TCB: happy jeans contest

[ah_long]

You can't see the TCB, but it's there

 

2015-03-11_03-38-30 by 6u07, on Flickr

[volvo240thebest]

Beautiful! What fishes are these?

[ah_long]

whitefish

[aho]

^Awesome action shot! Just want to say though, I'm so glad the snow is melting here in Chicago...lol

[okisan]

All politicians are idiots. Which nation can boast a leader that they can be truly proud of? We have to wait for them to be dead first, before we can recognise their 'greatness'.

As an Italian you have much more than just espresso heritage to be proud of!

EDIT: Persol sunglasses. Best in the world!

 

Meanwhile, this is the guy that's in charge of my country

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wT9XS_TvzQ

 

Needless to say he's not doing a great job.

[volvo240thebest]

whitefish

 

great stuff!looks like a hefty little beast, almost like a salmon. I've never come across a whitewish. not that I am a fisherman, but I LOVE to cook fish! thanks for bringing a little bit of the great American outdoor life to the thread!

Edited March 12, 2015 by volvo240thebest

[Foxy2]

A friend of mine brought one back from Siberia - smoked...Muksun - coregonus muksun.

[volvo240thebest]

Wonderful stuff lads! Whitefish all the way from Usa to Russia. I wish I had at least an anchovy to hang for a pic for you fine gentlemen!

[Paul T]

Washtime!

I would've washed my pair earlier but for the lousy weather here. Finally, the sun arrived and I acknowledged my pants were getting funky. Note the furry apparition trying to get in the picture, and you'll have a clue as to why they're funky...

 

 

 

Not too much traveling for us over the last month or so. We spent the best part of the week in York, an old city settled by both the Romans and the Vikings. This pub is called the Guy Fawkes. It's the birthplace of.... Guy Fawkes! For non-Brits, he's the fella who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605, to try and return Engaldn and Scotland to Catholic rule. We have bonfires and let off fireworks every 5 November. So, it all started in this little place, a cottage in the pub year where Guy was born.

 

 

At one time, old pubs like this had lousy beer; bitter that tasted of soap, and Peroni was the exotic new premium drink. Now you'll find the odd place with great craft beers; this had a lovely pale ale at about 2/3 London prices

 

Dining room had these beautiful niches...

 

 

Just down the road is one of my favourite buildings in the city. This is one of the most significant Palladian revival buildings in Britain - it was a stripped-down Georgian style, in this case desgiend by Lord Burlington, one of the champions of the movement. the top lighting is very unusual and pioneering.

 

 

Back in Greenwich, We've had a good week.... busy finishing a book I"m helping a friend get into shape, but didn't stop me taking off most of Tuesday for Lady T's birthday. Lunch was by the river, in a fab pub called The Trafalgar. this is where we had the party for our wedding. It's famous for its whitebait, a little fried fish... sorry, I ate mine too quickly to photograph.

 

 

View of the river...

 

 

A few hundred yards away is the Naval Hospital. this was built as a home for retired Navy Personnel. THey had a brewery on-site, yay!

 

Edited March 12, 2015 by Paul T

[Paul T]

Post-wash...

 

 

 

 

 

I left th pants out on the floor for a couple of hours, and the bloody hound decided they were too clean. Bad dog!

 

 

Washed my Buzz rickson armorers top at the same time. (this came from Ueno market)

 

 

 

 

First day out in them, this was the view up the hill. Beautiful bright, crisp cold morning. The bronze you can see is by Henry Moor.

 

 

Up the main hill in Greenwich Park, and this is the view I am treated to every morning.

 

 

A quick and furtive fit pic. Don't want my fellow dog walkers to see what a denim poseur hipster metrosexual I am...

 

[Paul T]

Heading back towards my house, past Greenwich Observatory. THis marks the zero meridian, where East becomes West.

 

 

A regular stop; our fab local fish shop, only five minutes from our house. Gurnard is one of my fave fish, too... but today it's squid.

 

 

Volvo, even if your great nation had only contributed coffee to our big old world's culture, that would still be amazing, wouldn't it?

 

December and January were tough months for us, we only just got through. In december our Gaggia Classic failed. Then in January, so did our La Pavoni, which I'd only jsut started using again after getting it overhauled. So I decided to go for bust, sell them both and buy this baby. eBay aucitons finished last week and I managed to pay off the credit card bill.

 

It's a Rancilio Silva, rated by many as the best small coffee machine there is. Happiness, utter bliss, in a simple steel box.

 

 

So, Volvo... your nation gave us espresso, you gave us the Stradivarius and you gave us Palladian architecture. You can claim to have given us jeans (not true, but you can claim it).  And you gave us Paccheri con calamari stufati in rossi.

 

What else in life do we all need?

 

Edited March 12, 2015 by Paul T

[garden gnomes in space]

Holy shit, Paul T bringing the heat.  

[volvo240thebest]

mighty update PaulT! Bravo on those fades, jeans are shaping up to become truly memorable!!!

Heard great things about the Rancilio Silvia, a friend recently bought it too but I haven't seen it yet. I love the sturdy, utilitarian, no-nonsense all stainless steel design.

[volvo240thebest]

Seen now your paccheri pic, my admiration for you just increased, if ever possible! that's one of my favourite pasta, typical from Naples. if you can get the calamarata, same shape but slighty smaller, that's class too, and slighty more versatile to use.

I have a remarkable recipe for paccheri/calamarata with mussels, might do it over one of the next weekends and take a pic or three for the thread.

