Belstaff Jackets

[Admin Jaap]

I don't know exactly where this thread is going...

[antonio carroccio]

Say Jaap, should we close this topic?

Sometimes a man get to to what a man get to do!

[belfastguzzi]

So, it's settled then...poseur fashionista kit

 

still oddly attracted to "The Look", although not attracted to the price they want to achieve that look.

...seems Orson was right. I saw the price of some B*lst&ff stuff. I was thinking of Barbour prices (which themselves are twice wots reasonable) but the B*lst&ff prices were X times greater. Deary me. (I trust that's all vague enough to keep the lawyers at bay.)

 

So, the solution is obvious.

A tin of Barbour reproofing wax is £5.97.

You'll get a quality cotton jacket

maybe like this 'amphibious cotton' jacket

for about £80 or so

 

So buy the jacket or get one in the sales for £40, slather it in Barbour wax, give it a go-over with a hairdryer

and Bob's your uncle for £50 or thereabouts

– a fraction of the cost –

for a unique hand-finished item that's both practical and fashionable.

 

With this approach, I reckon you could afford to go the whole hog.

Forget the cotton. Get the real deal

Waxed Harris Tweed

 

This Commodore Jacket in tweed would be just the ticket for the treatment

Two tins of reproofing wax may be required for this material.

 

Candle wax would probably be cheaper again – and offer more protection in an accident.

[macguzzi]

Candle wax would only be safe in an accident if it was beeswax modern candles are made from very flammable stuff, try it by throwing an Ikea candle onto your fire, please remember to stand well back and take adequate fire precautions.

[Richard]

Candle wax would only be safe in an accident if it was beeswax modern candles are made from very flammable stuff, try it by throwing an Ikea candle onto your fire, please remember to stand well back and take adequate fire precautions.

Hmmm.... I feel a drunken test coming on....

[belfastguzzi]

Hmmm.... I feel a drunken test coming on....

Ikea candle?

Is that some sort of hip Scots term for this stuff?

 

I know that you dribble it down your jacket front, but no, I don't recommend total immersion.

[mike wilson]

Owners of those classics or any other vintage British or European make will surely want to complete The Look by going all the way with an International. And while you're at it, how about a pudding bowl helmet and some stringback gloves?"

 

 

I'm two thirds of the way there but prefer gauntlets and Dunlop wellies. Not green ones, proper steel-toecapped ones.

[velofish]

Well, this thread has meandered, but I've had my Belstaff leather jacket for a couple years and it's done just fine.

 

 

It is made in Pakistan, so don't think that you're buying English goods. It's not as heavy as a Vanson, but much heavier than a "fashion" jacket. The sleeves are long enough to work in the bike position and all the zippers have held up just great.

 

Oh, re: the British royals. they really have done well for themselves considering they're a bunch of krauts.

 

fish

[belfastguzzi]

Sorry, that jacket is leather (made in Pakistan), not waxed cotton and not lovingly crafted and rubbed by an English tailoring-man.

Therefore it cannot possibly be 'the real thing', as required by Orson, the British Queen and Steve McQueen. I think we do have to agree it has to be Barbour, or nothing.

[Orson]

Sorry, that jacket is leather (made in Pakistan), not waxed cotton and not lovingly crafted and rubbed by an English tailoring-man.

Therefore it cannot possibly be 'the real thing', as required by Orson, the British Queen and Steve McQueen. I think we do have to agree it has to be Barbour, or nothing.

actually, I was put off by Mr. Roper's description of wax cotton way back on page # 1

[belfastguzzi]

actually, I was put off by Mr. Roper's description of wax cotton way back on page # 1

Are you a man or a mouse?

 

Oh talking about mice, clearly the important lesson to be taken from the P.Roper Post is that in dire circumstances, when on the road and the V.11 (inevitably) breaks down and you are stranded without help (possibly because you smell like a fish and no-one will come within a mile), you can survive by eating your nourishing waxed cotton jacket on the walk-out. Try that with cordura, polyurethane and kevlar!

[mike wilson]

Not so much eat. More, lick.

 

Then you can reproof it and off you go again.......

