a guide to heritage clothing, canvas bags, steel bicycles, and Japanese web shops
Browsing the B-Shop for fall inspirations. Every page refresh brings different combinations of web shop models sporting my favorite Japan-only brand offerings: Barbour, Danton, Brady, Tricoteur. For those who have not visited B-Shop in person, here’s a quick preview:
Since 2018, Barbour has been collaborating with Japanese label Beams Boy (dedicated to producing clothing for women women who “love the strength and function found in men’s fashion”) on a capsule collection of waxed and quilt jackets. Here are few of the pieces pulled from Japanese web pages that you won’t be seeing at your …
It’s going to be awhile before I partake in recreational shopping. For now, I’ll be closely following my own Archival resolutions, namely, number three: Do more with less. Add a few key pieces to your wardrobe and wear them until they dissolve. Since my closet is well stocked with key pieces that are likely to …
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 …
I’ve seen a few of these Barbour Margaret Howell Spey jackets kicking around Rakuten and the Nordstroms rack (and more obliquely, on the MHL site). Personally, I prefer the original unisex version made by Barbour (using heavier duty brass hardware, a thick mat of a cord collar and more to-the-point pocketing) for actual use in …
What are your expectations for an iconic brand collaboration? In the case of Barbour x Engineered Garments, I’m looking for more of a Shackleton crackup, corduroy collar meets crazy pocketing. These jackets are a little subdued for my tastes, a too polite exchange of zippers, snaps & fabric.
Martexin reproofing wax. Operating instructions on the can. Archival Clothing endorses waxed cotton because it’s a rugged, natural, water resistant fabric that requires only wax reproofing to maintain its finish. Waxed cotton users should know how to reprooof their jackets, hats, and bags. Both Filson and Barbour offer factory reproofing services but we recommend performing …
Even when I am in austerity mode, I love to browse Rakuten to see what is on offer for Japanese shoppers. A decade later, I remain fascinated by all the licensed euro brands that show up in small Japanese web shops (Kempel, Danton, Yarmo, Sierra Designs, Brady, to name a few). I cannot think of …
Searching for generic images for a U/X personas project, I happened upon the Exactitudes project featuring typologies of people who wear similar uniforms. My fave typology from Exactitudes is the one featuring a group identified as “farmcore.” From afar, the only thing that seems to identify someone as farmcore is wearing a Barbour jacket. Things that …