I completed a special project a few weeks back. Here at Himel Brothers we strive for authenticity and ultimate creativity. I have a huge collection of vintage leather jackets and being small I am capable of small run special projects.
One of the special qualities of custom jackets made before 1930 was the raw custom nature of the techniques that went into their making. The reality is many of the tailors that sewed leather jackets pre 1930 had little experience in mass production. The pattern making skills were often intuitive, the sewing techniques were usually crude and rudimentary. Jacket makers would either be copying something that they had seen in a publication or just a simple interpretation of something from memory. There were few sewing standards and pattern making techniques pre WW 2. The primitive nature of these jackets is very hard to “recapture” both in technique and spirit because of the random beauty of the intuitive design.
I own thousands of jackets. I love leather and developed a crazed passion for collecting and dissecting the nature of these jackets. My Heron jacket is one of the results of my passion for patterns. My new friend Roger of VMC Originals asked me to do a very special project of super authentic Herons.
Back in the day leather jackets were mostly work wear. Leather shells were super tough but often even after being resewn the linings were not either tough enough or warm enough for the inclement conditions that workers of the 1920s might have to endure. Often the jackets would go back the tailor to have a old tired blanket sewn in to provide extra warmth. What better way to keep a good and expensive garment working for you then to repurpose a warm old wool blanket into a liner. I own many such jackets with custom blanket liners. Here is my version of blanket liners in my Heron’s available exclusively at VMC in Switzerland. Each jacket became a unique artwork combining the beauty of the past with the resurrection of new horsehide leather shells!
