Vintage Dolce & Gabbana Lambskin Shearling Aviator Jacket – Distressed Tobacco, Made in Italy

When a Milan fashion house takes on the sheepskin flying jacket, it doesn’t change the bones. It changes the finish. This is a shearling aviator from Dolce & Gabbana’s main line, made in Italy in the late 1990s or early 2000s, when the house’s ampersand was its signature. It’s cut in mid-weight lambskin and finished by hand to a deep, crackled patina. Pieces like this were among the most expensive in the collection when new, and they seldom surface today in this condition.

The design draws on the sheepskin jackets worn by Second World War aircrew, whose unheated, unpressurised aircraft climbed to altitudes where the temperature fell far below freezing. Sheepskin was the answer, because the wool and the hide are a single material, warm and windproof with nothing to separate or flatten. Dolce & Gabbana kept the structure of those jackets intact: the leather-bound panels, the deep fleece collar, the turned-out cuffs and hem. Then it gave them the craftsmanship of an Italian fashion house.

The finish is what sets it apart. The hide was aged in the workshop to a crackled surface that gives the jacket the look of one that has seen a hundred missions. It’s tobacco brown broken through with rust and copper, darker at the seams and lighter across the shoulders and sleeves, like the leather of an old flying helmet. Beneath it, the lambskin is the softer, finer skin of a young sheep, supple from the first wear. At mid-weight it gives the warmth of shearling without the bulk of a wartime original, as easy on a cold morning in the city as on an open road.

The construction follows the originals closely. Every seam is bound in dark chocolate leather to strengthen the joins and keep out the wind, tracing the panels across the back, shoulders and sleeves. A full-length brass zip with a long leather pull closes the front, and a second zip runs around the collar so it sits neatly whether worn up or down. Two slanted zip pockets sit low on the body for the hands, and leather tabs finish the front hem.

Inside are the original labels: the red embroidered Dolce & Gabbana ampersand, an embossed leather hanging tab bearing the house name, and the Made in Italy care label with its security hologram, all consistent with the house’s production of that era.

Military heritage seen through Milan, and it reads as either.

Condition & Restoration

Excellent vintage condition.

The lambskin is soft and supple. The distressed finish is intact and even across the body and sleeves, just as Dolce & Gabbana intended. The cream fleece is full and dense at the collar, cuffs and hem. On the inside back there’s a small natural mark in the fleece, part of the skin itself and the kind of character that comes with genuine shearling. All the original labels are in place.

The jacket has been specialist cleaned and conditioned in-house. The brass zips have been cleaned, polished and waxed and run smoothly, and the jacket’s character has been carefully preserved throughout.

Key Features

• Vintage Dolce & Gabbana shearling aviator jacket, c. late 1990s–early 2000s
• Made in Italy
• Mid-weight Italian lambskin shearling, fleece and hide as one
• Distinctive crackled tobacco and rust finish, aged by D&G in the workshop
• Seams bound in dark chocolate leather throughout
• Turned-out cream shearling collar, cuffs and hem
• Zipped collar
• Full brass front zip with long leather pull
• Two slanted brass zip pockets
• Leather tabs at the front hem
• Red embroidered Dolce & Gabbana “&” label
• Embossed leather “&” hanging tab
• Original Made in Italy care label with security hologram

Size & Fit

Measurements, laid flat

• Chest, armpit to armpit: 24" / 61 cm
• Shoulders, seam to seam: 20" / 50.8 cm
• Sleeve, shoulder seam to cuff: 26.5" / 67.3 cm
• Underarm seam to cuff: 19" / 48.3 cm
• Back length, base of collar to hem: 29" / 73.7 cm

Best suited to: 42" chest, regular / Size Medium

Fit: The label reads Italian size 52, which corresponds to a UK 42. It’s a classic aviator cut, with room through the body for the fleece. The mid-weight lambskin keeps it easy to wear, and the longer body takes the turned-out shearling hem down to the hip for extra cover. Please go by the measurements above rather than the label, and compare them with a jacket you already own.