WIW: the Blues

It was tweedy weather out yesterday so for the first time this winter I donned my blue tweed 3-piece sports suit from Kaufmann's in Pittsburgh. Why is it a sports suit?

It's very heavy tweed for cold country weather and the jacket has two feature unique to vintage sports suits/jackets: a short single vent in the back and two patch pockets on the jacket skirt. You won't see these very often on non-sport and more conservative suits before the 1950s.

Mine is dated September 1940.

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WIW: A Plaid Valentine's

This is a new suit for me. Bought it to sell but the fit turned out to be pretty close and the fabric pattern is great, so it's a keeper.

Early '50s "Style Mart" suit, my first plaid one. The hat is the Imperial Stetson I showed two posts ago.

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Check out the plaid with blue windowpaning:


Definitely a keeper.

Digital Tie

A couple months ago while discussing color I commented on the deadstock '30s tie shown below and how much the pattern looked like the digital numbers and letters we see so often today.




I recently received the following piece of information from a reader:

"The 'digital' font so often associated with computers and checkbooks was actually an artistic choice that was adpated into electronic use. The font was created in the 1930s, and was chosen as the basis of the font used for check OCR scanning decades later for its clear delieanation between all of the numeric characters. It is definitely yet another slice of Art Deco that continues on in the modern world.

More than 20 years ago, getting a degree in Journalism and History (double major) I took a one semester course in typography. Much of it was really a 'history of fonts overview' and was amazingly interesting."




Thanks for the tip!

Hiatus Hats

I took a short hiatus and will do so from time to time. Writing, photographing and otherwise researching for a blog takes quite a bit of time and effort so a break is in order every so often.


And while I was away I did some 'vintaging'. Came across the two hats below.


First is this early '40s Imperial Stetson. This is a rare hat. Imperials are hard to find nowadays, especially in this condition. Also, the sweatband is white, something usually only seen in some '20s hats and the liner is an amazing blue; quite a striking combo. Next, the condition and color (blue-ish silver) are fantastic. It glows. Last but not least, as the last photo of this hat shows it was a factory reject. Don't ask me why, I don't see any flaws but it was originally sold at a discounted price.

I paid only $42, a steal.

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Beautiful:




Factory reject!




And the second hat is this late '30s to early '40s Royal De Luxe Stetson. A fine quality hat but not as nice as the Imperial shown above.

Fantastic shape to it, the 'perfect' vintage fedora like the ones you see in movies: tall angular crown; wide swooping brim, wide brim-edge binding.
This one was $50, another steal of a price. A nice soft gray color with contrasting edge binding.

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Deals are still around and these two fantastic hats are evidence of that. Get out there and get vintaging!