Leather Jacket, My Beloved

I have been a devoted costume fan all my life. I have generally only been able to enjoy wearing them at Halloween, but I spend many hours planning them out and collecting all that I need. Sometimes I start the gathering in July.

I first started making my own costumes when I realized at age 9 that they just didn’t seem to make the characters I wanted to play as. So quite naturally, my solution was to do it myself. At first it was mostly masks and tails for animal characters. Later on, the costumes for both humans and animals became more elaborate. My Rouge the Bat costume was especially fun to put together, even though I messed up the heart by sewing it on the wrong side. I also particularly enjoyed The Riddler, based on the much-maligned version from The Batman cartoon but with a new outfit inspired by The Animated Series version.

Both these costumes are depicted here: https://insaneladybug.livejournal.com/photo/album/2622

My current favorite character to play is Radley from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds. And unlike with previous costumes, this one I’ve been breaking out at other times of the year to do photoshoots and the occasional video. The jacket I’ve used has been the wrong size. On my desperate quest for a faux leather jacket two years ago that wouldn’t break the bank, the only one that looked right came a size or two too small. But since sizes run differently depending on the brand, I took a chance and ordered it anyway. To my relief and joy, it fit! I just couldn’t close it, but that wasn’t a big deal anyway since Radley is never shown closing his. Nevertheless, I always stayed on the lookout for a jacket that looked like his in the right size that wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg. I have actually wanted a faux leather jacket for many years, as they always looked cool to me, and I wanted one in the right size that I could just wear around on cooler days.

Finally, at long last, almost two years later, I found it! It was an especially long grocery trip this week, having to go through the check-out two extra times to add other items, but I couldn’t complain when I saw this beautiful thing on our way out the door!

At Walmart, I’ve noticed that especially awesome merch can fly out within a week, so I wasn’t willing to take a chance on losing this one. I immediately bought it. $25 for a beautiful faux leather jacket in definitely the right size, that I can wear and close as much as I want!

Here is a comparison of both side by side.

The new one is heavier. Of the two, both are very similar to Radley’s canonical jacket, but the too-small one is slightly more accurate in that there are no zippers on the sleeves and there is a belt around the bottom. But I love both and intend to play Radley in the new jacket as well as the original one. My headcanon is that he has more than one jacket!