I read this tittle and thought it was a pants zipper and really could not think of a good replacement for that. I am happy to see this was for a jacket. I do agree it needs some kind of end piece to make it pop.
Zipper pulls are awesome--my leathers have all the zips replaced with graduated persian pulls in stainless and black stainless...made these for my wife...
...granted, hers don't replace the entire zipper--but they look pretty cool.
Another project that lends itself to an awful lot of variation...