Wednesday 30 March 2011

Mood Indigo







A quick round-up of this season's best garments, all available in indigo.
From top to bottom:
J. Crew Indigo Fleece Crewneck Sweatshirt
Margaret Howell DB Utility Jacket Indigo
J. Crew Indigo Deck Jacket
Woolrich Woolen Mills Indigo Anorak Shirt
Oliver Spencer Summer Deck Jacket Chambray Indigo
YMC Hunting Shirt
Engineered Garments Overdyed Indigo Painters Pant

Thursday 24 March 2011

A tribute to Liz







February 27th 1932 – March 23rd 2011

WWII Bomber Crews








Hot on the heels of Saturday's Buzz Rickson's Flight Jacket post, and a trip to the Imperial War Museum Duxford, I thought I'd share some pictures of some of the brave crews who risked their lives on missions during WWII, but looked great into the bargain.

Saturday 19 March 2011

Buzz Rickson's M421A Summer-Weight flight jacket




The M-421A was the standard issue summer-weight flight jacket for all Navy and Marine Corps pilots engaged in Pacific operations during WWII. Buzz Rickson's now offer an excellent copy of the original, just right for the coming summer months. It'll look great with a pair of aviators, even if you're just piloting a Ford Focus rather than a P-51 fighter.

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Double RL at Liberty

Liberty's window, complete with some ranch-style accessories.

Shelves of checked (or plaid if you prefer) shirts.

Some washed and timeworn looking denims.

All that's missing is Will Rogers and a couple of longhorns.

The range also includes heavily branded caps and bags.

A zip-fronted flyer's jacket and (below) a beautifully finished shawl-collared sweatshirt.

Last week I noticed that Liberty had opened a brand new Double RL concession in its basement menswear department, featuring some elegantly rugged American threads.
There are shelves of shirts, sweats, waistcoats and jackets, all looking like they've spent a year at Ralph's ranch before being washed, pressed and imported into the UK. (Yes, I know the truth is likely to be somewhat different.)
Here are a few snaps of some of the things that caught my eye - including a great looking shawl-collared sweatshirt, a navy twill flyer's jacket and some of those shirts I mentioned. As with much of Ralph's stuff, the price is top dollar, but the quality's definitely there in the cut and fabric.
Oh and I forgot to mention, if you're a Liberty loyalty card holder, you'll get a 20% discount on all of it until Saturday 5th March.

Tuesday 1 March 2011

Old Town Evening Star







After reading the Old Town Evening Star, I want to believe that the village of Holt in Norfolk is forever trapped in 1946. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was like that mythical place Brigadoon, occasionally emerging from the mist purely for the sake of Londoners looking to buy some good old fashioned workwear.
The newspaper is written by the clever people behind the Old Town clothing brand, and relates the ins and outs of life in North Norfolk and beyond in a very parochial post-war fashion. I loved reading gems about the death of blue Aertex, Miss Willey's Diary, and of course the spiffing articles about their very own clothing. And I cracked up merely reading the titles on one of their fashion spreads: "How to get that Pitman Painter meets House of Eliott look with a top note of Cricklewood Bus Garage."
For a freesheet put out by a bunch of rag trade folk, the writing (if you'll pardon the pun) is pretty darned good, and even the authentic letterpress advertising it carries is top-notch.
Which is where I reckon the folk at Old Town are missing a trick. The paper's such an entertaining read, they should start charging for it.
About 2d (old money) would seem appropriate.