cash

Finally got around to packing up the winter boots and shoes last night.

Top: Sorel, Carolina, RW

Bottom: RW, RW, NF, Vasque

Two back pockets and hidden rivets were both nice additions. Zippers seem to be popular, also.

Came across these this morning thanks to Sartorially Inclined:

^"damnit" was a fun stage with my kid. Wife is still sure I'm responsible, which is probably true 'cuz had he picked up her favorite saying it would have been the "fuck you" stage.

A little Scottish and Kodachrome love.

^G-1s abound. Take a look at VLJ the market there usually has an original G-1 kicking around for under $200 -- $100-jackets will show up, too. VLJ also has a ridiculous, I mean ridiculous, amount of info on model variations. If you are serious about the G-1, do get the early '60s as these have the mouton collar that ages beautifully (by the late '60s synthetic collars are used, these are cool, but don't fade and age like the lamb).

More software than hardware (detail porn, nonetheless): Union tag from '70s Storm Rider.

Not denim, but it is a beautiful rusty piece of brass:

Conmar pull off my G-1

My mom's selvage sailor dungarees from a long, long time ago.

Big E 505

(Goofing off on a rock with family from out of state)

Hat

Tee

LVC

Boots

Hippie

11 year old

^Uh, really? Seven Grand Records? Isn't that like what Geo Metros sold for new? Maybe this Solar dude is Hip Hop's most frugal producer? Anyway RIP Guru, thanks for the music.

^ Try this one Sunday. It's by no means perfect, but you get a good feel for the man.

^Here are a few ideas:

1) Your friend might try contacting Lee jeans (or Lee Euro, as the case may be). I've never done that with a denim piece, but I've ordered replacement buttons from manufacturers for other vintage pieces and with great results -- they usually send them at no cost.

2) Try eBay. Find a shitty old Lee Rider and take one of the buttons from that -- however, riveted buttons might be a tough one to carefully remove and replace but I'm sure a cobbler or tailor could do the work.

3) Remove/replace the top button and move it to the missing spot -- again, might be tricky but a good cobbler should be able to work something.

terrible interviewer. how in the world did she land that gig

Did you see the holes in the knees of her pants?

Seriously, though, that interview exemplifies one of the biggest problems with journalism. She spent too much time establishing the context and importance of the person she was interviewing and no time talking about anything interesting. It was like interviewing Elvis and talking about how he has a zillion hits -- unless you've been living in a hut on an iceberg you know that. I'd rather hear Elvis talk about guitars or groupies or anything other than the obvious (in all fairness I don't know what theewebsite.com is about, I assume fashion, and in that case why didn't she at least talk about something meaningful to fashion -- it was all trivia). She was also very interested in tying herself to the interviewee. She only dropped her time three times in five minutes and never gave Christophe's full name. Also, stop showing that picture of Mos Def. I get it, famous people shop there? This is why good interviews take days and shitty interviews take an hour.

(Side note: I think the askvalet piece zissou posted was a far better use of a short interview).

J Crew has really stepped up their game in the last two years. Find a pair of J Crew chinos from 2006 and compare them to what you can pick up in the store today and you'll be impressed. However, the denim commitment, in my opinion, is misplaced. J Crew's success is rooted in a certain WASPy/trad aesthetic. The store's bread and butter is affordable mid-quality chinos and button-down shirts. Everything else is sort of perefrial. I'm sure they sell a hell of a lot of denim, but real denimheads, the ones that care about selvage, are not going to J Crew or The Gap for their gear. Now, they'll sell some selvage to guys who read about it on the internet. Those dudes, however, fall into two categories: The guy who bites hard and moves on to more obscure pieces or the dude that's wearing the-next-big-thing in a year. Also, the price point of mid-$200s is high for J Crew-labeled gear -- clothes nerd won't bite and mall-shoppers won't pay that much. Thus, it's more of a vanity project. It'll give the chain some cred -- it'll get them another write up on ACL. In the end, however, their cred and respect from those in the know was always rooted more in delivering a decent polo than from fetish denim.

$2 Baracuta Harrington

$18 (to the best of my recollection)

WPL 423 is Levis Wool Products Label number.

Wool Products Labeling act of 1939

SteelZipper.com piece on WPL:

WPL # or Wool Products Label Number -A Number issued during 1941 -1959 by the Federal Trade Commission to the manufacturer of any wool product as a requirement of the Wool Products Labeling Act. Numbers were issued sequentially starting with 00101 (now referred to as 101) to and ending with 13699. This system was merged with the current RN# system that is still used to assign identification number to a garments manufacturer. Companies that were issued WPL number can still use this number to identify the company as the manufacturer of a current garment. For example, Levi Straus still identifies its product with a WPL # 423 on its labels. Therefore, Merely dating a garment based on low WPL# does not mean it is vintage, unless the company went out of business at a known date, which was only state that the garment is at least as old as the date it went out of business. Identifying a WPL# can give a clue to a garments origin, but should not be used to date an item.

^The Vintage Leather Jacket site is go-to site for SUFU to ID jackets.

Late pass: The Breezer is a prime example of what MF does well. He takes a pretty played-out vintage piece like the Harrington and tweaks in such a beautiful way.

Boys, don't do heroin and stay away from open windows.

They look better as jackets. All kidding aside, at least US sourced horsehide is ethically produced.

I dropped that bit of wisdom on a vegan at a party that was complaining how her construction-working husband couldn't find "ethical" shoes that held up. When I suggested horse, she looked at me like I was advocating the murder or infants. Even after I explained that horse hide could only come from animals that had naturally died she went into some rant about how I'd feel if someone was wearing my skin. And, honestly, if my carcass aged like FQHH, I would want it on some denimheads back.