Author Archives: Spencer Stewart

Early Issue G-1 leather flight jacket

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This vintage leather jacket was made for the USN.  It is goat, with a real mouton collar.  It has an action back, knit cuffs and waistband, a windflap and an interior gun pocket.  There are stitch marks from a nametag from when it was issued.  The town, “Poultney, VT” is written in the lining.  The cuffs are replacements, and all the knits are in need of replacement.  The main zipper is Conmar, with what may be a replacement conmatic puller. The prong of the zipper is missing, as are some teeth by the neck.  The mouton is worn through and flaking. The lining is torn and repaired.
Chest: 22″
Sleeve: 24″
Shoulders: 17″
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1930s “Guardsman” Overcoat

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This vintage overcoat was made in the late 1930s and was sold by Colwell Brothers in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Colwell Brothers was (and still is) Halifax’s premier men’s store.  They were extremely high end, and I have handled a lot of merchandise that they sold over the years.  It is all absolutely the best of the best, and they favored more traditional, English styles.  This overcoat has a 1936 union tag, which places its date of manufacture between 1936 and 1939.  It has a six button front.  All buttonholes are functional, but the lapels are rolled to the second button, something which was a style of the time.  As this is a more conservative style, it has a plain back instead of the fancy belted backs you would see on younger mens styles.  It is fully satin lined. The coat is in excellent condition.
Chest (pit to pit): 23″ (doubled = 46″)
Shoulder to cuff: 26″
Shoulder to Shoulder: 18-1/2
Length: 44″
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The McDorsey Yukon trench coat

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This vintage coat was made just post WWII.  It is a double breasted trench coat style, with a mouton sheepskin collar, and a combination alpaca pile and quilted satin lining.  The gabardine shell of the coat is a medium blue color.  There is a detachable belt.  The coat was made by McDorsey Sportswear and is their “Yukon” model. One of the buttons does not match and there is wear to the bottom edge of the quilted liner.
Chest (pit to pit): 22-1/2″
Sleeve (shoulder to cuff): 25″
Shoulder to Shoulder: 18″
Length (collar to hem): 39″
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Sears Shawl Collar Mackinaw

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http://www.ebay.com/itm/281017848697

This vintage shawl collar mackinaw was made by sears.  While it was made around 1970, the style remained unchanged since the 1910s save for material.  In the early models, they were generally wool, by the 1930s and 1940s,  many were canvas with sheepskin linings and collars.  This example replaces that sheepskin with acrylic pile, and the canvas shell with corduroy, but the idea is the same.  This coat has four main front patch pockets.  Two have smaller cigarette pockets on them, which close with Talon zippers.  There is a loop for closing the collar when it is turned up.  The coat still has all of its original tags and has never been worn.
Chest (pit to pit): 22″ (doubled =44″)

Sleeve (shoulder to cuff): 24-1/2″

Shoulder to Shoulder: 17″

Length (collar to hem): 36″
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Elasti-Glass

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It looks like these clear vinyl products started being marketed in 1939. They made Elasti-Glass belts, suspenders, sock garters, neckties, watch straps, wallet inserts, pipe humidors, raincoats, and rain chaps.
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Union Labels

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An extremely rough guide to union tags. There are other unions whose tags are not represented here. Companies and tailors used what tags they had on hand, so there is overlap between different patterns of tags, and there are always exceptions and flukes.

1883 (1883-?)
NRA (1933-1936)

1934 (1934-1936) Not pictured: same as 1936 and 1939 tags
1936 (1936-1939)
1939 (1939-1949)
1949 (1949-1962)
1949 variant (1962-c.1976 ) I’ve seen examples of these on menswear dated into the 1980s, despite the union merging to form the ACTWU in 1976.

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Talon Zippers

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There are many more patterns of Talon zippers out there, so consider this a (very) incomplete guide. It is interesting, though, to see the evolution of Talon sliding fasteners over the years, 1930s-1960s, in the design of their pullers and stop boxes.

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