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. 

click images to enlarge

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.

The Houndstooth Haberdashery

Exciting news for the Houndstooth Kid.



The blog has expanded onto Etsy so now readers can purchase quality vintage items at reasonable prices, some even from the blog.

Click the link below and see what you'll find.

The Houndstooth Kid Haberdashery

New items are continually being added so keep an eye on the Haberdashery.

Shoes You Don't Just Wear

They say a woman first looks at a man's shoes and is able to tell a lot about him from his footwear. I don't know if this is true or not but I like to assume that it is. Better safe than sorry, right?

Maybe that's part of the reason I like shoes so much. Or maybe it has more to do with the idea of encasing one's feet, not really the prettiest part of the body, in something that's enjoyable to look at.



But it seems nowadays fewer men enjoy shoes; shoes are more or less utilitarian in this day and age. Men: if you're wearing shoes right now or have a pair laying around nearby, take a look at them. Are they pleasing to the eye? Do they make you happy (or as happy as shoes can make someone)? Are they stylish and classy? Hopefully you answered 'yes' to these questions.

If you did, you are one of the lucky few who get a small amount of joy out of wearing good quality, stylish footwear. Why the joy? Because stylish, comfortable, quality-made shoes are so hard to come by anymore. They can stand out from a crowd, if anyone's looking. And that's the point: the things that make nice shoes nice are in the details and will be lost on the average observer. Part of enjoying good footwear is the secret knowledge that your shoes are better than those worn by everyone else. Smug feet.

Check out the pair of shoes below.
They're vintage Stetson (no ties to the hat company) shoes made of alligator leather.

click images to enlarge

Very rare, very well made and a perfect fit for my large feet.

The patterns, colors and textures are something to behold. And they shined up like no other pair of shoes I've seen before, even better than true patent leather. You should have seen them when I first bought them: tossed away, scuffed, horribly creased, dusty, dirty, a price tag stapled through the side. Discarded.



I consider the shoes above to be wearable works of art. They were constructed decades ago by a skilled craftsman using some of the best materials and techniques available. Time, experience, sweat and maybe even some blood went into making them. That is something worth valuing and maintaining.

If a famous piece of artwork like "The Starry Night" is stolen, damaged or lost people around the world would rightfully be aghast. It's the same way with me when a pair of shoes like these are thrown out, left to rot or not cared for.


These aren't shoes you just wear. These are shoes you wear. You don't wear alligator shoes to go to Wal-Mart, you don't throw them on for a trip to the laundromat. You probably don't even want to wear them to church very often. These are special shoes mainly for the special occassions. Like that dinner suit in your closet or those special cufflinks in your drawer: you only break them out to celebrate.
The occasion makes the shoes special and the shoes help make the occasion even more special.

I guess that's why I like nice shoes.

John Lobb: Handmade Shoes

Want to take a look at how bespoke shoes are made the old way? Watch the video at the following link.

John Lobb custom shoes

You rarely find that kind of quality nowadays though it was commonplace 70 years ago.

Quality in the Details

Yesterday I wore my plaid "Style Mart" suit to a wedding (photos soon).

While dressing I noticed a neat little detail I hadn't seen before even though I've worn the suit in the past: the belt loops.

click images to enlarge

While it looks like a normal belt loop from the outside, there is actually a smaller loop beneath. This small loop is for narrow belts like the one I'm wearing in the photo.



All of the belt loops on this suit have an extra one underneath. The suit is from the late '40s/early '50s and was off-the-rack.

These belt loops are just a sign of quality that we don't see on too many modern suits, especially off-the-rack.

The Color of Life

For me, at least at the moment, color is perhaps one of the most important aspects of an attractive 'kit' or outfit. Color can be dull or exciting, colors can match or clash, express the good and bad of life. It is our tool with which we can paint the story of living.

