julian-wolf

^ I like my Word of Mouth jeans a lot, but they’re not made to nearly the same standard of construction as anything I have from Ooe. That’s completely fine with me, in the end—I didn’t buy them to be built with every stitch perfect—but it makes them feel like a much closer to comparison to someone like Rockets or Bridge of Time (not that I’ve tried either of these personally, to be fair) than to Ooe. The only other jeans I’ve worn that felt like they really parallel Ooe in that regard are Roy’s, so maybe it’s too high of a standard to be comparing on anyway

I’m sure I’ve worn my Bourtons with shorts at least a few times. Honestly, I think this feels more unnatural than it would to wear them with a suit, besides maybe a lighter color linen or seersucker number. Since when are brogues at all formal??

[At least] Two parts to the story, really. On one hand… Of course it's different. When the food influencers blow up the local spot, the folks running the spot have the potential to make a lot more money. That sort of exposure + influx could even be what lets them finally expand into a brick and mortar—which is maybe frustrating for the long-time customer but often great for the community, and most importantly for the folks running the place. Fine, sometimes they'll over-extend and the whole thing will go to shit, but that's going to be a risk either way. Ooe has been so supply-limited for so long that it's really hard to believe generating more interest in their product will generate any more actual work for them. Building more hype doesn't do much other than build more competition among customers. Fine, to be fair: it also probably drives quite a bit more traffic for their retailer partners like S&S, where there's bound to be something cool in stock even when those cherished Ooe jeans aren't, but even if that's a positive for the industry overall, it's not helping Ryo and Hiro directly in the same ways as it might help your homie with the taco truck. The story would be a little different if they were taking the Roy + SE approach of just ratcheting prices higher and higher in order to curb demand and find some sort of real equilibrium, but so far that doesn't seem to be where they're going with this. Who knows? On the other hand, though… This has been my biggest real turn-off from them for years; I know it's come up in this thread before. We can complain all we want about the influencers latching on and blowing up the spot, but in the end, for better or for worse, that's exactly the result Ryo and Hiro are seeking in how they run their own social media. Clearly they've decided it's a net benefit to them & to the community, so who are we to say otherwise?

It might just be that I’m uncultured (or differently cultured) and have never spent any time in any truly formal environments, but simple mid century service shoes have always felt to me like an appropriate middle ground. I’ve worn my black shell MOTO derbies with a suit a few times, and with jeans plenty, and they’ve never felt out of place in either setting. I’m sure that there are contexts in which this would be seen as very inappropriate, but it seems like it’s probably best to be avoiding those anyway…

@yung_flynn The M41027 do run around an inch smaller than many other M-series

@Broark For what it’s worth, I’m just now reading through the S&S email from a few days ago and it looks like Ryo and Hiro will be visiting S&S a few weeks after Inspiration to announce a new collab. model. If this is anything like previous years, they might save some extra stock of the Inspiration jeans to sell while there. No guarantee, obviously, but it could be worth reaching out.

@vIGGiou riou Those are looking great

I like the fit of these quite a bit overall, but one thing I’ve found is that the lower rise means I don’t end up wearing button-up shirts much; the proportions just end up feeling off. On one hand it feels like a shame to be so limited, but on the other hand I think the challenge of putting together more outfits that just rely on simple tee shirts has done a lot to help get me out of a sort of slump that I’d been in for the past few months, which is a pretty cool side effect. (In general, I think that the idea of being forced to get a little more creative with what non-jeans clothes items I wear was a strong point in favor of me joining the contest in the first place.) Anyway, for most of this week we had some collaborators and customers in from out of town @ my job, which meant wearing shirts, which meant wearing different jeans. It felt surprisingly good this morning to get back in the usual flow. …feat. Tilley, Okolehao, Tezomeya, Duke, Russell, plus a bonus shot of our first rose of the year

Tilley / Okolehao / Tezomeya / Duke / Word of Mouth / Russell

@MJF9 That’s great to know; their USD prices area generally way higher than domestic. All I’ve bought direct from them is a couple bananas, so no huge hit, but being able to pay their listed JPY price would make me way more likely to order more in the future

Great Lakes / Rocky Mountain / Union Special / Hollows / The Vanishing West / MOTO

@Talan Lifestyle is a big factor yeah; if you don’t walk much your jeans won’t fade much…that said, yeah, these are crazy fast fading, right up there with some of the newer Warehouse denims

@blooming Yeah, I’ve been wearing this pretty much nonstop for the past few months. Design is great fit is great construction is solid fabric is xxxtra cozy

