Sunday, July 14, 2013

HOW TO LOOK AT A VINTAGE JERSEY

So here we go,
 how to look at a vintage 
cycle jersey.
Firstly as you can see I have chosen for my example 
a pretty average looking jersey, why?
Simply because one of the great jerseys,
like the classic Legnano jerseys, are just so beautiful and are just so"right",
that it would be too easy a task to look at these.
Whereas this jersey really  needs to be viewed
from the point of view of a connoisseur
.OK, the first thing I see here is that this was
obviously a sponsored rider or event, and judging 
the age of the jersey to be early to mid sixties.
So I know there wasn't a lot of sponsored riding 
in New Zealand during this period, so the jersey is straight away
quite a rare item and of interest to me.
The next items of interest are the details of construction.
Looking at the label I see it is a New Zealand made Vel-Sport jersey. 
I already knew this was a NZ jersey, because the body colours of green and white
 have been sewn together' rather than dyed, and the
material is a type of rugby knit which are pretty unique to NZ jerseys.



Notice the different colouring 
of the ribbing on the collar and arms, a nice little touch.


Turning the jersey around we see the three pockets on 
the lower back with their classic white buttons.
There you have it, the jersey has revealed that it has
been quite nicely made,and although not a top end product has a couple 
of nice touch's, is pretty rare in that it 
a sponsored jersey from the sixties.
The printing is also very 'hand done' which
appeals to me...now to do some research and
try to find where and when this was used, and if I am really lucky maybe 
even find out who wore it.


  Does all this interest in some old, not that great, cycling jersey
make me an eccentric weirdo of some sort.
I wouldn't have a clue...you tell me.


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