Jump to content

chicote

member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    938

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    30

 Content Type 

Posts posted by chicote

    Shoes that look better with age...

    in superdenim

    Posted

    I am curious, what leathers do you all have & like in your black engineers? I'm now at the 2-year point with my CXL Flat Head engineers and have to say i wish i just saved up for horsehide. There was a sweet spot about 6mo-1yr in where they looked good, but kind of stopped aging gracefully and went straight to looking kinda thrashed. cxl seems a bit too dainty for a pair of boots.. I don't know if that's why many here don't prefer it but i should have listened!

    It reminds me of a philosophy ive been trying to put into practice re broarks dilemma... when faced w a bunch of different options, it's often worth the extra money / time etc to try and get the thing that you really find perfect, or that tugs at your heart a little more than the others... if you don't you'll end up with a very nice thing that you'll only have a superficial relationship with & maybe won't be able to commit to as easily. Of course, things can grow on you with time, but i think you can never go wrong putting in the extra labor to get the boots you won't have a problem keeping with you forever.

    3
    • Popular Post
    • Popular Post

    Denim Blunders, Reflections and General Nonsense.

    in superdenim

    Posted

    I've been using non-smart-phones for several years now, and off social media since 2020, yet every time i try to wean myself off of the internet I always end up relapsing within 48 hours ... always something needs to be researched, or i want to check whether it will rain later, or i'm expecting an email from somebody, or just plain bored and lonely (which i think is the root cause of so much of our internet addiction), and watching a youtube video or coming onto this forum is so much easier than taking a walk, reading a book, finishing a painting, calling a friend ... yet ultimately so much less satisfying, so much less stimulating for the mind and destructive to the spirit. I am convinced it has a huge part to play in how little genuine creativity exists in the world today, why movies are so often re-makes and trends are usually just re-hashings divorced from their original context... and so on. But it goes deeper than that, of course.

    I'm reading a book right now called Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher, about the photographer Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952), who dedicated his life to the photographic, literary and auditory preservation of the indigenous cultures of North America. It's really a well-written history, and I find myself constantly reminded, painfully so, that it was barely 100 years ago in which this story takes place, that this was just two or three generations before most of us were born and contemporaneous with most of the clothing we spend so much time talking about here. In 1905, Curtis sends letters around the country for weeks asking if anyone has a reliable map of the Arizona Territory before taking a trip there on horseback, lugging hundreds of pounds of camera equipment and boxes of glass plates; later that year he takes a days-long train ride to New York City to physically knock on the doors of millionaires asking for money to finance his project; he grew up in a small cabin he helped his father build from trees they felled on their property outside of Seattle; and his photos are absolutely incredible, taking hours of careful posing, sometimes after days of waiting for the exact right sorts of weather and light to fit his vision for his image, developed himself in a studio lit by kerosene lamps, sometimes working for days on a single image, processing print after print, fine-tuning the chemistry to get the exposure and detail exactly how he wants.

    There's something about such a long-term project, under such material circumstances, that I believe really inspired people to take such great pride in their work, to insist on perfection at a time when there wasn't even a public education system in place to set the standard for "good enough".

    The older I get, and there are obviously many reasons for this, but the older I get the more I really do sympathize with the older generations' common lament that we have it so easy today; but beneath the envy embedded in that statement I also see pity, and real, true sadness for the many things we have lost in spite of what we have gained today in our safety and comfort. (And reading the above posts, and the many thousands of research papers and articles about the millions of environmental toxins we've introduced into the world today, I wonder how "safe" and "comfortable" we will really end up being.)

    I'm grateful for the perspective we have here on this forum, as people who I believe largely are aware of the benefits of things coming slowly, carefully, being made "perfectly", of the preservation of tradition, and the intangible benefits that come from taking pride in our work, even at the cost of money and time. I think of how odd and rare these qualities are today, to the point that (as I remember) @shredwin_206 receives compliments from old-timers on the jobsite about how nicely he dresses for work, even though he is just using his (comparatively nice, expensive, functional) clothing for the purpose it was originally created; and how @Double 0 Soul approaches his woodworking projects, carefully and meticulously planning and executing a design for a pergola or a tool stand far more than would be necessary for it to just perform its basic function, using traditional techniques that might have been standard decades in the past but today seem outmoded and extravagant. Obviously neither of these approaches make "sense" to the logic of today; why not just glue 'n' screw and be done with it, or wear some $29 dickies and a thrifted t-shirt to work since you're gonna be thrashing your clothes anyway?

