Original 1950s Confecuir Brussels Leather Motorcycle Jacket

Belgium is flat. The wind comes in off the North Sea and meets very little between the coast and Brussels, and at fifty miles an hour on an open road, it meets you. Whoever rode in this jacket in the 1950s knew that wind well.

Start at the hem. It’s a separate band, buckled once at the front and twice at the back, so the jacket draws in at the waist and the wind can’t fill it like a sail or force its way up your back. The cuffs strap shut for the same reason, tight at the wrist or over the gauntlet of a glove. The chest zips run vertically, so they can be reached sitting upright on the machine, and every pull hangs on a ball chain, long enough to find with cold fingers. Inside, deep curled cream shearling fills the body. The sleeves are lined in quilted grey instead, so an arm slides in without catching on fleece.

The maker’s promise is sewn into the collar, red on cream: GARANTI PAR CONFECUIR, marque déposée, BRUXELLES. Beside it is a green woven diamond marked TJJ, with two more words, vachette and pur chrome. Cowhide, chrome-tanned. Chrome tanning keeps leather supple and copes with wet weather, which is what a jacket for the road needs.

The liner zips are stamped KROKO, and they have a story of their own. In 1944, the year Brussels was liberated, a small factory in Aalst began making heavy metal zips. Belgium had just come through four years of occupation, and the firm built zips meant to last. It later moved to Kortrijk, and in time it would supply zips to NATO, police and fire brigades across Europe. A Brussels label and a Flemish zip, so the jacket is Belgian through and through.

The hide is heavyweight and near black, and it has been ridden hard. Across the chest and back it has creased so many times that the high points have gone glossy. At the shoulders, down the sleeves and along the seams, the black has worn back to brown in patches you can follow with a thumb. The hem band is still black beside the browned body, which shows you exactly where the wear fell. Nobody put that there. That’s patina, and it came from seventy years of riding.

It gives you a maker, a city and a guarantee, and nothing more. Buckle the hem, strap the cuffs, and let the wind go looking for someone else.

Condition & Restoration

Good vintage condition for its age, and it shows every year honestly. The cowhide is sound, with deep patina: glossy creasing across the chest and back, and brown showing through the black at the shoulders, sleeves and seams.

Under the left sleeve there is an old stitch repair, neat and solid. We’ve left it as we found it, as part of the jacket’s history. Higher up, on the outside of the same sleeve near the elbow, are two small marks where the leather has puckered and drawn tight, the way hide does when it touches something hot. Nobody can say for certain how they got there, but we like to picture a roadside stop, the rider crouched beside the machine to coax it back to life, and an elbow brushing a cylinder still hot from the road. Whatever the cause, they’re part of the jacket now, and we’ve left them alone.

The shearling liner is in good condition, with light marking to the fleece at the back of the collar. The quilted lining has no tears or holes, just some marking low down by the hem from use. The original label is intact.

Every zip, on the jacket and the liner, has been cleaned and waxed and runs smoothly.

Specialist cleaned and conditioned by hand in the workshop. Ready to wear.

Key Features

• Heavyweight chrome-tanned cowhide (vachette, pur chrome, per the label), with deep patina
• Original label intact: GARANTI PAR CONFECUIR, marque déposée, BRUXELLES
• Green woven TJJ tag beside the label
• Shirt-style fold-over collar
• Metal front zip
• Two vertical zipped chest pockets and two slanted zipped hand pockets, all with ball-chain pulls
• Wide hem band with buckled adjusters, one at the front and two at the back, to keep the wind out when riding
• Buckled straps at both cuffs
• Panelled back with piped seams at the sleeve heads
• Cream sheepskin shearling body lining, quilted grey sleeve lining, green band at the hem
• Shearling liner with KROKO zips (Belgian zip maker, founded 1944)
• All zips cleaned and waxed

Size & Fit

All measurements are taken with the garment laid flat.

• Chest (armpit to armpit): 23" / 58 cm
• Shoulders (seam to seam): 19" / 48 cm
• Sleeve (shoulder seam to cuff): 23" / 58 cm
• Underarm seam to cuff: 15" / 38 cm
• Back length (base of collar to hem): 25" / 64 cm

Best suited to: 40" chest regular, small

Compare these measurements with a jacket you already own for the best idea of fit.