Owning the Vintage Military Look

Surplus military clothing has always been a go-to option for many people within the last century; whether for rugged outdoor activities or ironic anti-war protesting, military clothing was there.  That's because surplus is abundant, it tends to be fairly well-made, and it's cheap.

Putting modern surplus to use is easy, but finding and using vintage military pieces the right way to create the kind of look you want is difficult.  You first must decide what kind of look you're going for.  Stylish and mature?  Rugged and carefree?  Dark and mysterious?

Depending upon which you decide, there is a plethora of military surplus from which to choose.  M65 jackets, trench coats, various military caps, even different styles of camouflage can work.  Choosing the right pieces and colors/patterns will aid you in creating your look.  Just be wary of using too much camouflage or camo that is too loud or just doesn't work.  

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The stylish, old-world aristocratic look in the photo above was put together using a WW2-era U.S. Marine Corp. jacket combined with vintage civilian pieces.  This shows us that utilizing one or perhaps even two military pieces with civilian pieces is key.  If we take multiple military pieces and put them together we'll look like we're trying too hard or, worse yet, we'll look like we just came out of combat.  Simplicity and moderation are the keys to make the vintage military look work well.  Too much military and you look like a soldier, too little and it won't be unique.


Below is a pretty poor quality 'selfie' of myself several months ago while it was still cool outside.  I'm wearing a vintage newsboy cap, an unissued M43 combat jacket, a rare original WW2 paratrooper's scarf made of camouflage parachute material, and, unseen, a pair of dress trousers (look at that ugly mug).

I've combined two vintage military pieces with other rather manly accoutrements to create what I believe to be a rugged yet stylish and maybe even 'elegant' look.  Something that stands out in the crowd, is pleasing to the eye, but still looks tough while remaining pretty casual.  It's something you'd wear for a stroll in the country or to see a man about a dog.

A favorite style of jacket of mine is the old M42 paratrooper jacket.  With it's large, bellowed saddle pockets, belted waist, angled chest pockets, and gusseted back not only looks great but speaks of utilitarianism.  It's a great look that could, if desired, be paired with either jeans or trousers for a casual look.

The M42 brings to mind the safari jackets of old or even the famous Belstaff racing jacket.

Heck, there's even a reproduction M42 available in modern Multicam camouflage.  I actually kind of like it.

There's all sorts of vintage military pieces that you can use to create your own, unique military inspired look.  Experiment with what you can find to see what works and what doesn't.  Don't just wear the woodland camouflage pants like everyone else, try something new and unusual, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!  The choices are limitless.

Custom-made M-1 Helmets

Following the 70th anniversary of the Normandy Landings, here's something a bit off the beaten path for this vintage blog.  You can now get custom-created M-1 helmets refurbished to WW2 standards at the Houndstooth Kid Haberdashery.  These are perfect for reenactors or if you are just looking for an attractive display piece.

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What does this mean exactly?   I can recreate either WW2 U.S. infantry or airborne helmet shells. These postwar shells are refurbished to plain-jane, standard as-issued helmets and you can add on any markings, camo, etc. that you wish.  Airborne markings? MP markings? Medic markings? Camo? 'Follow me' bars? No problem.  These are individually hand-crafted to your specifications.

I take a postwar shell, strip off the awful silica texture and apple green paint, paint it with correct extra-flat OD paint and texture it with cork, and then bar tack the repro chinstraps onto the shell.  I then hand paint any markings and/or camo you want.

A before and after shot of an M1C helmet for a fellow reenactor.

The liner is a decent repro made of shiny plastic, so I also paint the outside of the liner with flat OD paint to make it look more correct.  I can provide either infantry or airborne liners.  These liners have OD7 webbing and are green inside, so not the most accurate, however most non-reenacting folks don't know the difference and most likely won't even see the inside of the liner. These fit both WW2 and postwar shells but fit a tad tight. Overall, I'm happy with them seeing how expensive USGI liners are becoming these days.  I don't yet have liners up for sale on the Etsy site but should soon.


These helmets are strictly for reenacting and/or display purposes. If you're a WW2 reenactor or just want a nice display piece, these are for you.  They look great as the photos below can attest to.

The M1C from the comparison photo above.

An infantry helmet I created for my 41st Armored Infantry Regiment, 2nd Armored Division impression.  The 2nd Armored emblem was hand painted and the entire helmet lightly aged to give it that combat-used look.

Photos of the above helmet in use, along with another one of my infantry helmets being worn by a fellow reenactor at an airsoft game.

Here's an M1C airborne helmet I created for myself out of a rusted late-WW2 shell.  Detail shots are included, as well as shots of the airborne liner.

