Thrifting Back Home

Living in Denmark's second largest city makes thrifting, which is one of my favourite pastime activities, a bit more difficult. There is a lot of competition by bigger hipsters than myself and the prices are normally hiked a bit too much for my liking. Therefore I like thrifting in smaller towns all across Denmark, when I get the chance. I especially like doing back home, when I visit my parent's. Not too long ago I went home and I had the chance to do a bit of thrifting and I had a bit of luck. Here are some highlights.

First of an old Danish made workwear jacket by Gerco with some nice details. This one has already found a new good home and I hope the new owner enjoys it. The cut and details of this jacket makes it very wearable and it resembles a classic safari jacket a bit.

Green bartacking

My favourite kind of workwear buttons. This type of button is removable and is secured with a small brass split on the back. 

Selvage on the placket. And some very nice slub in the fabric.

The stitching on the collar makes it stand up.

Felled seams, triple stitched and chain stitch.

I also found two denim workwear jackets, which are almost identical as the one I featured some time back. The only difference is the fact, that this one features snap buttons by Stocko, which is an old German company (that Nigel Cabourn also uses), that makes quality hardware. The denim is also slightly different in colour and it's a bit more irregular and hairy. The two jackets were donated to fellow Danish denim enthusiasts Thomas of Denimhunter and Henrik of Brund and according to my sources, the one I gave to Henrik is now being displayed in the shop.

I also managed to scoop two vintage t-shirts by a Danish underwear company called BHI (short for Brødrene Hansen Ikast), which is long gone. I mostly bought them because I liked the text on the back, which says "Real men wears BHI" and of course they were deadstock.

I also managed to find this hunting/fishing/outdoor parka by a company called Laksen (Salmon in English). It's probably the thing, that will go straight into my jacket rotation due to it's perfect olive colour and the fact, that is 100% Danish made, as the fabric was woven at Grenaa Dampvæveri.

The functionality is also great on the jacket with it's numerous pockets and hidden hood of some terrible, yet waterproof nylon fabric.

Suede shoulder and elbow patches.

Lastly I managed to find a nice coat in one of my favourite fabrics ever, Loden or Loden Cape from Austria. Unlike many coats made of Loden this jacket is actually somewhat fitted and short, which makes it a lot more wearable to me.

Nice, thick leather football buttons.

Leather trim in pockets and on the cuffs.

Waist adjusters and zipped vents.

Out of Town - Thrifting

When I go somewhere new. Somewhere I've never been before. The first thing I do is hit the thrift stores. Over the years I have gotten to know, exactly where to find them. I can almost sense it. I can smell it. I hope you all do know, I'm kidding.

I always just find one, the first, and ask all the nice, old ladies to help me find the next and that leads me in the right direction of the third, until there are no one left.

Today was OK. I didn't find much, but at least I found some stoneware, which I haven't found in a very long time! I have a rather big collection of stoneware and ceramics, that I have gathered over the years. I mostly collect from Danish makers, but I wouldn't mind adding some Heath Ceramics as well. Most of the pieces I have collected are probably worthless from a professional point of view, but they are quite valuable to me.

I don't know the maker of this one, as I can't make out the signature. All I can say, is that it is well-made and the person, that did it, has a great sense of tactility and colour. 

The pictures were taken at night time with what little artificial lighting I could gather for this shoot. I just wanted to document my finds, so please disregard the poor quality.

Have I mentioned, that I collect zippers as well? I don't know if collect is the right word, as I intend to use them at some point for wallets, purses, bags or what that might require a zipper. Today I found three from Riri, and incidentally they were all navy blue, albeit different sizes. Riri zippers are the best zippers in the world. Period.

"When Harris Tweed Isn’t" by James Taylor

There are many pleasures associated with buying vintage clothing. There’s thrill of the hunt as you enter a new thrift store or trade show, wondering what treasures (if any) await among the musty drabness, the tingle of excitement when a ‘phone call or email comes in from someone who knows I collect vintage clothing, asking if I’d like to look at the stuff Grandad left in his attic before it heads off to the thrift store or landfill. There’s the pleasure in finding a long-unloved tweed overcoat, and spending time making the minor repairs to bring it back to use, keeping someone warm. And there’s the speculative pleasure involved in wondering how something got where it did—I still have no idea how that mint-condition chocolate-brown Poole topcoat ended up in the back of a Church thrift store in small town Ohio. And even if something is beyond rescue—a much-stained 1960s sports jacket in bleeding Madras, or a moth-eaten dinner jacket, custom made in 1956—there’s still the simple pleasure of imagining what events these clothes might have been worn at, and what manner of man had them made.