 

as for the Italian pride, there's still plenty reasons for it, of course! but travelling a lot abroad I am still disheartened when people ask about Berlusconi!

as you sure know the word jeans come from the city of Genoa, that's the main city of my area and the place where I've studied and spent all my teenage days as well. a truly great city well worth a visit. la tela di Genova is very similar to denim but not quite it, it was made by cotton and linen, indigo dyed and was used to make the typical genoese sailor trousers in the XVI and XVII century. much more similar to fustagno (fustian in English?) than to denim.

it was also used to make paintings like this one, la Tela della Passione:

I've seen this one many times, it's in the Museum of the Dome of San Lorenzo in Genoa, hope it doesn't fade too much!!!

 

when first I've got in touch with Inoue San of TCB three years ago it was because I've seen that he made two collab pairs with another obscure japanese jean maker called Genoa jeans. being a supporter of Genoa FC I badly wanted a pair of these! but they were not available more, so I got some TCB instead!

Edited March 12, 2015 by volvo240thebest

[aho]

Paul T, showing us all what this thread is about! 

[bradl]

Great update Paul, seriously had a good laugh over the dog park comment and all the historical blurbs as well.

 

Volvo, do they weave that pattern or how do they do that?

[garden gnomes in space]

Ive been slacking on updates, but to be honest the past few months have been super rough.  Our daughter kept getting sick, then better, then sick...Shit was out of hand and the sleep deprivation crept back into play.  Thankfully we are on our way back to normal, for the most part, so hopefully things will settle down.  

 

But...thanks to daylight savings* we can go for walks when its still light out.  And since everyone else showed off their baby carrier, I figured I'd show mine as well.  

 

Walking around Lake Merritt, Oakland.  Enjoying the air, the ducks, etc...

 

TCB's are in dire need of a wash, and Ive lost a few pounds thanks to lack of sleep and stress...I'll be back in the saddle soon.

 

 

* f**k daylight savings

Edited March 13, 2015 by garden gnomes in space

[volvo240thebest]

Volvo, do they weave that pattern or how do they do that?

 

hi Brad no it's not woven, it's a monochrome painting on an undyed piece of genoese fabric. the genoese fabric used for trousers and other clothes was instead made out of indigo dyed warp and white weft (or the opposite, I am not that techinical unfortunately!).

Edited March 13, 2015 by volvo240thebest

[Sugar Mountain]

What a great page guys.

 

PaulT - jeans are looking stunning. Given your head-start in the contest, I think you give us all a little bit more faith that these stubborn jeans will fade beautifully if we stay patient. I love the shots of Greenwich too. It's always been one of my favourite parts of London and I do miss it.

 

Gnomes - Good to read that the little one is doing ok. Hope it stays like that and that you and your better half can get some well-earned rest.

 

The weekend ahead is looking like fun. I'll be posting soon!

[Bobbo]

Great stuff guys! Thread is definitely living up to my high hopes I had before we got it started.

[ah_long]

^Awesome action shot! Just want to say though, I'm so glad the snow is melting here in Chicago...lol

 

It's starting to melt in Toronto as well, but it cools back down late March though

[Paul T]

Beautiful updates, 'gnomes. Feels like only yesterday I had a baby bojrn surgically attached to me. Our nipper had a dreadful birth, three months of hell - then plain sailing, and suddenly this happened!

 

Today's outfit includes Uniqlo Kaihara selvage (sale item), vintage varsity (brick lane), NOS converse (sadly the chinese-made ones) and English -manufactured mutt.

 

 

One day they're screaming and keeping you awake.. the next they're making you dinner. This was pizza with grilled vegetables and goats' cheese for his mum's birthday weekend. Volvo, yet another example of the perfection of Italy's culture!

 

 

 

So, on top of all the useless crap I've taught my son (music, denim and typeface snobbery etc etc etc) we actually achieved something useful!

 

And this is our little corner of Italy. It's an amazing shop, becuase it's right in the middle of Lewisham, which is probably 75 per cent african and caribbean. There's still a good number of Italians, who've probably been there since the '50s, but I noticed today a couple of afro caribbean guys who spoke Italian and were checking out some cool items! Today we bought Tuscan sausages... I forgot to write down the name calamarata, I'll try and find some next time.

 

 

thanks for the compliments on the jeans - the photos don't do them justice, in fact the phone photo, with a dog sitting on them, is closest to how they look in the flesh.

 

Mottled black/blue in the darks, with both white and pale blue worn areas. A lot of slubbing, more so than my Full Count, Cone, or Curtis's 60s originals.... but not so much that it bothers me.

 

THe stitching is fading absolutely beautifully...

Edited March 14, 2015 by Paul T

[volvo240thebest]

Hey Paul wonderful stuff! I see the "nipper" got the steez in his blood from his old man!

He didn't lick it off a stone ahah!

[aho]

My pair...

...but not really, these are vintage 50's Levis!

[garden gnomes in space]

got me for a second there Aho...

[aho]

^Really speaks to the fabric that TCB uses!

[Quoise1203]

I repped before scrolling to the bottom; I'd like to un-rep!

[bradl]

The thread on the bottom of the waist band is super thick on that pair you posted aho.

[Paul T]

Naughty Aho!  Got me going there!

 

Colour on my old shots was wrong, far too blue. This is more like they are in the flesh:

 

 

[oomslokop]

^^ re @bradl & thick-thread waistband: yes almost true religionesque!