Showing the airborne chinstraps.

Detail shot of the corking and the chinstrap bar tack.

The repro airborne liner.  The scuffs are from being in the shell.

Interior shot.  The exterior was also shiny plastic until painted.

How I intend to use it: with a piece of camo parachute material, as was occasionally done by paratroopers and infantrymen alike.

Some comparison shots of my M1C (left) and an early-war infantry M-1 (right).  Note that the paint color of original shells often differed depending upon manufacturer and the period of the war they were made, just like original webgear and uniforms throughout the war.  There was no perfect standard.  While different, both the reproduction and original helmets shown in the photos below are accurate for the Second World War.

Detail of the corking.

Liners.  Repro on the left, original on the right.

So, if you're interested either go to the Houndstooth Haberdashery and check out your options and pricing or contact me at houndstoothkid@hotmail.com.  I look forward to being able to recreate a piece of history for you to wear and display.

A New Service Offered by the Houndstooth Kid

This has been something I've considered and thought long and hard about for over a year.  But then I was forced out of my comfort zone when a CEO out in Los Angeles contacted me and asked for a short style consultation.  I'm thankful that he did.

Surprisingly I'm a quiet person, shy around folks I don't know very well.  But that consultation session was so comfortable and enjoyable that I decided to finally open it up as an option.  I'm coming out of my shell.



So here it is.  The Houndstooth Kid is now offering either 30 minute or hour-long style consultations via phone, online (Skype, etc.), or even in person if you are local.  Do you have questions about vintage style or just men's style in general but don't know where to start or don't have enough time to research yourself?  Do you need advice about what to wear to your wedding, how to dress your groomsmen, what to don for a formal event or for any other event for that matter?  You've come to the right place.

You can take advantage of Will's vintage expertise and style with a one-on-one consultation where you ask whatever questions you want.

You can order a style consultation either through the Houndstooth Haberdashery or by contacting Will and requesting a session via the following email address: houndstoothkid@hotmail.com.  You will be contacted by Will to set up a date, time, method of correspondence, and the topics and questions you wish to discuss. You will receive a questionnaire and a receipt for both your payment and the consultation via email.

Fantastic Vintage for Sale...

...at the Houndstooth Haberdashery.  My closet is bursting at the seams so I'm clearing some fine items out to make room for more pieces that will get more wear.

Now it's your turn to own and wear these 'holy grail' vintage pieces.  Or maybe a few pieces will make someone very happy on Christmas day just a month away.

Here are just a few of the suits and sports coats now for sale.

click links to visit sale site and images to enlarge

1930s Donegal herringbone tweed suit

This is a rare and fantastic 2-piece suit from the late 1930s/early 1940s.  Heavy weight tweed, very well tailored, just a fantastic piece to see in person.  This suit will make someone very happy.

Late 1920s/early 1930s 3-piece double breasted suit

This is another very rare suit since suits from this period are getting more difficult to find, especially in good condition and a 'wearable' size like this one.  A few moth holes in the jacket and trousers, they are stitched up, not too apparent and don't take away from this gorgeous suit.  A rare piece of wearable art.

1930s flannel sports coat

The flannel of this sports coat is some of the softest I've ever seen.  This jacket was custom tailored back in the 1930s and the quality shows.  It's a manly and stylish sports coat that will help you dress your best.  Lovely dark maroon pinstripes on a brown background.

1950s bold herringbone sports coat

I just recently found this one for myself but have decided to part with it because it is just a tad too large for me.  My loss is your gain.  You never see one like this again, it's fantastically unique.  Bold, wide herringbone with square patch pockets.  Very Hollywood and it could be yours.  Check it out.

1940s WW2-era suit

A nice, conservative, attractive pinstripe suit from the WW2-era.  Not a lot issues with this suit at all.  It does, however, have a neat 'former' issue.  One part of the right leg has an expertly executed example of reweaving.  Reweaving is the lost art of making a hole invisible by hand-weaving individual threads from another area of the garment into the hole. Let me tell you, the reweaving on this suit is expertly done and is near invisible.  This has been the first and only example of vintage reweaving I've ever seen.  I love this suit but alas, not the best fit so off it goes.

The reweave spot.  Nearly invisible!

I have a lot more high quality pieces that will be going up for sale within the next few days and weeks so keep your eyes glued to this blog as well as the Houndstooth Facebook page.

Cheers,

Will

Quality of the Time

With the way I go on about the quality of vintage all of the time you probably think everything was amazing back during the Golden Era.  And that's not true, there were plenty of bad quality pieces, just like there are today.

