sweet juniper inspiration

Showing posts with label american made goods. Show all posts

Al's Attire, North Beach

Posted by jdg | 12:06 PM | al's attire, american made goods, domestic manufacturing, work clothing, workwear

When I worked in downtown San Francisco, about once a week I would sneak away for a long lunch and walk from the Embarcadero Center through the maze of weird and strangely peaceful condominiums near Walton Square over to Jackson street and walk up through the old Barbary Coast. There was a cramped little store on Grant Street called "Al's Attire" which (back then) seemed like something lost in time: a tiny custom tailor shop crammed with ready-to-wear pieces made from vintage one-of-a-kind fabrics and based on vintage patterns. Before we left the city, I had Al make my wife an incredible long winter coat that she still wears and gets crazy compliments on all the time. I'm not a big shopper or a big spender, but when I do spend money (especially when traveling) I like to spend it on unique items that I can't get anywhere else. It only costs a little more to buy a coat from a place like Al's than from, say, Macy's, but when you do you know you're getting something designed and made right there in San Francisco by skilled workers being paid fairly, tailored to the highest quality. You're not buying a coat that you'll throw away after a season or two.

On our recent trip to the city, I stopped by Al's and was amazed to see he'd moved a few storefronts down into a fantastic new space. It seems he has started to focus more on menswear in recent years, especially vintage-style workwear (my favorite). I went in hoping to buy a hickory-stripe jacket he makes for the Japanese market, but decided to buy it in a gray herringbone instead. Al let me wander around and take some pictures while the saleswoman readied my purchase:

Since we last visited, Al has started making some really beautiful hats and footwear as well. I loved the look of these boots:

Every piece of clothing Al sells has a custom label with the customer's name sewn into it. On the wall, he's got a huge display of many of the custom labels he's made over the years:

This is the jacket I purchased, but in gray:

I'm still not sure I shouldn't have bought it in hickory stripe. I almost bought a pair of overalls too, but I had to restrain myself. They were based on a 1930s pattern and I didn't get a shot of them, but they were incredible (if impractical for my soft-hands lifestyle).

Al remembered the coat he made my wife, and said he made several others from the same fabric for a store in Paris where he said they sold out quickly. When the store owner wanted more, he couldn't make any because he'd run out of the vintage fabric and Al said he knew he must be doing something right if he was getting sworn at in French over the phone.

The new space is beautifully designed and definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in North Beach/Chinatown.

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Dickies Detroit 874 and 1922 Collection

Posted by jdg | 2:50 PM | american made goods, domestic manufacturing, work clothing

So the other day the UPS guy drops off a box addressed to me and I haven't ordered anything. I probably should have considered that suspicious (who knew what was in there? it could have been four kilos of uncut heroin or a severed human head). Inside was a pair of pants. I don't know how Dickies found me, but somehow they did. I never accept offers of promotions or giveaways from marketers, because usually they don't involve anything I'd ever be interested in using or promoting. In this case, Dickies really had my number. The pair of Detroit 874 dark navy twill work pants with red stitching was made in the USA (and this pair was only a couple inches bigger than my actual size).

Inside the box was a form letter announcing the limited-edition Detroit 874 Work Pant Program. According to the letter, for every pair of Detroit 874s sold, Dickies is donating a pair of its original 874 work pants to The Salvation Army of Metro Detroit to help workers in need. And if ever there was a community that needed help, it's this one right now. They launched the program with an initial donation of $25,000 and 5,000 pairs of new 874 work pants. Even though I don't ordinarily do this sort of thing, I thought that was pretty cool and felt compelled to share it in this space that I have used in the past to promote Detroit's history of workwear brands and other clothing Made in the USA. For more information, check out the program website.

If only Dearborn-based (and Detroit-founded) Carhartt would do something similar!

I'd been admiring Dickies' other recent Made in the USA offerings, including the 1922 Collection replica garments, and when I found them deeply discounted I picked this beautiful suntan cotton selvedge work shirt:

The clothes in this collection were made in Uvalde, TX by some of Dickies' "most experienced operators, using techniques and materials taken from the oldest garments we have, a shirt and pant that were originally purchased in 1933."

