OFFICER K COAT - **HEAVILY MODIFIED/CUSTOMIZED WSL VERSION 3.0**
Hi everyone!
About six months ago I posted about a slightly modified WSL (White Sheep Leather) Officer K coat. Essentially, I had the collar repositioned, trimmed the faux fur, added some snap buttons and waxed it with
Babour wax. All in all, I got it looking pretty decent. (please see that post for photos)
That said, I still wasn’t satisfied.
The biggest problem areas for me were the
A) the
collar design/dimensions and
B) the
shearling material. Every retailer I’ve seen on here either gets these two key aspects wrong, or really wrong.
1. The Officer K 1/6 doll blueprint: What really inspired me to take the next step was the 1:6 figurine of Officer K. I was simply blow away by the quality, craftmanship and especially the details regarding the coat itself. So, I figured, hey, why not just measure its collar dimensions and simply scale it up? So I just multiplied those numbers by six and, there you go, the 1:1 measurements.
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2. The custom collar: Next, I contacted WSL and asked them if they could make me a separate collar with the exact specs and measurements that I would provide. They agreed. This is what I sent them:
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What's the difference between the old WSL collar and this one? The screen accurate collar is significantly wider and longer. Crucially, as seen above, the dimensions of the bottom and top of the collar should be different and have a curved taper. This is key when it comes to wrapping it around your face. It also gives it that wider, SA 'funnel' appearance, i.e. not too snug where it ends up 'smush' up against your face (as many of us have complained in the past). In any event, the collar arrived and I had a tailor replace it.
3. The (correct) shearling: Another big problem with the available coats out there is that the sourced shearling is way off. Some providers, like WSL, offer faux fur, which is totally inaccurate. There’s a difference between fur and shearling in terms of texture. (i.e. Fur makes the coat look like something out of Game of Thrones). Then there are providers that do offer faux shearling but it’s either the wrong color, or nearly in every case, the wrong texture altogether (either too short, too curly, too dense etc)
As is very clear in the film prop display photo below, the shearling on K’s coat has a distinctive
drape to it. In other words, it should not be so short as to simply stand on-end, like carpet (i.e Soul Revolver, Magnoli and others). The key, I think, is sourcing a
‘sherpa’-type shearling. I found one sold as “camel” in color on AliExpress. (I believe it’s this same -or very similar- cheap faux shearling that costume designer April Renee was boasting about what a bargain she got: 2 dollars/yard).
Also important is
weathering the shearling. I've seen a few posts about dyeing the shearling, but I think the trick is getting the right base color (
Camel) and, as someone mentioned in this thread, the production team used used
black shoe polish. I used this method, applying somewhat diluted black shoe polish with a thin brush. Quite painstaking and time-consuming, but worth it. I will probably keep adding more as time goes by to weather it even more.
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I had a tailor replace the incorrect WSL fur for this more accurate shearling.
4. Magnets: As with the movie coat, I had a tailor add magnets down the side of the coat for when it needs closes all the way, double breasted.
5. Pockets: WSL makes tiny exterior side pockets so I had the tailor enlarge them.
Anyway, on to the the potos.
**I apologize in advance for the lighting and the quality! As you can see, sometimes it can look very dark, matte in texture, in others shots you can really see the wax sheen coming through.**
I can post the collar measurements in a different thread in case anyone is interested.
Cheers!
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As can be seen here, the closed collar has that SA, wide, funnel shaped appearance that's not too snug.
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