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Archival Cruelty: Old Town Clothing



Digital fabric samples (top down): Harris Tweed, Corduroy, Moleskin:



I’m always lamenting the remote location of my preferred retail sites: namely, Tokyo boutiques selling hyperrefined revisions of country clothing and 40s era workwear. Though thoughtful readers continue to suggest means of accessing these items online, I’m holding out for a future, in person spree–perhaps sometime in 09??? Today, I’m distracted by another longstanding retail cruelty–my inability to order items from a UK company called Old Town Clothing. Here, I submit visual examples of what makes Old Town so seductive. Each garment in their product range receives the same visual treatment: an upfront grayscale silhouette, followed, a page away, by a photograph and digital fabric sample. Returning to the site every once in awhile, I like to prioritize the garment/fabric selection for my hypothetical order (first, the Marshalsea in irish linen follwed by the Jerkin in tweed, and on…). I’d even order a full length dress if they made it out of this fabric.

Old Town provides a link to a form which one can fill out and mail in to Ms. Wiley. However, when I wrote Ms. Wiley a letter of inquiry (with full overseas postage), I never received a letter of response. My question: did my letter get lost, destroyed, or is this just a case of mail ordering from the past (with my items arriving by way of a David Niven film on some future broadcast date)?

Contact Old Town here.

8 thoughts on “Archival Cruelty: Old Town Clothing”

  1. So, anyone know of a clothier like Old Town who’ll deliver to the U.S. or is based in the U.S.? Mens clothing?

  2. I am in the UK and order from Old Town, why don’t you place an order, get it sent to me and I would happily forward on to you. it’s ok I am not a kleptomaniac.

    I would suggest phoning them, email is good but from experience placing an order is best done on the phone.

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