MA1-50S-TYPEB

This time it's the MA-1. Say "MA-1" and there's a whole world in the vintage of it — details shift a little by era, real or fake, it goes deep. For the record, I'm not so expert that I can tell the year without Googling. I've looked it up so many times but it just won't stick (laughs).

This is the sewing. If you love the MA-1 you swoon over this puckering (the way the stitch draws up), right? People often ask me to reproduce this puckering when making a present-day product, and it's by no means easy. That said, depending on the factory, adjusting the machine can sometimes get you there. What I want you to notice in this image is that the seam spec isn't a felled seam — it's a single stitch, pressed to one side, no overlock. This was a fairly big discovery for me; I'd assumed the MA-1 was a double stitch. So the early type was single stitch. And yet this degree of puckering is, again, a spec that's hard to achieve today.

This image is the facing of the hip-pocket bag. Personally, this was the biggest find of the whole disassembly. What is it? The MA-1's hip pocket is a single-welt pocket. Touch that welt and it has a thickness you wouldn't believe comes from just folding nylon cloth in two. Is there wadding inside? — you think for a second, but it feels too firm for wadding, and I'd always noted it as wadding when making the pattern, checking with the client. But opening it up this time, I realized I'd been wrong.

It's very hard to explain, but the bag cloth of this pocket is, as in the image, a thick, brushed fabric. That bag cloth is folded so it fits into the welt, and that's what gives the welt its thickness! Actually doing this spec would be a real pain and isn't realistic, but getting to learn it was a tremendous gain.

This is the sleeve pocket. The MA-1's signature — that zippered little pouch on the left arm — is a pretty iconic detail. They apparently kept cards, maps, or in the old days slips for radio orders in here. In the cockpit it mattered to "keep information where you can grab it instantly," and the very idea of "carrying information on your left arm" is already fascinating.

Further out there's room for four pens. "Why here?" you think, but it's a very rational placement — somewhere you can grab it quickly with your dominant hand, helmet on, without moving your body much. And the sewing shouldn't be missed either: the stitch routing is quite tight, a precision you wouldn't expect from mass production. This really is a highlight unique to a vintage MA-1.

The zipper on the sleeve pocket is a CROWN zipper.

Vintage lovers are zip lovers. Or so I believe (^^). The MA-1's zipper tape is made of twill cotton tape, and it fades a little over years of use. This fading emphasizes the contrast with the metal zipper itself and creates an atmosphere you just can't put into words. This really is one of vintage's great highlights.

And the one on this individual is a CROWN zipper. Alongside YKK and TALON it was a leading zip supplied to the US military at the time, but from the '70s on it gradually disappeared. So a CROWN on an 8279B MA-1 becomes precious evidence for reading the manufacturing period and the timing of the contract.

Zippers are a part that gives big hints for dating, so it's a point worth holding onto. Incidentally, "vintage lovers are TALON lovers" is my own arbitrary bias, haha. In the end, you can't talk MA-1 without talking zip.

This is an image of the wadding inside. I write "wadding," but it's not actually cotton — thick wool is packed in.

Cutting it open to look, there are slits here and there. If it were just one you'd think a mis-cut piece got used as-is, but with slits in several places, and in suggestive positions (near the back-shoulder dart and around the sleeve elbow), you start to wonder if it's intentional — though the opposite side wasn't cut, so probably not.

This is the wadding of the inner sleeve, and the underarm is cut away in a big semicircle. This too can be read as consideration for comfort and mobility, so the underarm doesn't get too thick (maybe anti-stuffiness as well...). Fine touches are made so that packing in thick wool doesn't cost function. Personally, touches like this get me the most fired up. Especially with military and workwear, you often see efficiency-minded, production-conscious specs, and yet they don't cut corners on function — that feeling is what I love.

The inner pocket. The bag cutting feels rough? Or the bag's stitching is approximate? — that rustic quality, combined with the wadding spec above, is interesting. The bag is stitched down only at the tip, punching through the lining and wadding, which shows that keeping it from drooping mattered.

A stitch ran all the way around about 7 cm from the hem, fixing the wadding and lining together. And finally — this disassembly was insanely hard, haha.

That was the 50's Vintage MA-1 Type-B! Thank you very much!!