Lost Worlds’ founder Stuart interviewed

[Superfluous]

I landed here when i was googling leather jackets and found a pic of @handymike .

I have a pic of @handymike as my PC wallpaper.

 

[Fonzie]

Has anyone else received their LW in a L’Oréal box? I found that to be quite hilarious. My first j-23 was delivered to my work in that box to which the dock receiver joked I must wear a lot of make up.
After seeing the pics of the “factory” I think I have a better understanding of Stu than I did before.

Mine came in something similar. I regret now not taking a photo of it, but is was a box from a product line typically known for female products.

Yes!
After about 7 Lost World’s I became conditioned to excitement when seeing the
L'Oréal box.

(Sarcasm alert):
This could be a clue of his subconscious about his obsession with exalting the “Manly-Man” ideal.
Maybe a life long closet struggle? (Lol)
Ps: “A man's subconscious self is not the ideal companion. It lurks for the greater part of his life in some dark den of its own, hidden away, and emerges only to taunt and deride and increase the misery of a miserable hour.”
P.G. Wodehouse

 

[willyto]

If it wasn’t for TFL I would have never discovered Old Town, Aero Leathers, Himel, Eastman Leather Clothing, Bill Kelso, Freewheelers, Heller’s Café, LVC, Lost Worlds, Thedi, Lewis Leathers, Simon James Cathcart, Red Wing, Whitefeather, or many other brands.

I traveled to Holt in Norfolk to try and purchase Old Town garments in February 2016, I met Japanese customers who traveled all the way from Japan to roadtrip the UK and buy stuff all around including there. In London I met new friends through the SJC forum and from there I’ve met others from the stores I went to buy to and the events I attended. Some of them work in the industry for top publications and brands and that lead to meet other people too, discovering then Clutch Cafe and other brands there.

Thinking that this forum or others do not bring much business to brands or the industry in general is removing the importance of the customers and their words.

If it wasn’t for this forum I would have never discovered so many brands, people and traveled to different cities or towns in search of craftsmen, brands and interesting garments.

I bought my first quality garments after an Ebay A-1 Aero I bought (The most expensive item I had ever bought, around 300€) in a store in Barcelona that was closing down, searching for LVC I found it and I bought my first pair of 1890 501 LVC jeans, a blanket lined Carhartt denim jacket with corduroy collar with their vintage branding and learned about other brands there. They recommended me a book called Denim dudes and a store in Prague called Denim Heads because I was visiting soon. In that store they invited me to some Beer, talked about denim, Japanese brands, Red Wing(I bought a pair) and discovered Bandanas, I bought a silk Simon James Cathcart bandana and it was printed with the website... that started a lot of friendships, new knowledge and the discovery of more brands.

I have spent a lot of money, probably too much these past 5-6 years. It has made me happy and most of the past experiences have been originated because I found this forum searching for stuff.

I have bought new stuff, second hand, vintage and supported so many brands through the years. Those brands would have never received any money from me if I hadn’t discovered thanks to reading TFL and the SJC forum. I am talking about thousands of euros buying garments and shoes through the years. That’s my story, now add each one of ours... makes for an interesting amount of money and marketing for those brands we buy even if it’s second hand.

 

[Sloan1874]

Yes, I find Stu's sneering at people because they dare show enthusiasm for this niche and enjoy chatting with like-minded people particularly unpleasant. I was never likely to buy his overbuilt stuff but I bet you there are a lot of people who are really put off by that interview. What a clutz.

 

[zebedee]

It was an interesting interview to read- it comes across as painfully pseudo-academic, though. I think that that's what gets me about the website, too - it's like an unconvincing person's idea of a convincing person's stance.

 

[dannyk]

In an rarlier

It was an interesting interview to read- it comes across as painfully pseudo-academic, though. I think that that's what gets me about the website, too - it's like an unconvincing person's idea of a convincing person's stance.

i find it very I think what the kids a few years ago called edge lord. Like he’s trying to be some pseudo intellectual, devils advocate, I don’t fit in with these times, I am superior, I alone can see the truth, type of guy. But it comes off as trying really hard. It doesn’t even seem like authentic jerk. Like when you see that site for the first time you think it’s a joke, some, some relic from 96 that somehow hasn’t been deleted, or some fetish leather site. But in fact it’s a cranky old man, who wants to sound cool and tough.

 

[Monitor]

@willyto's post is spot on.

