Friday, January 16, 2009

On the trail of Indigo Artifacts...

For designers and vintage aficionados like myself, some of the most satisfying and inspirational moments come when you find a piece of clothing seemingly forgotten by time. It can hold a remarkably functional, yet entirely archaic detail. It can be made of a fabric whose quality, weave, or pattern is lost to a bygone era. Or it can be the sheer beauty of something that has aged and gathered complexity like a fine wine.

Many of us spend countless hours combing flea markets, vintage stores, and dusty warehouses to uncover those few treasures that some other hunter has missed or left behind. Inevitably, much of these treasures end up in the archives of personal collectors, vintage houses, or big apparel companies like Ralph Lauren, Levi's, and A&F as reference material for the many new items created every season. But only rarely do we know the origins of these finds or the story behind them.

In a fantastic article that came out this month, Outside magazine profiles Mr. Brit Eaton, a true hunter and tracker of that elusive and near extinct creature, the vintage American Garment. Kudos to Outside magazine for this wonderfully accurate, well researched, and thoroughly enjoyable article.

The Brotherhood of the Very Expensive Pants

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Made in America - Addendum

Further to the topic of the decline of American made products, I found this interesting article from MR Magazine:

Made in America

I can recall a time when there were TV commercials urging consumers to buy products made in the USA. They featured an ever vigilant, label inspecting shopper exclaiming "you better believe it matters to me!". In these crazy economic times with our Auto industry crumbling and our country in need of jobs, is the "Made in America" brand ready for a triumphant return?