The thing about the Golden Era is that we are most exposed to it through photographs and old movies that are nearly all in black and white. Just like the photo below of the stereotypical Sunday school class, we have to guess what the colors were in most Golden Era photos (click all photos to enlarge):


But as a collector of vintage clothing I know the Golden Era was a colorful time, perhaps more colorful than today and I'm able to see firsthand what the colors were like. It's an exprience that few people ever knowingly have.



Having these pieces of color history in hand is a connection to the people who wore them. The folks in those black and white photos can seem so different, so far away from what we are today. But holding and wearing the very pieces and colors that they did offers us the ability to see that they were regular people just like us who liked a little color in life. Sometimes that color was deep and mature, other times it was wild and crazy.

Click on the article below from the Feb. 21st, 1929 issue of the "National Retail Clothier Magazine" and pay close attention to the paragraph at the lower right entitled "Attractive Outfit in Brown":

Even the wild use of color today cannot match what this outfit must have looked like. It was something to behold not only because of the unusual combinations, but because vintage color, at least to me, seems better than color today. There were more varieties and while they were often crazy the colors were used moderately, maturely and in a handsome manner.



At times it can seem that the colors of the Golden Era are exaggerated.
Take a look at the colors and styles described in The Great Gatsby:

"He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray. While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher—shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, and monograms of Indian blue. Suddenly, with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily.

“They’re such beautiful shirts,” she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such—such beautiful shirts before.”


While writers of that period were well known for their use of colors to describe certain characters and moods, it seems that the colors described in Gatsby were not too far off from the truth.

To prove my point, examine these quotes pulled from advertisements from the 1929 National Retail Clothier Magazine mentioned above:

"Fancy colors that make the rainbow pale."

"...this years colorings are cream, silver, bottle, biscuit, sunburn and nutria."

"Pearl and Cedar will be the best shades, it is believed."

"Some of these ties are in bright colors."

This sounds like something Gatsby might have worn (from the scan above):
"An attractive ensemble noted in New York City included: Suit of dark brown, with diagonal stripe, rather pronounced, in white, the jacket double breasted with three buttons...demi-bosom shirt in very fine cross stripes, in peach color; tie of black ground with orange polka dots; hat a cocoa brown Homburg; yellow gloves; socks in vertical stripes of orange and black..."

"Just the right weight, in new Algerian tans, Stone greys and Lovat."

This ad speaks volumes:

"The Era of Color Enthusiasm".
A fantastic rainbow available to the common man, some colors that most of us have never even heard of until now. Much more variety than today.



Nowadays there seems to be no rhyme nor reason for the use of color; perhaps merely to shock the eye or cause the viewer convulsions. Though, the Golden Era did have its moments like the deadstock '30s tie below shows:


As a side note, it's interesting to compare the similarities of the patterns in the tie pictured above with the digital alphabet and number set below. This tie is a precursor to the Bold Look, but is it also a precursor to the digital age?


What was it that allowed men of the past to coordinate so many colors so well while looking mature when men of today struggle with a few basic colors? Is it a lack of manly creativity or merely a lack of good colors today?

As I close let me say that color is like a fine wine: with age it will become more flavorful and more mature. Like my vintage clothing that have years and history in their pockets and buttons, I like my colors well aged. That way I stand out in a crowd, like a twinkle of kodachrome in a black and white photograph.

Right At Home...WIW

The September 1940-dated Kaufmann tweed suit I wore today would be right at home in the Mont. Ward catalog in my last post.

1930s 'Adam' ("the first name in hats") fedora.


Context:
When this suit was bought back in September of 1940, the blitz of London had just begun (September 7). Hitler announced on September 17, 1940 that the planned invasion of England (Operation Sealion) was postponed.
The United States had not yet joined in the fighting and hadn't even started its 'Lend-Lease' program with England, Russia, China and other allies.

This suit was born in unsettled times.

Patch pockets, an unusual (for 1940) single short vent, the working faux bottom vest button, lapels that roll to the center button: all trademarks of a well made suit, this time from 1940-- the end of the great pre-war suits.