    I think a major difference really comes about as a result of being aware that you are continuing a process that was developed by your ancestors... that it took thousands of years of working with wood to develop the techniques used in the construction of your tool stand, and that your continued employment of those techniques is what will allow for the generations that follow you to learn from and build upon them. What I think is really destructive about the modern world, and particularly the Internet, is how easily and completely it can divorce us entirely from that sense of continuity, to the point where the past becomes something of an abstraction rather than an inseparable part of the present, something literally necessary for things existing the way they do today.

    I think of Curtis, who was inspired to take on his project largely for the same reasons. How destructive, how brutal, the early industrial age seems when compared to the Navajo woman he encounters on that desert trip, grinding plants and minerals to hand-dye individual strands of spun cotton for a blanket, each colour with a spiritual or cultural significance, each design carrying a specific message, and the weaving technique itself developed over the course of thousands of years of word-of-mouth ancestral teachings, (originally brought to them by the Pueblo people). For Curtis at this time, the surviving indigenous cultures he worked to understand represented a different sort of sophistication: a deeply understood unity between humans and nature, an awareness of the spiritual significance present in every action, and a reverence for the unfolding of history, which was constantly spoken about and referenced in the teachings of long-disappeared ancestors. He wrote that it wasn't that the indigenous people he spoke to were incapable of participating in industrial society; it was that many of them recognized the world that was imposing itself upon them had lost the tack of what they felt humans were originally meant to be part of: the continually expanding, developing, unfolding natural and spiritual forces that were part of the creation of everything around them, something far grander and more mystical than the myopic and self-centered early capitalism that beckoned with its factories, steam engines, cameras and bombs. Curtis spent much of his life and work softly underlining these messages in his work, though I'm sure he knew that he couldn't do anything to stop the ongoing march of society.

    Anyway, what this all has to do with modern technology today, and the Internet -- well, I think it's largely the same battle beneath the surface. It's a struggle to retain the meaning and value that we get from being intentional and purposeful in every aspect of our daily lives. And I think there are many things required for that to exist that aren't possible, or at least easily accessible, today -- an awareness of time, of historical continuity, of our connection to one another, to nature, and to the world... physical, and spiritual, connections, not the connection we share just because we can all watch youtube. Anyway, gotta go to work, but thank u for reading this long ramble.

    20

    Denim Blunders, Reflections and General Nonsense.

    in superdenim

    Posted

    Happy new year everyone!

    as i've mentioned to a couple of folks here already, i'm going to be moving back to south america later this year, either heading down thru mexico & central america by motorcycle or flying to venezuela to visit family & making my way around from there. hoping to do some more writing work in the amazon & some photojournalism while travelling, which i'll be sure to share here. anyway, planning for this has got me thinking a lot about what jeans i'd want to bring along... probably only 1 pair, sadly... my heart calls me either to some tender 132s or the tcb good luck jeans, tho i worry about fabric weight being an issue with both. might just go with some okinawas from @roomtemplacroix's collection. but today i have my trusty old cane's on, am gonna give em a wash n patch both knees again, lol. here's to a lovely & restful start to the year for all!

    17

    Self Edge, SF/NY/LA/PDX - updates & info

    in superdenim

    Posted

    Any reason you aren't carrying any smalls in those thermals, @kiya? i'd consider one as an underlayer for a motorcycle trip, but would like it to be a little more snug-fitting than the measurements suggest. Or is there any shrink left in the merino? Thanks in advance, beautiful colour choices this time round!

    0

    Denim Blunders, Reflections and General Nonsense.

    in superdenim

    Posted

    I wanted to share a post made by Jonah of Blackbird Spyplane, who I had the pleasure to meet on our motorcycle trip through the Bay this summer and have been really enjoying reading since. His blog and paid newsletter cover topics throughout the fashion world, primarily focusing on smaller-'artisanal' brands, which places them somewhat adjacent to us here, at least ideologically. In a recent newsletter that I want to discuss a bit, he asks: Should clothes never go on sale?

    Jonah outlines several reasons for his position -- that sales are often contrived marketing tactics by larger luxury brands who can overinflate their base price most of the year and then trim during 'sale' season, a game which smaller brands with smaller margins have trouble playing; that clothes coming in and out of "season" is an arbitrary distinction that pushes people to make unnecessary purchases for the sake of helping clear stores' inventory; and that lower market prices for clothing fuels the race-to-the-bottom epitomized by fast fashion, where workers and the environment are endlessly exploited in an effort to maximize the bosses' bottom line.

