Revisiting my Swan Jacket: A Studio Cleanout Leads to a New East West Musical Instruments Homage

This is the construction story behind the updating of my Swan jacket — my couture homage to the iconic East West Musical Instruments parrot jacket, which is available made-to-order starting at $4,550.

This one of a kind colorway (already sold) uses pearlized lamb, iridescent cowhide, and remnant pink leather discovered during a recent studio inventory. [Read the full history of the Swan jacket and East West Musical Instruments Co. here.]

A few weeks ago I realized I had to do inventory — my studio is very compact, and everything is packed away very tightly. As a result, every time I had to locate something, the entire studio would get torn apart. Had to do something about that.

So while digging through and counting the skins that have been stashed away, I found some gorgeous pearlized shades that on their own weren’t enough to do much of anything with.

I found three large skins of a pearly sunflower lamb — a little mottled, so not all usable. Some scraps of purple. Two small pieces of a cool iridescent distressed green cowhide. And another, literal, scrap of pink cowhide that I’d purchased just for the color, thinking I might one day make a bag for myself. (As if I ever manage to make anything for myself! I suffer the same syndrome as any fabric hoarder — it’s just much heavier and much more expensive.)

After watching the first two episodes of Netflix’s “Girlboss” (not recommended — just watch for the jacket if you’re curious), I realized I had enough skins in a theme of sorts to re-create my East West Musical Instruments homage — my “Swan” jacket, which I originally created around 1995/1996 for Patricia Field’s boutique.

Constructing the Appliqué

First, I fully reworked the fit on the jacket again, updating it to current standards while keeping it fitted and sleek.

The appliqué on this style almost doubles the amount of leather you’d usually find in a jacket of this cut. It also more than doubles the work.

Extra steps were added to this particular build because I wanted to conserve that gorgeous pink cowhide, in the hopes of still making that elusive bag for myself one day. Each of the pink inlays was individually cut, rather than connected, and the edges skived so the edges wouldn’t show through the lightweight purple of the wings. Messy, exacting work with the very primitive skiving tool I had on hand.

There’s a lot of careful hand-cutting, matching, gluing, and stitching in any piece — but it’s particularly intense with appliqué and inlay work. There are roughly 75 pieces of leather cut for this jacket, plus another 10–12 pieces for the lining. That’s kinda astounding considering this is a show and very fitted jacket.

I can hardly believe I did this jacket in production, back in the day, but we did!

Production is a real advantage when making something like this — with so many colors involved, producing multiple jackets at once helps the yield across a full run.

Made-to-Order vs. Fully Custom: What’s the Difference?

Today, I offer this jacket on a Made-to-Order basis, where each client chooses their own colors. Made-to-Order still requires sourcing time and uses considerably more leather than a single-colorway production run did, but the design itself is already developed and fitted to a standard size range.

I can also do this jacket, as full on Custom-Made. This adds several cotton muslin fittings into the mix so it adds a little time, but it is always worth it.

This is the nature of custom work generally — extra time, extra attention, extra care. It’s what makes a handmade garment one-of-a-kind, personal, and rare.

My Made-to-Order pieces get the same attention and care in their creation as my custom work; the real difference is in the pattern-making. A pattern designed and developed for a standard size range cuts back significantly on labor and time compared to a fully custom commission, where that same pattern-making and fitting work is done once, for one person, one garment.

My Made-to-Order work is as carefully thought out, designed, and fitted as my fully custom work, and built as a piece meant to last a lifetime. It’s simply not one-of-a-kind in the way a fully bespoke commission is. However if you are in that standard size range, the fit will feel like is is custom fitted!

There’s no point in working with materials this beautiful and long-lasting unless the end product meets an impeccable standard. Neither my custom work nor my Made-to-Order pieces are “instant gratification” — Made-to-Order still takes weeks: sourcing materials and choosing materials, cutting, all the same preparation and final handcrafted construction that goes into my Bespoke work. Each process demands real respect, and that’s how I approach all of the work.

The Bottom Line:

This updated fit of the Swan jacket — My couture homage to the East West Musical Instruments parrot jacket — was built from odd skins od pearlized lamb, iridescent cowhide, and pink leather discovered during a studio inventory. The jacket involves roughly 75 individually cut and inlaid leather pieces, plus lining, and is available Made-to-Order, in the colors of your choice starting at $4,550, with full custom commissions also available. Each jacket will be completely One-of-a-Kind. Colorways will not be replicated.

If you would like your own homage to East West musical Instruments you can find out more or order here.