Perry Ellis

There are few OTR companies today that can accurately copy the belted and action backs of Golden Era suits. One of those companies is Perry Ellis.

And this company does it with regularity. While many modern OTR companies have tried and horribly failed to create a working belted back, it seems that Perry Ellis has done it's homework. Creating a good belted back jacket is not an easy task.

While I will not go into great depth as to what makes a belted back (I'll leave that for a later post), I will say that its location on the jacket plays a vital role. For example, notice the rather crazy 1930s belted/action back jacket in the advertisement below.

click to enlarge

The belt is located at the wearer's waist, or roughly half way down the back of the jacket. In order for a belted back to nip the waist and provide ease of movement it must be located at the wearer's waist, neither higher nor lower. Unfortunately for us today most companies that try the belted back tend to locate the belt too low, down around the hips where it provides absolutely no waist suppression or ease of movement.

Keep this in mind as we examine a Perry Ellis jacket.

This jacket was found at Younkers, on sale for $50. While I'm a size 38R the smallest left was a 40R but it's a fine fit, though 38 would have been perfect.
A couple details. It has a working ticket pocket as well as working cuff buttonholes, two on each sleeve. It also has a patch on the right shoulder, giving it a travel/hiking/shooting jacket feel. It is fully lined with three internal pockets and sweat guards under the armpits. Neat little details make this jacket.

click to enlarge

Notice that the belt sits at or ever so slighly lower than my waist. This helps create the slight waist suppression.

Breast pocket showing the working gusset.

A medium weight twill material. The jacket itself is rather heavy thanks to the full lining.

This is not the only belted back jacket that Perry Ellis offers. At this link you will find another very vintage single-breasted peaked-lapel jacket with a nice belted back. The windowpane fabric pattern also adds to the overall look, as does the high button stance and short skirt length.

I would not hesitate to purchase another Perry Ellis jacket. This company seems to have done its homework and for that it should be commended.

Black Friday

Black Friday reminds me of why I'm glad I collect vintage: while the hoards of 'sheeple' trample and shoot each other in their desire for crap that will be thrown out after a year, I look for long forgotten things of high quality in which few others are interested.

Today, the (deadly) national holiday to consumerism. How sad.

What about hats? Part 1

On May 22 Stephen asked: "I'm thinking of beginning a small [hat] collection do you have any suggestions?".

After much delay and preparation I can now answer his question.

But where to start? Like most things in the world, this topic has hundreds if not thousands of details that could be explored. I think for now we'll just get into the basics.

So we'll start at the beginning. The first thing to decide is what kind of hat you would like to get. A fedora? Homburg? Maybe a classic Boater? Panama? Perhaps a Derby? Each one has it's own time and place.

The fedora is the most readily available and most useful since it can be worn to both casual and semi-formal events in weather warm and cold, wet and dry. Homburgs and derbies are more formal. Boaters can also be casual or formal, though they are only worn during warm weather, just like the Panama.

We'll stick with the fedora in this post.

Alrighty, so you're looking for a fedora. You can go modern or vintage (vintage being pre-1970, modern being post-1970). The rule of thumb is that construction material of vintage hats will be superior to that of modern hats. It is widely accepted by hat enthusiasts that the last year of high-quality fur felt was 1968. After 1968 the quality of the felt began to decline and the affects can be seen today.

Why the decline in quality after 1968?

New laws and regulations restricted manufacturing processes, thereby hurting the quality. Before 1968 the felt-making process used many harmful chemicals like mercury to plump and thicken the fur, making it dense and soft. Today since that process is no longer used hatters must make the felt thicker and use more chemical stiffener to make up for the difference. Hence the usual poor quality felt found today.

So, when looking at felt quality always remember that vintage beats modern nearly all the time. Of course, there are also fedoras made of wool felt, but wool is even worse quality than fur felt. Wool hats are alright and make fine, usually cheap beginner hats but don't last as long, wear as well or look as nice as fur felt.

