North Sea Clothing Accessories

Now if I wasn't making leather goods myself and I just wanted simple, somewhat affordable, well-made leather goods, I would just buy everything all at once from North Sea Clothing. They make an incredible sweater for cold weather, but lately the collection has been growing to include some very good accessories that are all made in England by leather workers who definitely know, what they're doing.

The belt is awesome. Many great details that you might miss, unless you know about fine leatherwork or work with it yourself. The obvious is the hand stitching. It's time consuming, but it lasts longer and to me it looks a lot more beautiful than machine stitching. Other than that the keeper construction is so cool. And the fact that the buckle has had the roller replaced with a piece of leather, which is also hand sewn. The creasing (the lines that runs along the edges) is another great detail and a very English detail from the old saddlery trade.

Besides the belt which is a stand out for me there are some other good accessories, like the wallets. I especially like the Tri-fold wallet because it's not something you see very often. The "Explorer" model is well-made and beautiful, but not something extraordinary.

Tri-Fold 

The Explorer

Up until now the recipe has remained much the same. The leather is blue bridle leather, the stitching is white and the hardware is made of steel. Which is a good recipe. But I recently saw some pictures of their latest offerings and some other colours of leather was included.

The Hill-Side - Guatemalan Hand-Wovens

The Hill-Side guys have a really good feel of fabrics. They use nice, crisp chambrays, which made them quite famous at first, but lately they have been adding some beautiful flower prints, camouflage and lots of different interesting weaves.

Their latest offerings of hand-woven, Guatemalan fabrics are no different. They are amazing. The colours, the weave, the fact that they are fair trade and that they are cut and sewn in the US, makes them perfect. Especially if you are feeling a little dandy or feeling, that a bit of colour might do your daily outfit some good.

Available at Unionmade and Hickorees

Vintage Selvage Chambray Umbrella

You may sometimes get the feeling, that you have seen anything, that could possibly have been made of denim or chambray. Today I saw something, that changed that idea completely. Today, I saw, what is advertised as a vintage selvage denim umbrella, but if you look closer, it is actually a chambray weave.

I'm amazed, let's put it like that. So I'll just let the pictures do the talking, as it is probably the only one in existence. That is until I start working on a replica. Before RRL, JCrew or some other brand puts one out of course.