KOTCS Jacket

[Kt. Templar]

I was playing with the idea but only playing!

Berman's do sort of exist. They were absorbed by Angel's a few years ago and went under the name Angel's and Berman's... In the last few years the Berman's part has been quietly dropped.

If you are ever in London you can visit the London fancy dress shop in Cambridge Circus, near to Leicester Square. They still have a big warehouse in North London too.

The people who worked at MBA also are still around and work mainly for theatre productions.

I have a vivid memory of seeing a Stormtrooper outfit in a window of a shop at the bottom of Leicester Square late 70's early 80's. Turns out it was the Berman's shop in Irving street.

[inbanana]

Huh, I didn't know that they still were around, kinda. I thought that I read somewhere that they went out of business awhile ago for some reason... or maybe i was thinking of MBA? I don't know, I get the two confused and my memory is shot lately... I can't remember half the stuff I read on these boards anymore. I guess a lot of the people who worked on the movies back then might not be with them anymore anyway. The only reason I bring them up is I don't know who you get in contact with who has experience with that sort of thing... I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of people here who probably know more about aging/distressing their gear than most costumers, but, who has the time, space, materials to take something like that on? Sounds like it would be kinda fun though, once in awhile I think about raiding second hand shops for cheap leather jackets just to start practicing on... but I just dont have the space around here to do it. And, maybe its not as complicated as I'm imagining it to be... didn't Noel Howard tell a story of how he distressed the ToD jacket by simply using a brick? I was intimidated to bash my own hats at fist, but now I prefer do do it myself because thats part of the fun of the hobby... maybe I should just learn to distress my own jackets. But... I still think it would a good option for Wested to have. Anyway...

[Kt. Templar]

Actually reading that back I was a bit confusing.

MBA was an spin off of some of the people who worked at Berman's, there is another company that now does the theatre work. I'll not name them, they don't seem to want to do 'general public' work. This company is made up partly of ex MBA folk. The company that was MBA was bought up by Hand and Lock a company that does a lot of Military Embroidery, amongst other things.

As for the B&N I don't know if any people are still working for Angels, it was a long time ago!

Ref:

www.angels.uk.com/history.html

www.hand-embroidery.co.uk/about-us/our-present/

www.do-business.net/Indexer/Company/Mba-Costumes-Ltd

[tibor]

"To quote Belloq's last words, "It's beautiful!"

Why doesn't Wested offer this heavy vegetable tanned lamb? It would be a big hit, no? "
-garzo


As a matter of fact, Wested did make jackets out of this hide, and you're right, absolutely beautiful stuff. I had one. They had enough hide left to make about 5 or 6 of these. It is wonderfully substantial and has a great leather smell that fills the closet. I unfortunately needed a bit more sleeve length and sold mine to another Indy collector.

I posted once that if Peter made jackets with a dark version of this hide, he'd have a huge line of interest. It is wonderful stuff. I'm kind of a fan of veg-tanned hides, and believe me, this stuff was great, even lighter colored like this. Absolutely loved it. Personally, I think it is way better than the Novapelle he offers or the cowhide used in the Crystal Skull jackets.

KT, if you have Peter's ear, see if he'd consider getting some of this veg-tanned lamb in a dark brown. Just great stuff.

[garzo]

Tibor,
I totally agree. I love veg-tanned leather, especially the stuff used by Aero, as seen here: www.aeroleatherclothing.com/webapp/aeroleather/servlet/AeroViewPage?page=displayproduct&subcatid=99&prodid=519
I imagine it's not easy for Peter to walk that thin line between being really one of the most affordable jacket makers and also testing new, more expensive leathers which could cost him more than he would make -- especially in view of the fact that so many Indy jacket collectors are really into screen accuracy. I love the Indy jacket style, but I'm not into screen accuracy, and I would jump at a jacket like that. I even love the color as is. It's great, it sets it apart, but it's still a period-accurate russet tone.
It's a tough call. On the one hand, you have guys like Tony Nowak apparently going to town with new types of hide, while Peter has for a very long time seemingly relied on his tried and true leather selections, which it seems people are finding a bit dull now compared with Nowak's distressed cowhide, shrunken lamb, 747 (what exactly is 747 leather?) and super hand-distressed jackets. I'm not at all sure if they're really that much better, but it seems Nowak has definitely started a loud buzz going.
Peter seems to be adding new leathers as well, like the novapelles and this upcoming new shrunken lamb that he's supposed to be introducing soon (and which I'm looking forward to seeing), if he hasn't already.

[crismans]

The 747 is a grained, soft cowhide. From all reports, a very nice leather that captures the Raiders look well.