Wested Ripley's jacket from Aliens... anyone has one???

[Alan Cross]

Glad you like the photos. It's a cool jacket! It says 44 on the inside collar. It basically fits me, but it's too tight in the underarms (if you raise your arms, the whole jacket bunches up to accommodate the movement).

Which is a drag because I sent Wested my measurements to make the jacket. Oh well. Always intended to have them redo it or get another one... don't think I'll ever follow through though now.

I don't remember how I found Wested in 1992. The internet was up and running back then. It was probably through fan connections/websites, etc.

I have a Wested Indy jacket which I just love and wear a lot (weather permitting). They didn't have the size I wanted and I went a size larger. It fits great! So, maybe that's the thing to do. Though I should add, even though it fits me very well, the proportions don't seem to match the seemingly much tighter fit Harrison Ford wears in the Indy movies.

But that's a subject for a different thread.


I should put this Ripley jacket up for sale. Watch the Junkyard section in the weeks ahead!

Best,

Alan

 

[Jonesythecat]

Unfortunately 44 is too big for me otherwise I would have helped you to clear your wardrobe :lol
It looks nice though. What colour/material would you say it is? Looks like a dark brown (or even black) lambskin but I could be wrong. Pictures are tricky sometimes

The tight armpit is quite a common problem with Wested. One of my Indy jackets is the same.

 

[Jonesythecat]

Now that I look at it better I can see visible differences with the film jacket.

Mainly:

lack of back pleats
very noticeable in the film

lack of "piping" on the pocket
basically they just put a normal "Indiana Jones" pocket without the details of the film ... see this pic as reference

Elastic band should be shorter
instead they put in their replica a normal bomber jacket elastic band. In the film it's clearly not as long, an identical detail can be found in vintage flight jackets

(see also previous pictures)

front "fake pocket" is different
In the film the design of that detail is quite different and appears bigger than Wested's replica

The back should have an orizontal "band"
Don't know how else to define it...

you can't see it well in this picture but it's there

There are other details but these are the main ones. Afterall, I won't be buying a Wested replica "blindly". If I order one of these I'll need to send reference pictures to Peter (like I did with the Indiana Jones jacket).
Could yours be a very early model?

 

[Alan Cross]

Hmm. I never noticed those differences with the film version before. Good eye. Wish they'd done a better job with the details.

It's dark brown. I think it's lambskin. I don't really know, to be honest. My jacket wasn't labelled an "early version." Though that's not to say that seventeen years later (yikes) they've improved their jacket and make it to different specifications. Which makes my jacket an "early version" by default.

You can call Wested, if I remember, and ask them these questions. And if you do, please let us know what you learn. I'm curious!

But anyway, I always loved this jacket. Thought it looked great in the movie.

You know, there's a lady on another board that makes replica outfits from Bladerunner (she made a Bladerunner coat for me I really liked). Maybe she could make a Ripley jacket to your exact specifications if the Wested one comes up short. I'll see if I can dig up her website addy.

Alan

 

[Alan Cross]

Here's this woman's website. She seems to know what she's doing and strives to make things as authentic as possible. An alternative to Wested? Maybe...

http://funksimile.com/bladerunner.aspx


BTW, she's sometimes slow to respond to emails. Give her a few days if you write to her.

Alan

 

[Dr Banzai]

Having seen all of the great screencaps on filmjackets.com I must say I am quite unimpressed with the Wested version of their own jacket. Kind of glad I never ordered one.

 

[Jonesythecat]

The lady you mentioned who makes Blade Runner outfits is an interesting choice however, while I would trust her with fabrics, when you're talking leather I would still go for the professionals like Peter.

I called it an "early model" partly due to the year it was made in (1992, very early!), partly in the hope that in years later they might have improved but it's an optimistic idea. I expect if you order an Aliens jacket that's what you get.

HOWEVER Peter does custom works, if you send him a list of specs (better with some pictures) you might get lucky and get a very good copy. It requires patience though.
On my second (and last) Indiana Jones jacket I gave Peter a couple of pictures and a list of details, it came out exactly as I ordered it. Others did the same and still got stuff wrong... so it's really pot luck.

 

[Castor Dioscuri]

I wanted to get this once for someone, but I was just very turned off by the lack of any actual CURRENT jacket pictures on the Wested site, as well as the numerous complaints about the lack of accuracy from the original that I didn't want to take a shot in the dark... Especially considering that the majority of my dozen-plus Wested orders were pretty hellish affairs!

 

[chewchilla]

Did Wested make the original, or did they just offer replicas? I'd be interested if they could get details right.

 

[Jonesythecat]

Did Wested make the original, or did they just offer replicas? I'd be interested if they could get details right.

They did both. They worked for Alien (Yaphet's leather jacket), Aliens (Ripley's modified A2 jacket), something also for Alien 3 (not leather this time).
They also made the promotional jackets for when the 3rd movie came out, these were similar to Ripley's jacket from Aliens but with all sorts of patches on it (Weyland-Yutani, USCM and I'm sure also another one... perhaps the prison patch from the 3rd Alien).

These are not personal speculation but information I retrieved from different sources.
It's a shame though that their "Aliens jacket" offering is nowhere near screen accurate. To get a screen accurate one I'm afraid one would have to send a full set of pictures of the original jacket with a custom order. Surely they still know how to reproduce an A2 jacket!

The reason why they don't get the details right is because, being overloaded with work, they don't keep an ordered archive of the previous jobs, Wested is afterall mostly a "leather manufacturer" not a costume designer company. Add to this also that, in a typically British tradition of costume makers, a film is seen just as "one more job" among many others. They are professionals of their field and not film fanatics, back in the 80's they would have NOT expected in 20 years or so to have hordes of fans being able to contact them and request exact copies of screen-used jackets.