That is movie magic. The stitches are there when the costume department wanted to connect the collar and the lapel and otherwise they aren’t. The collar may even be longer on some of the coats when worn up.
This will automatically lead to compromises when you want to translate this into the a practical coat. A connection is preferable most of the time but if you want to show off the party trick of the K coat (collar up), I have found that the connection between collar and lapel makes it harder to wear. The weight of the coat is pulling on the front of the collar and deforms it a bit. If you want to turn your head more freely, that connection is also a concern.
Here is someone who wears his SR without the connection:
The unconnected collar just wears better because it has more wiggle room to adjust to the wearer’s head. I think that will be true for every K coat. And the collar of the modified SR seen here looks already better shape-wise than with the fixed connection.
On the other hand, SR was right to connect collar and lapel with not just cheap makeshift stitches but with a solid connection that will last because that makes the standard configuration (collar down) possible.
according to what I had already seen in this pic, the collar looks better but when open, the attachment on the right side is still too far forward.
The color here, comparing just the pics of this guy (also with the Gosling's one), seems really exceptionally SA, so that (SR), I would say "dead-nuts to the color", but as said, it depends from interpretations and different scenes to be inspired.
As I wrote in the past, annoyed by the drafts in the throat, I had already eliminated the 4 seams some time ago and stitched almost the entire line of the throat in a closed position, in this way the result was much more similar to the close-up of Gosling closed, and when opened, unless I really didn't analyze by zooming in on the area, you couldn't notice that it was all closed, I could reopen it and make a solution to the SR, but if I buy an SR anyway, I can leave this as is, so the problem here is currently it's the collar not big enough.
Since SR is slow to do what they always did in this period, and I will not change my mind a iota about what I said, I have therefore started the "bep resurrection" project (chapter 1001
) in my free time.
I implemented the vertical cut at the bottom (longer on the front), and a more SA double stitching line in that part, since I noticed every vendor chose to make it wider than the movie.
My current coat has some scars and little torn part to patch somehow, just minor scratches, but I think my project could lead to have it fully recovered for use it back again, I'm changing position to collar magnets also trying to give an effect that makes it more SA as you pointed out about the right side, to be protruded when folded open, let's see I can make it, but I'm pretty confident.
I tweaked the color again, darker again as it has a newer and better look in the end, because although I was satisfied, too many processes had still led to slightly haloed areas which were thus covered, also the PU that makes this twill of Jameel laminate, as I said can never lose the coating completely, as it is also part of the texture, and those parts, after being lightened as I did, could not lighten or take the color correctly, thus remaining to show a texture that became too similar to uncoated denim. By doing so, I restored shine and freshness to the garment, also masking much of the damage done.
If I can make the collar as I would like and more comfortable closed, and otter wax will do what the manufacturer declares it to do on their website (it even declares it machine washable at delicates 30° although preferably by hand, but for me it would be enough just to be able to wash by hand if necessary and limit myself to cleaning with a sponge, light soap and any sanitizing spray, at this point), I could recover all the peculiarities both for a potential resale as a less worn and more functional garment, but in reality I might not even have plus all this interest in SR, if it turns out really well, in any case I've put the money aside for that now and if they get the right discounted price, I'll probably buy it anyway and any work I do now, if it turns out well, will be useful to have the skill ready to make the SR my main coat, modifying as much as possible to make it the way I want.
I show couple pics of the work-in-progress.
Here, my full k outfit (clothes, bates are in the closet).
The fur is just put over the collar, it's still dismounted, cause I prefer to wait for any waxing process with Otter to be done, before resewing it. It has been dismounted also to preserve it from the very last color tuning I recently did.
As you can see also in direct sunlight, maybe I reached an ever better level of SA of that greenish tone, it looks closer to kinda uncoated SR, but now a bit of shine is recovered, for the last retouch, I hope in otter wax intervention.
I wrote to several wax producers and vendors, everybody discouraged me (as I already well thought) to use again chemicals like acrylic mediums, odicoat, cleopatre etc, and not even acrylic wax, it is a product to be used only by professional with the due knowledge, possibly.
Otter wax is sold to coat indifferently coated or uncoated cotton garments, so trusting what I should be take for sure the most, I'm going to choose it instead of Barbour Thornproof.
Probably Thornproof gives a bit more of structure and sturdiness to withstand scratches etc, even if theorically designed for re-waxing native waxed garments, so maybe it could work fine, but this time I want to go for the less experimental way.
I will let so let open the lining, waiting for waxing it before resewing everything, since that fabric showed me bad reactions with a wax I used time ago, but I can try otter bar (more than fabric dressing) so using heat as less as possible, putting a plastich sheet underneath avoiding the wax to exceed in penetrating the fabric and make its proper layer, even when evening it with the hairdryer.
You can also see that, about the doublestitching line, for both the bottom one and and the longer one, same width (just implemented) = more SA
I honestly don't see all that evidence about the cut I've done now, also on the museum version of the coat, but as said other times, I do tweaks because I see the movie, I like
that style, so regardless of the other version I can see, I stay focused on how I interpret it on the movie in the scenes that inspire me the most.
Actually, I had my coat also a bit shorter than perfectly covering "knee-length", so now, it is even shorter on the back, but I like that cut so much that, together with the desire to redo that low edge, I couldn't resist.
Certainly if SR doesn't have it and has an even better margin to create it more accentuated, when and if I have it, I will not fail to seriously consider doing it there too.Thanks again to
Mechanismo for having brought this detail for common attention at the time. I still have to finish reseweing and tweaking, but it already show how better it looks with it, even if shorter, imho.