The reason we don't see those pieces very often nowadays is that they were cheap and didn't survive.  A cheaply made piece isn't going to last as long as a well made piece, especially if it is all the owner can afford and wears it to death.  Not to mention certain materials didn't always behave the way the owner might have wished:

THE SHRINKING SONG

Woolen socks, woolen socks!
Full of color, full of clocks!
Plain and fancy, yellow, blue,
From the counter beam at you.
O golden fleece, O magic flocks!
O irresistible woolen socks!
O happy haberdasher's clerk
Amid that galaxy to work!
And now it festers, now it rankles
Not to have them 'round your ankles;
Now with your conscience do you spar;
They look expensive, and they are;
Now conscience whispers,
You ought not to,
And human nature roars,
You've got to!

Woolen socks, woolen socks!
First you buy them in a box.
You buy them several sizes large,
Fit for Hercules, or a barge.
You buy them thus because you think
These lovely woolen socks may shrink.
At home you don your socks with ease,
You find the heels contain your knees;
You realize with a saddened heart
Their toes and yours are far apart.
You take them off and mutter Bosh,
You up and send them to the wash.
Too soon, too soon the socks return,
Too soon the horrid truth you learn;
Your woolen socks can not be worn
Unless a midget child is born;
And either sockless you must go,
Or buy a sock for every toe.

Woolen socks, woolen socks!
Infuriating paradox!
Hosiery wonderful and terrible,
Heaven to wear, and yet unwearable.
The man enmeshed in such a quandary
Can only hie him to the laundry,
And while his socks are hung to dry,
Wear them once as they're shrinking by.

--Ogden Nash

Some of the worst-made suits (yet highly collectible today) are British 'Demob' suits from the 1940s. As British servicemen were returning from the war the government gave them suits to help them get back on their feet. They were often very crudely made with all sorts of errors: misshapen lapels, funky proportions, low quality materials. 

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But they were only meant to be worn a short time to allow the owner to get a job and eventually buy new suits.  Demob suits sell for big bucks but beware: not every vintage suit advertised as a Demob suit is really a Demob suit.

A demob suit.  Note the wonky lapels and the poor pattern matching on the back seam.

Photos via Baron Kurtz Vintage.

Now let's once again look at the other side of things: good quality.  While poor quality items did exist they were definitely the exception, not the rule.  Let's face it, people back in the day cared more about quality and were more thrifty, fixing and salvaging and reusing items without tossing them away like we do today. As a result, we're able to find both the high-end and lower-end pieces from 70 years ago, often in perfect condition. And looking at vintage 'mid-level' pieces from run-of-the-mill department stores like Sears, Younkers, and JC Penney, we see that garments from these places that everyday low- to middle-class folks use to buy are often still better quality than higher-end off-the-rack of today. 

I regularly find vintage top quality tailored suits and other pieces from long gone shops that were once found in tiny farming communities. Back 70-100 years ago nearly every decent sized town had one or more men's clothing store and/or one or more tailor shops. They dotted the landscape from coast to coast. My great- great- grandfather owned, in central Iowa, as many as four quality men's clothing shops within 50 miles of each other back in the teens and '20s. The quality was better and people were willing to pay more for that quality.  

Examine the late 1930s/early 1940s drape sports coat shown below.

This sports coat is artful, finely crafted.  It has a gorgeous, subtle herringbone pattern to its wool material.  Add in the attractive leather buttons and the sleek roll of the lapels and you have an incredible piece of vintage.  Here are a couple more views of the sports coat:

For so fine a garment you might expect it to be a high-end custom piece from a custom tailor.  Let's have a look inside at the label:

Younkers is a local, midwestern department store that was founded in 1899 in Des Moines, Iowa.  Below is the original Younkers site from which the above sports coat was sold.

Interesting, that a department store company similar in concept to the more famous J.C. Penney's department store company would sell such a finely made garment.  I think this point demonstrates that quality mattered much more during the Golden Era than it does today.

Just out of curiosity, how much would that Younkers sports coat have cost back in, say, 1940?  Well, here's a comparable sports coat from a Spring and Summer 1940 Montgomery Ward catalog.  The price for this piece is $12.50 in 1940 dollars. 

How much is $12.50 from 1940 in 2013's dollars?  $208.52.  If we were to walk into any of the big name department stores like J.C. Penney's or Younkers and purchase a sports coat at a full price of $200 I think we'd be very disappointed in its quality when compared to its 1940 counterpart.

I think it's pretty safe to say as a rule of thumb, vintage clothing will be better quality than most modern clothing, even much of the higher-end stuff today.  Quality mattered back during the Golden Era, though from time to time junk would make an appearance.