Eddie Bauer, L.L. Bean, Woolrich,Pendleton and Filson used to be bywords for quality outdoor clothing. Only Filson, and again only part of it's full line, is even american material and assembly.
People need to understand that while some classic items still perform admirably that style and function have moved on. I think the whole 'trad' reenactor business is a desperate reach for 'quality' and substance lacking in both  the emascualted modern male and his poyester winding sheet wardrobe.
Someone should remind the market the origin of the word 'shoddy' especially those 40 something overwieght civil war heroes resplendent in Dixie gunworks Uberti sidearms.
I have written to the creators of MADMEN. For the last episode I want to see Don Draper; bald, carrying a oxygen tank for all those years of smoking waddling into a yogurt stand in tennis shoes, cargo pants, t shirt and baseball cap.

It is set early 60s. The fictional Sterling agency  worked for the Nixon campaign. It is  a favourite show of mine with outstanding writing. I can relate to much of it being a baby boomer. I don't pick over details like the igents. The suits are reproductions from older Brooks patterns and there are many subtle class or status clues in the details. It is set in NYC. so I am probably harsh. In sunny California there has been a near capitulation except for a few to slobwear.But then, we only have Andy and not Kabbatz ;o)
Nostalgia and inspiration from past times is fed by a vacuum. This is 2010. I deeply respect and appreciate AND want the classics. But I also, even in my age group want that irreduceable nuance of the present. My father wore Old Spice. My two brothers wear Old Spice, to sensory stupid to notice it's been trashed. I wear a few classics, unique enough. As Draper says "I have a life that moves in one direction, forward." Reviving VW beetles and L.L.Bean Adirondak furniture is a retreat no civil war group can catch.

Last edited by ckav (2010-06-12 00:09:37)

What I mean is: class doesn't matter and in any case can't be defined becasue it no longer has any structure, in North America at least. Maybe in the past, as you say, it could have been defined, but none of us live in the past anymore by definition. If a man has $100 million dollars but his father was a welder, does that mean he's still working class? No. I guess my rock bottom point is that clothes don't mean anything in terms of signifying class, but they do signify tastes and how and where you developed those tastes. Which of course is different than social class by the classic definition. If we want to define social class today as a more flexible, nebulous thing then it rapidly becomes meaningless and unusable (like the word "preppy", which is so broadly defined and used, that it no longer means anything in particular).

*****

I agree the "heritage" movement is flooded with second-rate products, few of which approach the soundness of their alleged ancestors. Quoddy is a good example, okay shoos but the hopeless over-priced.

Part of the intellectual failure of the heritage movement, perhaps the biggest part, is the assumptoin that things don't change much or we don't want them to change. In fact things change a lot and anyone who buys "old" or "vintage" brands thinking they are getting 1950s handmade quality is a fool who will soon be separate from his money (and judging prices, lots of his money).

Last edited by Big Tony (2010-06-12 08:43:19)

"What I mean is: class doesn't matter and in any case can't be defined becasue it no longer has any structure, in North America at least. Maybe in the past, as you say, it could have been defined, but none of us live in the past anymore by definition. If a man has $100 million dollars but his father was a welder, does that mean he's still working class? No. "

              But, that man is not well bred (though his new wife may be and his progeny will be).  He's "upper class" as defined in the States. 

"I guess my rock bottom point is that clothes don't mean anything in terms of signifying class, but they do signify tastes and how and where you developed those tastes."

             Not sure I agree after attending the Phila. main line steeplechase races last month.  You can tell who belongs and who's stopping in to see the upper classes in action (me).  I never see these clothes anywhere else, certainly not at golf clubs.

"Which of course is different than social class by the classic definition. If we want to define social class today as a more flexible, nebulous thing then it rapidly becomes meaningless and unusable (like the word "preppy", which is so broadly defined and used, that it no longer means anything in particular)."

Last edited by r. rafael (2010-06-12 11:32:21)

Last edited by 4F Hepcat (2010-06-12 12:38:52)

Last edited by Maximilien de Robespierre (2010-06-12 20:10:15)

"Don't believe in the sixties"
"The golden age of pop"
"You glorify the past"
"When the future dries up"

Haven't you guys been listening to the iGents? There is no such thing as class, never was. This is especially true if someone else is felt to be a better class than they and disrupts their retro dreams of Ducal egalitarianism.