@UkeNo Thanks! Yeah, it was a long time coming. Been thinning up top more & more for the last couple years, and at a certain point the pony tail just starts to feel forced. That said, I love it so far; everything’s so much easier

@CSL I wouldn’t go through a stream in them, especially with the zipper. These are double bottomed, so the Blake stitches aren’t an issue; my other double bottomed pair from them has done well in storms in the past. At a certain point, though, the stitching connecting the inner and outer layers becomes a weak point. I have a few pairs of both single and double bottomed mocs from Russell at this point, and the moc stitching itself has never seemed to cause any issues, but on one pair in particular the bottom of the tongue does let in quite a bit of water. If you were to get a pair made and wanted to prioritize waterproofing, I know that they also have a triple bottomed option, for which the innermost layer only closes at the top of the foot. I’ve heard great things about those, although I’d imagine it adds some extra weight, which might be pretty noticeable since they’re so light to begin with.

Took the waist in a couple of inches on an old pair of Gustin jeans that my partner was interested in commandeering Quick & dirty job but the result’s close enough to perfect

Been wearing these Russell Zephyrs lots for maybe 4 months now; the lightweight nubuck / faux chamois leather picks up grease and indigo like crazy so they look a lot older (to me at least) Never thought I’d find slip-on boots to be this comfortable / useful. When I picked them up I really just wanted something fast to put on and off that had high enough shafts to be good for gardening / cold-weather car washing / whatever chores, but they stay put well enough when walking that I’ve probably ended up wearing them as my main shoes more than half the days that I’ve had them. A++ would strongly recommend

Some of my favorite Union Special shirts: Got the first two (Neal Cassidy plus Foreman) from Seiichiro around 2020. Both have aged really well; I love the puckering on the Foreman, although the color on that one’s faded a little fast for my liking. Both are 50/50ish cotton/linen blends. The Neal is a little small on me now, but the Foreman still fits perfect. The contrast & colors are truest on the collar shots. Got this salt & peppery chambray Hammersmith off Yahoo in 2019 or 2020 I think. It’s probably my most-worn cotton chambray shirt from Freewheelers, although I did just pick up a lighter S&P Neal shirt (prob. the exact same one our own Neal’s got on, above) from Yahoo a few weeks ago that I’m looking forward to. Very comfortable fabric. My very favorite shirt—maybe ever—is this Rivet Gunner (the red one) that I picked up in 2022 or so. No photos that I’ve taken manage to do the fabric justice. I was ecstatic to find a second one recently (the green), not too heavily used. It just arrived in the same shipment as the S&P Neal; I still haven’t even worn it out. Bonus shot of all of the above crumpled on the table, for color reference:

More of the same: Power Wear / Word of Mouth / Russell

!!!

I have a pretty worn-in non-chambray Neil shirt, and a non-worn-in chambray Neil shirt, and a few non-Neil chambray shirts in in various stages of wear…any preference?

Feels like as good a time as any to shout out Huston Textile; I’ve handled a slew of their fabrics and they’re nicer than anything that I’ve seen come out of Cone Mills or its recent reincarnations in the last bunch of years. The Reddit dweebs would have you think that Vidalia was the very last bastion of domestically woven denim, but the reality is that there’s probably still at least a dozen small family-run mills putting out top quality product. There’s even plenty of smaller, more boutiquey / fashion-oriented brands putting out jeans & jackets that are made in USA / Canada top to bottom—they just don’t have any interest in catering to the repro crowd, or don’t perceive there as being enough of a market to warrant it. Go to any crafts fair in a borderline hip city and you’ll see at least a couple very cool (if non-SuFu-approved) options.

^ Lots of great stuff there. What happened to warrant building up such a stash just to get rid of it?!

No, they ship internationally; I’ve ordered from them a couple of times and it’s never been any trouble.

I have a brand new Django Atour Peaked Lapel Jacket (https://www.ateliergardenia.com/items/98041158) in size LL that’s quite a bit too small on me. It’s a really lovely jacket, and I’m sad not to be able to make it work. It would probably be a good fit for a US M or JP L, give or take. Photos and measurements on Atelier Gardenia’s website are largely accurate, but here are some shots with a tailor’s tape as an extra point of reference. Happy to post more detail shots on request. The fabric is a beautiful mid-weight linen, and it’s half-lined in a very soft cotton. The workmanship is top notch. I paid ¥55k = $360, which already felt like a steal, but I’d be happy with taking a bit of a loss for the sake of getting it to a good home. Send any reasonable offers my way.