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What jacket(s) are you wearing at the moment?

ausreenactor

Well-Known Member
Cold enough for a B-10 this morning, and I chose to throw on my 'The Paul Reed Company' contract repro made by RMNZ / The Few. This was a wartime issued B-10 contract, and seldom seen in the repro world. I found info from VLJ dated between 2009-2010 while researching:


Apparently, these jackets were made for the 'Red Tails' movie by RMNZ / The Few, and ultimately not accepted by the production. The reason given was that the jacket's torso was thought to be too short, but as far as overall fit goes, the tagged size 44 (my size) is a comfortable fit for me with some blousing. I would like to see more knit cuff with my arms relaxed, but when reaching-out they extend nicely, and would actually ride-up over my wrists too much if the sleeves were shorter.

View attachment 26771

View attachment 26772

EDIT: RMNZ / The Few copied the original 'The Paul Reed Company' contract pattern and pockets / flaps / collar shape pretty well IMO:

View attachment 26773


The repro's label is pretty damn close to this original's:

View attachment 26774
Not too many of these around! Nice jacket!
 

Grant

Well-Known Member
Paddy, you inspired me to break mine out. Off to the flea markets!

Irvin.jpg
 

Micawber

Well-Known Member
Grey double breasted cashmere overcoat to attend a Remembrance Sunday service this morning. Not quite VLJ I admit but hey ho. Lest We Forget.
 

ties70

Well-Known Member
Cold enough for a B-10 this morning, and I chose to throw on my 'The Paul Reed Company' contract repro made by RMNZ / The Few. This was a wartime issued B-10 contract, and seldom seen in the repro world. I found info from VLJ dated between 2009-2010 while researching:


Apparently, these jackets were made for the 'Red Tails' movie by RMNZ / The Few, and ultimately not accepted by the production. The reason given was that the jacket's torso was thought to be too short, but as far as overall fit goes, the tagged size 44 (my size) is a comfortable fit for me with some blousing. I would like to see more knit cuff with my arms relaxed, but when reaching-out they extend nicely, and would actually ride-up over my wrists too much if the sleeves were shorter.

View attachment 26771

View attachment 26772

EDIT: RMNZ / The Few copied the original 'The Paul Reed Company' contract pattern and pockets / flaps / collar shape pretty well IMO:

View attachment 26773


The repro's label is pretty damn close to this original's:

View attachment 26774

Hey,

I got one of these, too!

RMNZ told me a different story regarding the RED TAILS B-10 jackets, when I bought it: The jackets got rejected, because they looked too bulky on the african-american actors. These probably looked more like modern 100m runners and boxers, and less like corn-fed depression kids.... Add the thick alpaca and you end up with "Ghostbuster's" marshmallow men....
 

Technonut2112

Well-Known Member
Hey,

I got one of these, too!

RMNZ told me a different story regarding the RED TAILS B-10 jackets, when I bought it: The jackets got rejected, because they looked too bulky on the african-american actors. These probably looked more like modern 100m runners and boxers, and less like corn-fed depression kids.... Add the thick alpaca and you end up with "Ghostbuster's" marshmallow men....


Actually, it was you that wrote about the jackets being rejected for having short torsos back in 2010:

Bevan has told me that the Reed jackets were rejected by "Red Tails" because of their too short torso, which is definitely not the case with my jacket

Regardless of the reason, it appears from looking at pics of the original size 42 'The Paul Reed Company' jacket pictured in my post, that RMNZ / The Few copied it quite well, and the jackets were rejected for just 'being what it was' originally as patterned by The Paul Reed Company. There was only speculation when the thread I researched was written between 2009-2010 since no one there seemed to have actually seen or offered pics of an original..
 

ties70

Well-Known Member
Actually, it was you that wrote about the jackets being rejected for having short torsos back in 2010:



Regardless of the reason, it appears from looking at pics of the original size 42 'The Paul Reed Company' jacket pictured in my post, that RMNZ / The Few copied it quite well, and the jackets were rejected for just 'being what it was' originally as patterned by The Paul Reed Company. There was only speculation when the thread I researched was written between 2009-2010 since no one there seemed to have actually seen or offered pics of an original..

Damn, you are right... :oops:

I had to recheck myself...and found one (simple) explanation from Bevan and one (more elaborate) from Paddy at RMNZ in a private email, stating that the film production rejected the jackets, as due to their lining they looked too short on the actors (for the film crew's liking).

I guess neither of my explanations (from 2010 and from today) is totally wrong, but somehow in hindsight I must have come up with a personal logic chain of "too short torso = bulkiness of lining + physique / ethnicity of actors".

Sorry for that!
 
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