a guide to heritage clothing, canvas bags, steel bicycles, and Japanese web shops
Just spotted this wonderful, Women’s Land Army jacket at one of my favorite online vintage shops, Saunders Militaria. Here’s a description of the jacket from the site: “Without a doubt a stunning article of clothing. This deadstock (mint/ unused) pattern is dated 1943 and was designed for the Women’s Land Army as a sort of …
The Sierra Club-Angeles Chapter History Archives recently published these fab photos of Glen Dawn and other club members on the summit of Mt. Langley. The images were taken in the 1940s and feature club members posing during outings and at camp.Per usual, the photos illustrate a bygone approach to dressing for the outdoors absent of …
Thanks to Archival friend Ryan Schoeck for sending along these snaps of an original Archival Flap Musette on tour in Italy. I know many of our musettes are still in circulation traveling around the world by foot, bike, and motorcycle. If you have a photo of your Archival bag on tour, please send it my …
It’s November so naturally I’m shopping for a new down vest. In the past few years, I’ve gotten sidetracked by Rocky Mountain Featherbed and Western Mountaineering. But this fall, I’m checking back in on an old friend, Crescent Down Works. If you recall, Archival did a collaboration with CDW back in the day using Swiss …
The Archival blog started in 2006 as a place to presevere ephemeral print, digitized scans and new digital catalog content. Originally, I posted scans of my own outdoor clothing catalogs from the US and UK. Later, I expanded to include images from Japanese web shops selling Japan-only garb by US and European outdoor labels like …
Ed. Note: Archival Clothing guest contributor Tom B. submits the following report on a formative sartorial handbook, The Golden Book of Camping and Camp Crafts. The Golden Book of Camping and Camp Crafts (1959) offers terrific examples of outdoor apparel. The illustrations are remarkably consistent, suggesting a uniform of jeans (rolled cuff), moccasins or …
The 1941 Montgomery Ward catalog reads like a menswear manifesto from the heyday of heritage clothing. I usually repost images of Ward product offerings. But this time, I’m lingering on the soothing, info dense pages at the back of the catalog. Here, I’m imaginging myself as a skitterish, 1941 shopper, short on cash, scanning the …
Under quarantine, I’m consoled by livestreams of apartment concerts with Ceceile McLorin, free access to Met Opera broadcasts and Blossome Dearie playlists on YouTube. Soundtrack secured, I’m browsing comfort print catalog content and ephemera via Google Books, Flickr Commons and the Library of Congresss Digital archives. Beyond that, I’m turning back the clock to a …
Revisiting Archival posts from the past (published August 10, 2010) In 2010, the Archival team met with Thorogood in Denver, Colorado, to discuss a project to scan some of their historical catalogs. At the time, we were hoping to collaborating on our own Archival boot model, preferably, a Moc Toe Oxford. Here are some of …
Patchwork (and multi panel) garb is hard to find these days. A few cool examples kick out of eBay, Etsy and Japanese web shops. For me, these items live as visual reminders of the endless ways to create variations on a classic design. Lesson learned: don’t bring out a million products, just find ways to …