[Ballabio Bertie]

Apparently the Belstaff IS just a fashion item...Just as well really,they were always f***ing useless as waterproofs.

Very good at keeping water INSIDE the pockets as I recall. But there were very few alternatives back then..

 

From The Times

September 10, 2008

Mutton dressed as lad: a revolutionary biker jacket

The Belstaff Trialmaster epitomises Che Guevara chic

 

The Mutton recently returned from a trip to NY, which seemed to be having a bit of a motorcycling moment in fashion. In the window of Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue, there was a shop-dummy biker chick perched cross-legged and side saddle on a jauntily angled Triumph Scrambler, while down in the East Village, the RRL Ralph Lauren boutique had a vintage BMW in the window. A couple of blocks away, I spotted a huge billboard for the sportswear brand K-Swiss, featuring a dude standing with what looked like another vintage Beamer. The Big Apple seems to be in love with the idea of motorcycling, which is ironic given that the state of the roads and traffic actively legislates against this form of transport.

 

Anyway, as that well-known New York journalist, Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw, might have put it: “That night I got to thinking ... if a guy wanted to do the biker look thing, just what kind of a jacket would he wear?”

 

Well OK, the thought really struck me when I'd landed back in Blighty and was wandering around the new Dunhill store at Bourdon House in Mayfair, London, which opened last week. Set in a beautifully restored early 18th-century former residence of the second Duke of Westminster, this temple to the spirit of the original Alfred Dunhill contains a number of intriguing museum pieces, including, in the first-floor “Discovery Room”, a brown leather, double-breasted, collarless Dunhill biker jacket from 1909. The look certainly has heritage, then.

 

But, although real riders of bikes wear jackets as a form of protective clothing, there are many who just like the look and its associations of rebellious youth, freedom and the open road. And, given these associations, it is perhaps little wonder that some of those who go for the Brando-meets-McQueen image are men of a certain age trying to belie the passage of time through adopting a piece of outerwear. Well, I suppose it's a lot less painful than surgery and a lot less bother than regular trips to the gym.

 

But, given the all-too-easy taunt of MLC (mid-life crisis), how should the mature biker approach the jacket conundrum? Well, if you're really going to zip about at high speed with nothing between you and the tarmac but your clothes and a crash helmet, I'll assume that you are intelligent enough to invest in something resembling a piece of war-zone combat gear, complete with armour-plating, padding and reinforcement in all the right places.

 

But if you just want to wear the thing as an everyday garment - on the bus, or in your car while listening to Today, say - I recommend that you go for something steeped in the romance of the long-distance biker-adventurer: the Belstaff Trialmaster. This wax cotton, belted number, shown below, looks much like something to be worn for country walks, but is in fact a replica of the very jacket that Ernesto “Che” Guevara wore on his trip around South America on a 500cc Norton motorbike in 1952 - a journey that would become immortalised in The Motorcycle Diaries. Che is the icon of revolutionary cool - in both meanings of the word. Before the beret and military gear, as a 23-year-old medical student, he donned his Belstaff biker jacket and set off with his friend Alberto Granado on a quest for “distant countries, heroic deeds and beautiful women”. If you want to capture some of that spirit, then the Trialmaster is the jacket for you.

[Guest frankdugo]

bfg,you are a wealth of info----did't know that mum&steve were related!

[belfastguzzi]

bfg,you are a wealth of info----did't know that mum&steve were related!

Yes indeed. Her real name is Liz 'Windy' McQueen.

 

Steve was the secret love child of Queen Mom and Field Marshall Montgomery. They originally named him Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen Queen-Montgomery, which explains why Liz affectionately referred to him as 'Red'.

He was disowned for shortening his name to Steve – so he ran away to America where he entered the world of movies, playing cameo roles as Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in minor romantic comedies. While sitting on a waxed-cotton covered casting couch one day, he had a great idea for a novel new line in clothing – and never looked back.

 

You're probably thinking that Mom wasn't the real name of the Queen Mom? Correct. She was christened Galoshes, which turned out to be quite appropriate as she hooked-up with a man called Field. Anyway: it explains why the Prince Philip referred to her as the Old Boot.