And these speculative and avaricious pleasures are joined by another type of pleasure entirely—the pleasure of the education that a mysterious label can sometimes bring.

   

In my own case this started with the label on a Harris tweed jacket. If you’re reading this blog you’ll probably be familiar with both Harris tweed and its classic trademark “Orb” emblem, which looks like this:

But in one jacket I found the label looked like this:

This was weird. This was clearly marked as Harris tweed, marked as handwoven, and came from the right area of Scotland. But it wasn’t an Orb. It was a Shield. And the name of the company behind the trademark was weird, too—The Independent Harris Tweed Producers, not the Harris Tweed Authority.

What’s going on? Is this Harris Tweed, or not?

A hint to the answer came from a 1958 edition of The Glasgow Herald, which reported that a newly-formed company, The Independent Harris Tweed Producers, were challenging the Harris Tweed Authority’s monopoly on calling their cloth Harris tweed. Why? Because there was a strong demand for Harris tweed in the American market, and the IHTP wanted in. And, yes, you can guess what was driving the demand then—not just post-war American prosperity, but the increasingly popular (then as now) Ivy League look, in which Harris tweed was a mainstay!

There were differences between the Shield tweed of the IHTP and the orb tweed of the HTA. The latter was only from Scottish wool, while the newcomers used wool from elsewhere the latter was spun, dyed, and finished in the Outer Hebrides only, whereas the newcomers would spin, finish, and dye anywhere in Scotland, and the Orb tweed was to be spun in crofters’ own homes, whereas the Shield tweed could be factory-made.

So, what happened? Lawsuits, filed by both sides--in 1961 by the Shields and 1962 by the Orbs. (Clearly, America was influencing more than just tweed production!)

And what happened? Well, take a look around your closet—do you see any Shield labels there, and, if you do, are they recent? The case went to the Edinburgh High Court, and was decided against the Shield faction, with Lord Hunter holding that for a cloth to be Harris Tweed it had to conform to the definition of the Board of Trade, namely that for a cloth to be Harris Tweed it must be  “a tweed, hand spun, hand woven and finished by hand in the Outer Hebrides, with ‘Made in Harris’ or ‘Made in Lewis’ or ‘Made in Uist’ etc. added as appropriate’.” The Shields’ tweed didn’t meet this definition, and so was not Harris Tweed….. And hence no more Shield Harris Tweed labels would legally be produced.

So, if, while searching through vintage tweeds, you find something labeled Harris tweed with a Shield label, rather than an Orb, you’ve found a rare relic of a almost-forgotten but very heated dispute concerning the real nature of this canonical fabric.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And sometimes Harris Tweed isn’t! 

Behold the Curtiss Goshawk - part 1

The kit didn't say which edition of the Goshawk it was, but this is how it looked, when we started. Unfortunately we didn't get to finish it, as other commitments arose, but I'm sure, that we'll finish it together at some point. Alternatively, I'll just let her get her hands sticky and let her test her patience alone.

This was really a trip down memory lane for me. I remember sitting with my dad making these assembly kits (Though the ones I made, were normally made of a greyish plastic).

My dad has always been a fixer and he is great with his hands, when it comes to repairing bikes and making fishing rods. But I remember him breaking some of these kits because his hands were way too big and strong and not made for the fine mechanics involved in some of these kits.

Rest assured, I have forgiven him by now.

Sunday Finds

Today is Sunday, yesterday was Saturday and tomorrow is Monday. But let's focus on today being Sunday and a lucky one indeed.

I'm a huge collector of many things. For instance I collect stoneware, ceramics, vintage fabrics, zippers, tools, clothing and I also collect watches - automatic watches that is.

So when my girlfriend and I decided to go to a local flea market, I was really happy when I stumbled upon no less than 7 automatic vintage watches in mixed condition!

Who on earth puts a FixoFlex strap on an antique watch?

Besides the watches which I'm going to clean up, rub on some Polywatch and most likely put on some new straps (Goodbye, FixoFlex). I also found a really nice Bakelite measuring tape and two old, solid brass snaps that I can use for my leather crafts.

My girlfriend also picked up some wooden aircraft assembly kits. Which made me kinda nostalgic because I used to make - and collect - similar kits when I was a child. When I saw them I instantly felt the strong adhesives tickling in my nose.

It'll be some good fun, when we put the "Curtiss Goshawk" together.