Alrighty guys, I sorted through all the pix I took and I believe all the relevant information that I have obtained is here.
WARNING: this post will have alot of pictures associated with it so, if you're on dial-up, you've been warned.
First things first, I figured you'd all like the obligatory shots of the entrance to Vanson:
Then shots of the inside of the showroom, standing off to the left of the front entrance:
So, I got there and had a loooong conversation with Mike and a few other Vanson personel. I'd like to thank Mike and everyone else who came out to answer questions for their time... I'm sure everyone was exhausted with us by the time we left.
Now, the jacket in this picture:
Has been stated as being a "prototype" for costuming to preview before deciding on one for actual film use (we'll call this jacket #1). Mike is certain that the jacket IS a Vanson but he's not sure as to it's history. If whomever posted this picture could get the serial number of the jacket (stamped onto the leather keyring FOB that's located on the zipper pull), Mike would gladly go through and pull out the file regarding this particular jacket and let us know it's exact history. The main thing Mike did stress was that the side zipper gussets were NOT colored for the film and left the same color as the jacket leather.
I was VERY surprised to see that they had an actual X1 jacket in the store. Behind the counter, they hang up all the garments that they've made over the years for Hollywood for people to come in and see what they've done. Their most recent addition was the racing uniform from Talladega Nights with Will Ferrel. Up in the left hand corner was an actual X1 jacket that was sent off to the production.
Now, there is one major discrepency: the jacket in the store has red/wine colored stripes. Obviously, the screen-used version had yellow stripes. This is how it was explained to me: Vanson created TWO jackets that were sent to the production company. One with red stripes (let's call this jacket #2), the other with yellow stripes (jacket #3). The red striped jacket (#2) is NOT the same jacket as jacket #1, shown in the picture above. Jackets #2 & #3 were created at the same time, both from the same pattern, from the same stock of leather, same dye batch, etc, etc, etc. They are IDENTICAL to each other in every way shape and form, EXCEPT for the color of the stripes. Both were sent to the costume department and worked on until it was decided that the jacket with yellow stripes (#3) would be the one used throughout the film. Then this jacket was sent back to Vanson and promptly added to their memorabilia wall. Jacket#2 even has grease pencil markings on the outside and inside from the costume department, it looked like they were thinking of attempting to put some patches on it at one point. Jacket #2 also had areas where it looks like costume tried to start the weathering process but then stopped once they realized that jacket #2 wouldn't be needed.
This is jacket #2, the one that was hanging in the Vanson store on their Hollywood memoribilia wall. I took pictures with and without flash of EVERYTHING. The pictures with flash show you more of the details of the jacket, while the non-flash versions show what the colors were more like in person. Excuse me for some of the blurry pictures, I didn't bring along a tripod and the image stabilization in this new Canon I just bought, obviously sucks.
Here are shots of the jacket worn WITH flash:
The jacket is a size 42. While I was there, I was measured up for a jacket and my chest size came in at 46-1/2. With the 42 on, if I bent forward at the waist and tried to pick something up off the ground, the jacket became REALLY tight in the areas around the front of my shoulders and near my shoulder blades.
So, considering the information I was given (about this jacket being identical except for stripe colors), I went ahead with the assumption that everything on jacket #2 is canon except for the stripe color. I also took some closer-up pictures for anyone who was wondering about the details of the jacket:
Now, here's details on jacket#2 that I took photos of with a tape measure while I was there. It should pretty much end any discussions on what the width of the stripes are:
Now, the discussion on what color the leather should be gets interesting. The original jackets were made using horsehide leather and died MI9 color. MI9 is no longer available as an option and neither is horsehide. They had a sample of MI9 colored competition leather (currently their highest grade leather used in motorcyle and car racing suits) and when I compared it with the MI9 dyed horsehide used in jackets #2 & #3, the color was different even though it was the same dye color.
Mike, pulled out a ring of competition leather swatches all dyed various colors. I took pictures of all the swatches, lined up against jacket #2. These are the pictures from my camera:
And a friend of mine came along for the trip and here are the photos from his camera. I figured every camera manufacturer has their own way of interpreting colors so, it would be good to have pictures from more than one camera. These two pictures were taken with flash:
Now, after spending a couple of hours there and going through swatch after swatch, I personally came to the conclusion that B-3 Tan was the closest in color to match jacket#2. The photographs don't represent how closely B-3 Tan matches with the Horsehide dyed MI9 leather in jacket #2, they show a larger color discrepency than looking at it in person. I'm not saying it's an EXACT match but it was definately the closest out of all the swatches Vanson had:
Now, I know there are still going to be nay-sayers and people out there who will continue to argue about the colors used and the width of stripes but, after my visit to Vanson, this is how I ordered my jacket:
Wolf Style
B-3 Tan
1-1/2" width on the waist stripe in front
5-3/8" width on the waist stripe in back
B-3 Tan colored gussets
And before I end this post, I have to add one more picture:
Say hello to Mike. And yes, he is checking out the RPF forums in the picture.
- J.
