a guide to heritage clothing, canvas bags, steel bicycles, and Japanese web shops
I started this blog back in 2006 as a way to track on garb found on Japanese websites. At the time, proxy services were expensive and many shops in Japan didn’t ship overseas. In most cases, the clothing items I actually wanted were only sized for men so there was really no point in doing …
I primarily supply my field bag needs from Brady but I’m tempted by one of these potentially unavailable waxed cotton field bags or totes from South 2 West 8 (likely made for them by Brady or Chapman or Hardy or some other venerable UK subcontractor from the usual ingredient list: canvas, leather, webbing and metal …
I’m creating a visual placeholder for these exemplary cordovan v-tip loafers (and a few blucher oxfords) by Makers (Japan). I first spotted these on the handsome Jelado gent featured in one of the more recent Clutch Cafe IGTV videos. Per usual, I’ve launched a fruitless search via my usual go to Japanese proxy sites and …
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 …
Yarmo is one of those brands that maintains a dual identity, manufacturing earnest, industrial workwear for the UK while producing a more fashion friendly line for the japanese market (read this 2016 UK news story for more on the history of Yarmo’s Japanese collaborations). For my stay-at-home wardrobe, I’m thinking the Yarmo duster (sometimes referred …
I’m frequently mocked for the number of vests I own (and don’t wear). Here’s a great deal on an Engineered Garments Upland vest I’d like to add to my collection. It’s available via Kanful, one of my favorite used clothing shops on Rakuten (home to a hodgepodge old Archival items). Like most EG items, this …
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 …
Restocking my 2020 wardrobe with guernseys from Japan (by way of the UK), I discovered a striking, striped option available through several Rakuten outlets: C-Point, Woody Company and Crouka.
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 …