If your buyer has contacted you thru the general eBay messages system, that is one thing. If the BUyer as contacted you from their personal email to yours, that's another thing. If the Buyer has contacted you by requesting a return thru eBay return system, that is yet a third thing.
If thru private email, these messages are not viewable by eBay staff, so my suggestion would be to not respond at all thru private email---total radio silence.
If thru general messages, then the messages are always visible to eBay staff. Respond to Buyer that Buyer's size concerns were addressed in the listings, since you provided the actual measurements of the two jackets, and both listings noted that the labeled sizes were not accurate when compared to actual masurements. Also point out that it is general knowledge among Buyers of vintage clothing that the clothing will have odors consistent with the age and material of the product, which is inherent to the genuineness of the item.
If the Buyer's contact is within the official framework of the eBay returns system, then you MUST reply to the Buyer within the returns messaging system. We recently learned in another thread that if you make the mistake of NOT using the returns system to respond to your Buyer, thinking that messages thru general eBay messsages will satisfy the requirement to respond to the Buyer's return request, then eBay considers that failure to respond to the Buyer and will automatically find in favor of the Buyer's return request. The content of your response should be pretty much the same as above.
Please be aware of the fact that eBay's return system is heavily skewed in favor of the Buyer, as eBay's bottom line is enhanced whenever they can foist the cost of dealing with abusive Buyers onto Sellers rather than improve their systems and processes. It used to be that odors or smells were not a valid reason for a Significantly Not As Described return; it used to be that clothing size/fit was not a valid reason for a Significantly Not As Described return. But now, if the Buyer opens an official eBay return, under the current climate, the probabilities are that the case would be decided in the Buyer's favor, and that you would end up paying for the cost of returning your jackets back to you, not to mention assuming the risk that what comes back to you might not be what you sent. Under the current climate and what we have been reading about on these boards, it's pretty much immaterial that you followed to the letter the written requirements that eBay places on Sellers---their unpublished return rules will allow the Buyer to abuse eBay's system and cost you money.