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Field Trip: Imogene + Willie, Nashville

Posted by jdg | 10:11 AM | american made goods, clothing, commerce, consumption, domestic manufacturing, handmade, imogene + willie, quality manufacturing, shopping, work clothing, workwear

I wrote about Imogene + Willie back when they first released that video showing off their new retail space. I was in Nashville over the weekend and took a trip down to 12 South to see the space for myself, and (though I was in a bit of a rush) I was impressed. I've made no secret of being pretty passionate about American-made goods, and I was glad to see a store thriving with this inspiring concept of clothing produced for the consumer on site. They let me take a few pictures of the operation while hemming my new jeans:

Patterns line the ceiling, and there are rolls of denim up in the loft.


In addition to their own shirts and denim, the store stocks jeans from Levi's Vintage Clothing, RRL, and A.P.C., along with a curated selection of work boots, western-style belts, and LVC shirts and coats.

The rivets and buttons are all in these old preserve jars.


Where blue jeans are made.

Here, an Imogene + Willie employee hems my jeans [notice the vinyl of a certain Detroit export who shall remain nameless]

The workshop/store are in an old auto repair shop, and there are little acknowledgments of that here and there. . .

. . .like repair invoices from the old shop lining the walls of the bathroom.

I bought a pair of 13-oz raw cone denim willies. Expensive---no doubt---but if I end up wearing them like you're supposed to, I'll get more than my money's worth out of them.The following pictures are of the jeans I bought. Check out the details:

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The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Posted by jdg | 10:16 AM | american made goods, bums, hoboes, Humphrey Bogart, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, work clothing, workwear

One of my top three favorite movies ever.

James Agee, in reviewing it, offered the effusive hyperbole he saved for those films he truly loved: "I doubt we shall ever see a film more masculine in style; or a truer movie understanding of character and of men; or as good a job on bumming, a bum's life, a city as a bum sees it; or a more beautiful job on a city. . ." It's no wonder, after that review, that Huston and Bogart worked with Agee on The African Queen (another of my favorite movies).

I watched Sierra Madre the other day and couldn't stop obsessing over the clothes. As summer really heats up, and most American men put on their uniforms of t-shirts and cargo shorts, the movie would have us believe that not-too-many decades ago, straight-up bums gold mining in Mexican deserts still dressed way better than we do. Look at Bogart's chambray shirt and those high-waisted pants:

I am particularly fond of Walter Huston's wardrobe; what would you bet that's a union suit? All old men should dress like that.

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Sam's Clothing, Ann Arbor, Michigan, est. 1946.

Posted by jdg | 2:48 PM | american made goods, ann arbor, brands, clothing, domestic manufacturing, downtowns, independent businesses, interiors, quality manufacturing, shopping, small businesses, workwear

As the sign and flannel outside would say, Sam's Clothing has been a traditional outfitter of casual and outdoor clothing in Ann Arbor, Michigan since 1946. I've loved this store since I first set foot inside back in 1993. I have bought a lot of clothes there since. Sam's carries the sort of clothes that never go in or out of fashion: wool socks, plain t-shirts, work shirts, sweatshirts, flannels, hats, peacoats, pocket knives, sunglasses, Chuck Taylors, and good old-fashioned blue jeans. Sadly, most of the clothing companies that Sam's has remained loyal to for more than half a century have hardly been loyal to the American worker, so the Lee jeans, Levi's, Dickies, and other brands carried there now are mostly made overseas in countries without fair labor standards. There is a nice selection of American Apparel basics (all of it surprisingly cheaper than at the actual American Apparel store down the block) and a few other domestically-manufactured products (like Stormy Kromer hats). You can hardly hold this against Sam's, where the prices are kept so low you wonder how they survive.

The guy in the framed photo above the sock monkey clinging to the saddle mirror I assume is Sam. The guy in the reflection is me, wearing 514s purchased from Sam's Clothing.

The back of the store is the best part, with the Size 76 Levi's 501s that have been there FOREVER and the colorful Converse display and the equally colorful dressing room doors, above which hangs what must be one of the best collection of vintage Levi's posters anywhere:

The 1972 computer-type poster from Foote, Cone, & Belding in San Francisco is easily my favorite:

The old Sam's bag mounted on the wall is a reminder of the days when all those Ann Arbor hippies bought their bell bottoms here. There's also a really great slide show on the Sam's Clothing web page that shows the store throughout its history.