    An additional point that I have spent some time reflecting on comes from Daniel Garrod, a designer for the brand James Coward, who Jonah interviewed for the article:

    “Maybe there’s a brand you like that costs a lot,” he said, and when sale time hits “you decide to buy in and get yourself a piece, but it’s not your choice piece, and — as much as any object can create a sense of fulfillment — you don’t feel fulfilled by that object at all.”

    This is a striking and relevant reminder to me because it's something I have felt somewhat often in my time as part of this community. As someone who has worked at or around minimum-wage for the past decade, I feel it's necessary to either budget for weeks to get a piece that I want, which often rules out jumping on the really excellent low-volume brands like Ooe, Roy, At Last, etc., or to find my clothes secondhand, which often leads to the exact situation Garrod describes above: you compromise on the exact piece you're after to get something more accessible, and aren't able to form a meaningful relationship with the piece you ended up with as a result.

    I'm curious what your experiences are with this issue, whether or not you agree with the points made in the newsletter, how you factor things like price and availability into your purchases of specific brands, and would love to also hear which items you have that feel meaningful to you in a way that justifies the cost and effort to procure them.

    13

    Show us your leather

    in superdenim

    Posted

    @sensy that's amazing!! i remember a couple years ago you saying you planned to make yourself a pair of boots and were teaching yourself other leatherworking skills along the way... i really admire your dedication, and the skills you've learned really show in how cleanly that boot turned out.. looking forward to seeing the next one!!

    1

    Denim Repair

    in superdenim

    Posted · Edited by chicote

    @reallypeacedoff where I am in the states they go for 2-300 in working condition, some online prices may exceed that, but this was one of Singer's most popular and enduring models so you shouldn't have trouble finding one locally with a bit of searching. There are a few variations of the 201 (as with most Singers), so it's best to make sure you do some prior research to make sure you're getting something that will work for you. Here is a good resource for them. The 201-2 is my personal preference as it has a potted (integral gear-driven) motor which provides more torque and stability than the standard belt-drive motor, but maintenance on these motors can be a bit more complicated. There's also an aluminum version that came out in the 60s that cuts the weight of the machine by 15 pounds or so lol. But the 201 itself is a great heavy-duty domestic machine that can definitely handle most denim-related work you'd want to do. Highly recommended!

    4

    Denim Blunders, Reflections and General Nonsense.

    in superdenim

    Posted

    So strange, repros of repros. I noticed that there's a brand selling reproductions of Rising Sun Blacksmiths on ebay currently, as well as a couple other models.. red tornado i think was the brand? Anyway, seems like a similar approach. I was tempted for a moment, but something about it felt strange, not to mention workers must not be getting compensated well at $90 a pair.

    It did make me wonder, though, about some of the larger and more popular repro brands here, eg. freewheelers, toyo, warehouse. I've been curious to know what their production processes are like, how many employees they have, and so on, seeing as they turn out a relatively large number of new pieces every season, completely dwarfing smaller brands like TCB and the like. Even brands like At Last seem to have huge catalogs, and someone has to be producing all of it--anyway, just a side curiosity that spun out of this discussion of these new repro-repro brands.

    1

    Show us your leather

    in superdenim

    Posted

    Wow, that is truly amazing Duke! Are you doing all the stitching by hand or have you got a leather sewing machine? I’m patterning a new leather bench seat for my truck at the moment, but the thought of all that hand stitching is daunting…

    1

    Denim Repair

    in superdenim

    Posted

    That looks great Julian!! Any reason in particular why you oriented the denim in that direction? I’ve been thinking about orienting my next knee patch so the bias runs vertically, to see if it might give the fabric there a bit of a break from constant stretching. As a trade-off, the knees might bag out more, but I’m not sure. Anyway, beautiful work on the patch and those jeans too!

    0

    Freewheelers, Bootleggers Reunion, Bubo, etc.

    in superdenim

    Posted

    ^Good point ... it's been in the 40s fahrenheit the last couple of weeks where I live, and i've only broken out my n1 on the absolute coldest evenings when i'm riding my motorcycle or working on my truck. Even then, it feels too warm sometimes. I probably won't bring it with me to the warmer place I plan to move to soon, wherever that is --- and for what it's worth, that Freewheelers lining looks substantially warmer and thicker than the mccoys jacket i have. But, if it's just something for freak snowstorms or the like, it might still be useful!

    1
×
×
  • Create New...
superfuture®
supertravel
products
services

  • follow us
    • superfuture
    © 2003 – 2023 superfuture® All Rights Reserved