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

[London Cabbie]

Fantastic photos.

 

[Lord Flashheart]

Toys McCoy B-3

 

[ES335]

Bronson B-10View attachment 72885

Aside from great looking kit, your background countryside looks like the kind that been cultivated and loved for hundreds of years. If not longer. Beautiful, and may it always be preserved for what it is and what it represents.

 

[OperationCoffee]

Whenever I see a Brit properly attired with their Irvin on they look more .... natural/in their element. There just aren't nearly enough sartorial precedents for wearing a heavy shearling jacket in America these days. You couldn't catch me dead with a baseball cap on while wearing an Irvin. Woolen watch cap / beanie, yes ( Phigvel makes good stuff) or a B2.

 

[Micawber]

Whenever I see a Brit properly attired with their Irvin on they look more .... natural/in their element. There just aren't nearly enough sartorial precedents for wearing a heavy shearling jacket in America these days. You couldn't catch me dead with a baseball cap on while wearing an Irvin. Woolen watch cap / beanie, yes ( Phigvel makes good stuff) or a B2.

This 'Brit' or rather 'Englishman' is grateful for your observations. Speaking personally I don't look upon original or repro of military issue shearling garments as a kind of sartorial wear. I suppose what sticks in my mind and colours my view is being ancient enough to have been around when RAF shearling jackets were viewed as so much military surplus and widely available for little money and widely worn [and worn out] as work and bike wear.

As far as I can recall the only time I wore a baseball cap was when I attended this or that reunion as it had space to have my name and 'job' embroidered across the front which helped identify who, and what I was. That was not something that could easily be achieved on my usual style of headwear

 

[Micawber]

Toys McCoy B-3View attachment 73221

Nice! New acquisition?

 

[newagegeezer]

I'm even more ancient (venerable ?) than Steve and remember buying my first Irvin in about 1960 from Millets' military surplus emporium in Lewisham, London along with a pair of flying boots to wear on my first motorcycle, an early '50s 350 Matchless. Also picked up a few M41s for summer wear over the years from there and teh occasional A2. The clothes were stacked high in piles, fun sorting through looking for one's size. Luckily being a skinny "ration years" kid hardly anything was too big. As Steve says this clothing was just cheap workwear back then. All i had from that era wore out and was thrown away years ago, sob sob

 

[Micawber]

I'm even more ancient (venerable ?) than Steve and remember buying my first Irvin in about 1960 from Millets' military surplus emporium in Lewisham, London along with a pair of flying boots to wear on my first motorcycle, an early '50s 350 Matchless. Also picked up a few M41s for summer wear over the years from there and teh occasional A2. The clothes were stacked high in piles, fun sorting through looking for one's size. Luckily being a skinny "ration years" kid hardly anything was too big. As Steve says this clothing was just cheap workwear back then. All i had from that era wore out and was thrown away years ago, sob sob

Aye, as the venerable gentleman rightly states it was a case of stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap. My local Millets' was run for years by a squat old gal who always had a fag [cigarette] on the go and wore multiple layers of jumpers and cardigans. She appeared to be always miserable and if you dared to approach her would only utter grudgingly to point you in the direction of where you might, just might, find what you were looking for. She would view everyone as if they were about to rob the place. Her idea of a stockroom was piles of stuff stacked on the stairs, under sale rails and in every nook and cranny so that the only way around the place was via narrow gangways through the 'stuff'. There was a proper stockroom but that too was piled high with gear. Same ethos regarding military surplus applied on the the various market stalls which were a feature of most towns and cities decades before the majority of stalls became trendy, faddy, food outlets, lifestyle trinkets and cheap stuff made in far off lands.

 

[newagegeezer]

The Lewisham one was exactly the same , right down to the stuff piled on stairs, I'm using a similar system at home right now, much to the consternation of 'er indoors who wants it all gone, I expect others have a similar experience

 

[Dany McDonald]

I suppose what sticks in my mind and colours my view is being ancient enough to have been around when RAF shearling jackets were viewed as so much military surplus and widely available for little money and widely worn [and worn out] as work and bike wear.

I'm even more ancient (venerable ?) than Steve and remember buying my first Irvin in about 1960 from Millets' military surplus emporium in Lewisham, London along with a pair of flying boots to wear on my first motorcycle, an early '50s 350 Matchless.

Gents,

I am not that ancient... But I can appreciate those anecdotes about something or a time when you could easily find or acquire a piece of history rooted in the 30's 40's and 50's.

About 5 years ago a gentleman told me he use to buy WW2 Lee-Enfield surplus rifles for like 15$ at an old surplus that was very close to my home in downtown Montreal.

Keep em coming!

Dany

 

[Pilot]

Uhhh!
As a „second class“ Frenchman… due to „ Par le Sang Versé“… I really love and appreciate the saber’s crossing inbetween „Englishmen“ and other „ Gentlemen“ from or beyond the Largest Nicest Kingdom with a French device on its Royals flags ( Honi soit qui mal y pense… Dieu et mon droit ‚ ) and armory.
Many thanks for that „ Messieurs les Anglais“
You and your world famous sense of Humor made again my day

 

[Nickb123]

GW B-3

 

[Micawber]

There are several things that my recent encounter with the Big C brought home, one is to try to hard keep things in perspective and another is never to take yourself too seriously. With the latter in mind here is my attempt at increasing the sartorial presence of this 'Brit' while wearing my old ELC Irvin.
I also thought that instead of the usual Springer Spaniel accompaniment one of our black Labradors would be more fitting

Excuse the portly appearance, the jumper hides a thick fleece shirt.

Just a bit of fun...

 

[mulceber]

Jack Frost is back (-8 C right now), so out comes the GW B-6:

 

[Wz1999]

Dubow (Platon) today

 

[Lord Flashheart]

Nice! New acquisition?

Thank you Steve, picked this up from our Mr Lever last year and haven't worn it enough. I'm not sure a village hall kitchen is the right setting but it was a good choice on a cold evening. This might not be a spot on B-3 repro but it's very comfortable and that counts for much.

 

[Micawber]

Thank you Steve, picked this up from our Mr Lever last year and haven't worn it enough. I'm not sure a village hall kitchen is the right setting but it was a good choice on a cold evening. This might not be a spot on B-3 repro but it's very comfortable and that counts for much.

Comfort counts for a good deal in my view. You should have popped over to our village hall, we have a brand new one don't ya know

 

[CBI]

A brief time with my original Rough Wear (probably RW), no tag but ID'd by JC as an RW. its an old A-2 in any case:

 

[Lord Flashheart]

Comfort counts for a good deal in my view. You should have popped over to our village hall, we have a brand new one don't ya know

That's all very well but my am dram group meets across the border ... and if you're really lucky I won't tell you when our next performance is

 

[saucerfiend]

A brief time with my original Rough Wear (probably RW), no tag but ID'd by JC as an RW. its an old A-2 in any case:

View attachment 73313View attachment 73314View attachment 73315View attachment 73316View attachment 73317

Nice fit and a gorgeous hide! Is that a snap at the bottom?