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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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Sizing

Which size should I choose? Do I just choose my usual chest size?

Sizing between manufacturers/country varies significantly and when added to the fact that our range covers a time period where sizing/fit also varied greatly, this means that this answer isn’t a straightforward one and very much depends on the style you are purchasing and the look you want to achieve.

Fit falls into two categories: “traditional tailored” and “fashion/design”. While traditional bespoke tailoring, Savile Row style, has altered very little in the past 100 years, fashion, and the perceived correct fit of clothing has varied considerably over the past century.

Sizing Through the Decades

Your Aero will always fit as it would have been made and worn during the era the design dates from i.e. the size on the ticket represents how a jacket was “supposed to fit” during the era it was constructed.

A Size 42 1950s Highwayman is made to fit as it would if it been made in the 1950s, while a Size 42 1930s Highwayman is a complete recut to the style and manner of the 1930s and therefore, a far slimmer-fitting Size 42.

A general rule of thumb is that 1930s style jackets are cut closer to a ‘modern’ fit, whereas 1950s styles are roughly a size up.

Depending on the look or fit you want to achieve with a given style, this may mean sizing up/down from the size you may be accustomed to buying in modern styles. Don’t worry, our team are on hand to discuss the measurements you provide us and any sizing queries you might have before purchase.

Which measurements do I need to provide and how do I take them?

Before measuring, make sure you’re wearing what you would normally wear on a day-to-day basis under your jacket and to get the most accurate sizing results, get someone else to measure you.

As well as your height, we need the following body measurements to determine your correct sizing:

Chest Relaxed and Expanded: This is taken around the widest part of your chest across the nipples. Take a deep breath in for your chest expanded measurement and a deep breath out for your chest relaxed.

Stomach: This is taken around the widest part of your stomach across the belly button.

Waist: This is taken around your hips where your belt sits. Take this while you’re wearing your jeans and belt.

In order to get the most accurate desired sleeve and back lengths for your jacket, we ask you to provide these additional measurements from a jacket that fits you well in these lengths. Ensure any jacket you measure is made from a similar weight material that’s not too stretchy (ideally leather) and fits well across your shoulder without a ‘dropped’ shoulder seam.

Lay the jacket completely flat and measure in a straight line from the bottom of the collar seam (where the collar attaches to the back) to the bottom of the back hem for the back measurement. For the sleeve measurement, slightly fold the sleeves into the body to get a straight line from the shoulder to the cuff then measure in a straight line (do not follow arm curve) from the highest point in shoulder seam to the bottom of the cuff and double check the measurement on the other sleeve.

If you’re unsure about anything, please get in touch and forward us some pictures of you taking your measurements.

Please see the diagram below for advice on taking your measurements.

How to Measure Yourself

Is my jacket fully tailored?

While we are one of the industry leaders in creating people’s dream jackets to their specifications and there are few, if any, who offer the level of flexibility that we do, the service we offer is not a fully tailored one.

After finding the correct size for your selected style, if necessary, we can amend the sleeve and back lengths and can usually make slight adjustments to the shoulder width and body to dial in as close as possible to your perfect fit. However, we are unable to make major alterations to our patterns beyond this.

What can seem like a relatively small adjustment to a style can actually have a cascading effect throughout the positioning of the features of a jacket and result in a prohibitively large amount of pattern and design work – with often less than satisfactory results.

Years of development have gone into getting these styles and their fit as close to perfect as we can, and we hope our customers will trust this advice if we are unable to make a requested alteration - our team of sizing experts are on hand to advise how to get the best fitting leather jacket possible.

Will my jacket be made to the exact measurements I provide?

While our cutters and machinists are experts in their trades and craft your jackets with a very high level of skill and precision, the nature of what we do and the materials we work with means that working to pinpoint accurate measurements isn’t possible and we have to allow for a half inch (1.27cm) tolerance with all measurements on our jackets.

Unlike cloth or other lighter materials, heavy leather is a material that is unsuitable for making a jacket to an exact set of measurements. This is mainly to the difficulty in folding the leather at the seams which is further complicated by variances in leather thickness - even slight differences in their folding giving variations in the precise measurements of the joined panels. While we try to allow for thicknesses while cutting a jacket, it isn’t possible to guarantee an exact measurement around a body where there are 4-6 folded vertical seams.

Add this to the further slight differences that your material selections make, with both the thickness and flexibility of leather and even the lining affecting the final measurements (as well as slight variances between batches of the same leather).

For these reasons (and the fact that the jacket is entirely handmade), we can only guarantee measurements of a finished jacket to be within half an inch of requirements. This minimal discrepancy means nothing on a leather jacket, a few weeks wear and any leather jacket starts to form itself to the wearer's body and even an inch one way or the other will be hidden in the overall ambiance of a broken in jacket.

What if my jacket doesn't fit me when it arrives?

If you have any sizing issues once your jacket arrives, please email us with your issues and along with a couple of pictures (front, back and side views) with you wearing the jacket. This is ideally done by someone else or on a timer. We will then discuss the next steps with you.