Jimmy Stewart’s Rough Wear 1401-P

This jacket is a faithful reproduction of the iconic A-2 flight jacket worn by James Stewart during his service in the United States Army Air Forces in World War II.

Already an established and highly successful Hollywood actor before the war, Stewart had earned widespread acclaim through films such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and The Philadelphia Story before enlisting in the USAAF in 1941. Refusing a purely ceremonial role, he insisted on active operational service and went on to fly combat missions as a B-24 Liberator pilot with the Eighth Air Force over Europe. Stewart rose to the rank of Colonel during the war and later retired from the U.S. Air Force Reserve as a Brigadier General.

His jacket — long admired among collectors and aviation enthusiasts as one of the most iconic surviving wartime A-2s — was manufactured by Rough Wear Clothing Co. of Pennsylvania under their 1401-P contract and adorned with the insignia of the 703rd Bomb Squadron.

More than a military garment, Stewart’s A-2 became part of his personal identity. He continued to wear the jacket long after the war, most memorably in the 1948 motion picture “You Gotta Stay Happy”, where its unmistakable patina and wartime character remained beautifully intact.

Today, the original jacket - personally donated by Jimmy Stewart himself- is preserved within the permanent collection of the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.

Meticulously recreated with uncompromising attention to historical fidelity, material authenticity, and period-correct construction, this reproduction seeks not merely to replicate a garment, but to capture the spirit of courage, elegance, and understated heroism embodied by both the jacket and the man who wore it.