I was hoping to pick up a piece of traditional Austrian Tracht for my wife on our vacation (I've made no secret of my deep appreciation for girls in dirndls). Luckily our first (and last) stop while dirndl hunting was Austrian designer Lena Hoschek's shop in Spittelberg. Ms. Hoschek (who worked in the London studio of Vivienne Westwood) shows both a nostalgic reverence for both traditional Austrian craft and embroidery and 1940s/1950s Hollywood; her current collection (Spring/Summer 2011) is very pinup girl/burlesque and next fall's collection gets back to more of the punk rock Landhausmode or (what I'll call) the sexy Alpen librarian look of past collections. I mean, Guten Morgen, fräulein Bibliothekarin:

Right inside the store we found a rack of some of the most incredibly beautiful handmade dirndls I'd ever seen. In addition to producing seasonal lines of skirts, jackets, pants, and shirts, Ms. Hoschek creates some really lovely dirndls.

Ultimately, though, a beautiful handcrafted, designer dirndl felt a little impractical once we did a cost-benefit analysis of how often she's wear it versus the cost. So the kids and I went over to the playground across the street while my wife tried on just about everything in the store. We both found last season's collection more appealing in styling, palette and price (it was 30% off). Here were some of the highlights from that collection she found in the store:

I ended up buying her a big twirly high-waist skirt and a shirt not too different from this one (without the boob hearts):

We figured that unlike a full dirndl, it was something she could wear more often. I'll try to convince her to let me take a picture of it outside once things warm up. She also tried on the sailor pants in the next photo, but thought they were a little too baggy at the bottom for her taste. But how badass does this girl look in them?

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This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

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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This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

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. 

Why would you ever want to shop at the mall?

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This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

I have watched the following video enough times since it was released that I probably could have driven down to Nashville to buy myself a pair of $300 jeans for the time I've wasted in wonderment at what an incredible retail outlet this is, from its conception to every element of its execution (as experienced virtually). The store and studio were built in an old service station. Imogene + Willie sell their own line of high-quality blue jeans, dresses, and shirts, jeans from other American-made denim lines like RRL, "vintage cowboy boots, hamam towels from Turkey, and hand dyed scarves from India." I love all the little details in the video, the song is really catchy and the camera work and editing are just beautiful. You almost forget it's a commercial.


[I'm linking to the video on youtube because I have no idea how much they must spend on bandwidth with the video on their main page; definitely watch it over there if you're interested]. They also have a blog (and I really wish they had a web store or a clear way to order from outside Nashville). 

It's been a little over a year since I cleared my closet of all clothing that wasn't either made here in the USA or by a few select heritage brands made in Europe without sweatshop labor, and I'll admit it can be hard sometimes to find non-vintage pieces that are affordable. That said, I'm willing to pay for quality materials and craftsmanship and this video shows a retail concept that has the potential to inspire others with a passion for designing and making clothing (or anything else) here in the United States. It really seems like Matt and Carrie Eddmenson have started something amazing. Like I said, I haven't been there yet but when my friend gets married down in Nashville later this year, Imogene + Willie is the first place I'm going to visit when I get there.

I think this also speaks a lot about some savvy use of the internet to market a small retail establishment and a new brand that most people would probably never hear about. I mean, who am I but some cheap schlub up here in Detroit. If the whole site and concept of the store make me want to go down to Nashville to try on some $200-300 blue jeans, maybe there's some hope for other small businesses to promote their own brands and for some other American manufacturers to get a toe hold in places like Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and other beautiful, overlooked cities where people used to make things.

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This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

I found a stack of old Detroit teen magazines from the 1950s not that long ago and was blown away by the prices in the fashion section: $49 Mackinaw coats and $19 chambray shirts and $47 leather boots. It occurred to me that despite inflation, sixty years ago parents paid the same thing for kids' clothes that today's parents pay for that garbage they sell at Old Navy. Then it occurred to me that not only were those clothes made by American workers, but they were also made to last, both in quality and style. The clothes at H&M and Old Navy are practically disposable after a single wearing.

I've been shopping at thrift stores my whole life, and I learned early on to look at the tags: not for brand information, but to figure out what the garment was made of and where it was made. The latter was usually the best indication of how old something was, and the fact that something decades old had made it through all those years always felt like a sign of its quality. I don't shop at thrift stores as much as I used to. With two kids it's hard, but more than anything all the shoddily-made, tacky, two-to-seven-year-old sweatshop crap from Old Navy has infected the racks at even my favorite thrift stores. I don't have the energy to wade through it anymore.

When I found the blog Archival Clothing through Reference Library, I became enamored with the idea of "shopping from the past": looking at decades-old catalogs and wishing I could order clothes from a time when they were made with quality materials for longevity by American workers. A recent guest post there linked to this collection of images from vintage Montgomery Ward catalogs and I couldn't believe how cool the clothes were at a store I grew up thinking was just slightly better than Zayre. Check out those guys in this photo at the top of this page. Those clothes are like the uniform of a superhero whose job it is to kick the ass of every GRUP in a $37 threadless t-shirt.

I know this is totally a nostalgia fest, but take a look at some of the other catalogs Lesli has featured on her site. Then slap yourself on the head for settling for the kind of crap we buy to cover our nakedness.

source

Previous Inspiration

This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.