I prefer vintage.

It's good to know your hat size, too. Click here to find your hat size.

Now, you're looking for a vintage fedora. What style? Again, there are thousands of styles and it can be difficult to choose. The style needs to match your face and you must like it.

Click here to visit a website that will help you find a style that matches your head shape. Of course, the best way to find the right style is to go out and try on some hats! Look at yourself in a mirror and decide which hat looks best on your head. Ask others what they think. Shop around. Investigate.

And to help you understand some of the different styles I'll go into a few details, though not too many at first. I've thrown a lot at you already.

First we'll look at the crown. You know, the top part of the hat that encloses your head.

Each crown has a certain amount of taper to it. Taper is much (or how little) the sides of the crown lean in towards the middle. Below is an example of a fedora from the 1960s. Look at the bottom of the ribbon where the crown meets the brim and slowly move your eyes upward. Notice how the crown gets narrower as you eyes move towards the top of the crown. This hat has a lot of crown taper. This was the style beginning in the 1960s.

Another way to measure crown taper is to draw two lines along the sides of the crown. This shows the taper very well.

Now look at this hat from the 1940s. Note that it has a taller crown than the 1960s hat above and it has no taper, perhaps even a bit of reverse taper (where the crown sides expand outward toward the top). This was the style from the 1920s-1950s.

Hat's also have taper in the side profile. The late-1920s/early-1930s style hat below has neutral taper since the sides of the crown are perfectly vertical. Again, neutral taper was very common from the 1920s to the 1950s, specifically durin the 1920 and 1930s.

Brims, like crowns, changed quite a bit. Brims can be as narrow as 1" or as wide as 3". Hats with brims 2" wide or less are often called Stingy Brims. Stingies were the common style starting in the 1960s and are still popular today. Before the 1960s brims were wider. Classic brim widths from the 1930s were 2 1/4" and 2 1/2". During the 1940s they often went from 2 1/2" to 3" before slimming back down during the 1950s and entering the Stingy era of the 1960s.

------------

Here are the eras, beginning in the 1920s and ending with the 1960s, and the corresponding aspects of fedoras. Note that these were the most popular styles of the times and there are always exceptions to the rules.

*1920s

-Tall crowns with neutral or reverse taper. 4 1/2" or taller.

-Medium width brims. 2 1/4" to 2 1/2" wide.

*1930s

-Tall crowns with neutral or reverse taper. 4 1/2" or taller.

-Medium width brims. 2 1/4" to 2 1/2" brims were the rule until the late 1930s.

*1940s

-Tall to medium crowns with little to some taper. 4 1/4" to 5" tall.

-Medium to wide brims. 2 1/2" to 3".

*1950s
-Beginning to get lower with more taper. 4" to 4 1/2" tall.

-Back to 1930s-style brim widths. 2 1/4" to 2 1/2" wide.

*1960s-today

-4" tall crown or less.

-2 1/4" wide brims or less.

Here are some good places to begin looking for modern fedoras:

-http://www.millerhats.com/

-http://www.optimohats.com/

-http://www.thefedorastore.com/

-http://www.hatsinthebelfry.com/

High-quality custom-made fedoras:

-http://www.vintagesilhouettes.com/

Vintage hat and clothing forum, good for learning and fun to browse:

-http://www.thefedoralounge.com/

The best place to look for vintage hats is antique malls and shops. Not only are a lot of hats be priced less than $20 but you get to try them on, hold them and examine them.

Ebay is another place but expect to pay quite a bit for a good hat and you don't get to see it in person before you buy. There are also some sellers who aren't the greatest, so be careful and good luck.

This post is the first of who knows how many about what to look for in a hat. It'll take some times to explain this extensive topic so check back once in a while, I might have posted something new. There's a lot more to come.

Cheers.