a size 46 -48 in a long fitting, folk in Europe generally size 42 -44 with a mix of long and regular fitting and folk in Australia I think I have the perception of being the trimmest at a size 40 or thereabouts and a mix of long and regular. Of course there's then the mass of exceptions everywhere, real and imagined!

However, is it only me(?) that's sometimes perplexed when it happens on the forum that two members will be talking about jackets of a similar or same size, then they post fit pics. One can look like a shrink wrapped hippopotamus (usually me! and quite a look when the jacket concerned is a B-3 or Irvin!) and the other like a mouse lost in a potato sack. Regardless, nice chaps that we are on the forum we'll then get into a debate about the shape of the pocket flaps, and the weave of the knits, how the sleeves will wrinkle and so shorten etc. and in both scenarios, and how the maker has played with the pattern...Honestly chaps, the maker from GW to EL to Aero to BK to BR to RMJ or whoever, regardless of contract, is most unlikely to be the major cause of a jacket looking uncool. Its most likely down to us, IMHO, and when we play with patterns to try and accommodate ourselves, (and I stress IMHO) often goes a lot more wrong than we think. Btw, I love that wrinkle sleeves thing, yes they shorten an inch or two, but sometimes it looks like you could get two jackets out of one and we're saying don't worry the sleeves will wrinkle and shorten! Reminds me of "Are you being served" and the immortal line "it'll ride up with wear"!

I think there's some on the forum who try and keep themselves in shape to look and feel good in their jackets and hats off to them, and why not enjoy that image. But even if you don't have a wartime physique and you're happy with your jacket then as long as you don't blame the maker for incorrectly reproducing the contract or whatever, then that's fine too isn't it?

Just my politically incorrect tuppence worth, and certainly not aimed at or meant to offend anyone!

 

[zoomer]

> Honestly chaps, the maker from GW to EL to Aero to BK to BR to RMJ or whoever, regardless of contract, is most unlikely to be the major cause of a jacket looking uncool.

Agreed. But my point is that a manufacturer may not want to be associated with certain body types - because of their image of themselves, and their image to customers with more "normal" body types!

You won't make jackets in size 48 if you believe a size 48 man, or a 46 who needs a size bigger around the belly, doesn't look good in anything and should just go to the mall.

 

[stanier]

I think I’m missing the point somehow, sorry.

Surely a manufacturer of WW2 flying jackets can be forgiven for, and can justify without being unkind to anyone, an association with ww2 body types, and they can make and advertise on that premise without any worry.

And if they make jackets that customers can’t get into they’ll be soon out if business so they can’t alienate people.

I bet when most of ourselves buy a new jacket we don’t see in our minds eye a 46 inch chest (belly) 40 inch waist 5’8” bloke in that new dream A-2. Most of us have that ww2 rakish look in the minds eye. I was that 46 inch chest bloke once btw, and the good news is that if you want to you can lose it in a couple of months and then just manage it.

But if someone is enjoying the jackets with their belly and sizing up that’s entirely fine and for no one else to comment. The makers should make authentic sizing, imho and the rest is up to us.

But normalising the belly is not the way to go. And you certainly wouldn’t have wanted me in makers photos when I was that round! Mind you, you wouldn’t anyway!

Sorry just a different point of view.

 

[ButteMT61]

In WWII, there are not lots of examples of pilots/ground crews sporting 2018 beer guts.
I think making generic jackets must have been much easier in 1943. Today, men are larger in just about every dimension, and let's be honest, some guys expect a $1400 jacket to overcome years of sitting, drinking, and basically wanting to look like a WWII era flying ace. Won't happen. Hell, if I put on 10-15 pounds on my 6'-4" frame, a jacket can look like shite because it goes in that one spot.
I've seen well built guys wearing junk jackets who look great. It's just reality chaps.

 

[Thomas Koehle]

for me there is nothing wrong for manufacturers to limit their size-range to a 46 / 48

rather than trying to pick every available penny the limit not only their size-range but also the amount of potential customers and potential profit other than sending people out which might look ridiculous in a size 52 A2 repop

I always feel on the lucky side to be a 44 / 46 coz still repop-garment is usually available in my size

due to that I not really have any criticism for this fact

 

[zoomer]

I just like them because they make me look great when they fit me, and because I like planes and old stuff in general. I'm a tourist compared to a lot of you who appreciate a jacket as not just an item of practicality and style, but a badge of achievement and belonging.