I recently bought these two Montreal made D-Pocket motorcycle jackets. Both were made by different iterations of the same company, British Sportswear and British Cycle Leathers, which would later become Brimaco. It’s always interesting having similar pieces of vintage clothing like this at the same time to be able to do direct comparisons of fit and details.

The black jacket is a later model of the earlier silver one, which in turn draws heavy inspiration from the Harley Davidson Cycle Champ jacket.On to the comparisons.

Leather color aside, while the two jackets follow the same pattern, there are a number of differences between them.  Some of these are due simply to the date of manufacture and the hardware which was readily available at that point.  Others are subtle, yet distinct, changes in the pattern.

The design of the d-pocket changed, growing in size, with less tapered ends.  The two pockets lost their clipped corners and single stitching replaced double. Hardware changed, with different patterns of Lightning zippers used from one to the next, and different belt buckles and studs, but that has more to do with availability than design.  The belt on the newer jacket is backed in cloth, while on the silver jacket it has a backing of black leather.  The belt buckles are inset in different ways from one to the next, with triangular reinforcement stitching on the black one. Epaulettes are false on the silver jacket, stitched to the shoulder.  They are more conventional and snap down on the black one. The silver jacket has open cuffs that zip closed and have a snap tab at the end of the cuff.  The black jacket also has zipped cuffs, but the leather of the sleeve is continuous and the zippers are there for adjustment of the sleeve diameter. The lining pattern is different one to the next, as is the collar shape