And also, just up until half a year ago, whenever you would Google anything by LW, the search would turn up the exact same set of images, most of which were from LW's site with the rest being either from TLF or stuff that was related to the Jurassic Park movie. The only other website where I'd occasionally find pics of Lost Worlds jackets in the wild was Harley Davidson forum. There are a few images on VLJ but that site is borderline deep web as nothing from it ever turns up in the search engine if you're not specifically looking for it.

It's been only recently that the LW craze was re-ignited and if my observation isn't completely off, it all started on TFL and happened because of this place. I can't remember who it was that got the first LW jacket and things just began rolling from that point onward. With no sign of slowing down. @Carlos840 all of the sudden began buying jackets and posted photos that literally for the first time not only properly showed what kinda jackets they make but also made people realize how well they fit, @red devil as well, then @JMax... The company suddenly became more popular then ever and many members announced that they have placed an order with them or at least that they plan to, all of which can't just be a coincidence.
The company went from being mentioned in passing once every few months to having their product featured daily, at least in the WJAYWT thread.

While I agree that TFL may not have that much of an impact on RMC or Schott, I'm absolutely certain this forum had a profound effect on LW's sales in 2020.

 

[zebedee]

'Eunuchry'. You have to chuckle. Stu is invested in - culturally and sartorially - your balls, the lack thereof, their significance and their relationship to leather. The ramble, the dangle, the absence, that sad space, nostalgia for vanished men and their imagined, vaunted testicles. Lost Worlds, lost orbs.

 

[zebedee]

 

[Carlos840]

@willyto's post is spot on.

And also, just up until half a year ago, whenever you would Google anything by LW, the search would turn up the exact same set of images, most of which were from LW's site with the rest being either from TLF or stuff that was related to the Jurassic Park movie. The only other website where I'd occasionally find pics of Lost Worlds jackets in the wild was Harley Davidson forum. There are a few images on VLJ but that site is borderline deep web as nothing from it ever turns up in the search engine if you're not specifically looking for it.

It's been only recently that the LW craze was re-ignited and if my observation isn't completely off, it all started on TFL and happened because of this place. I can't remember who it was that got the first LW jacket and things just began rolling from that point onward. With no sign of slowing down. @Carlos840 all of the sudden began buying jackets and posted photos that literally for the first time not only properly showed what kinda jackets they make but also made people realize how well they fit, @red devil as well, then @JMax... The company suddenly became more popular then ever and many members announced that they have placed an order with them or at least that they plan to, all of which can't just be a coincidence.
The company went from being mentioned in passing once every few months to having their product featured daily, at least in the WJAYWT thread.

While I agree that TFL may not have that much of an impact on RMC or Schott, I'm absolutely certain this forum had a profound effect on LW's sales in 2020.

I looked at the LW website for a while a few years ago, but the general tone of it prevented me from buying for a long time. I was worried that if the sizing was wrong dealing with Stuart would be complicated.
I met @red devil at the London meetup, he brought his size 44 J-24 for me to try on and have a look at.
The second i saw it i knew i was going to order a J-23.
TFL and meeting RD was the reason i now own 7 LW jackets and i consider them the finest jackets i own.

 

[sweetfights]

I always thought of LW website musings as parody and satire.
I enjoy his rhetoric. Like a good Clint Eastwood "Dirty Harry" or Spaghetti Western movie.
Over the top? - yes.
Commentary and response to societies increasing accusations of "toxic masculinity?" - yes.
I also enjoyed Stallone, Chuck Norris and Schwarzenegger movies.

I judge another by their actions.

Ironically, I posted photo's here when I received my LW J23. Stu, with my permission, posted a photo of me wearing my new J23 on the LW website- It is still there. So much for his mockery of us posting photo's and cosplaying.

p.s. Monitor got screwed and that's not o.k.

 

[El Marro]

It was an interesting interview to read- it comes across as painfully pseudo-academic, though. I think that that's what gets me about the website, too - it's like an unconvincing person's idea of a convincing person's stance.

Yes!
And the random spattering of French phrases and words throughout the piece really accented this feeling. Rather unmanly to be honest.

 

[Logician]

2 more photos for those curiously inclined. Just for the record a friend of mine from Montreal visited Stuart many years ago to pick up a green HH Suburban. Later I bought it from him. My friend told me that Stuart was reluctant to let him visit his workshop. But he finally agreed. Discreet charm mixed with a healthy sense of self-worth, and a general exuberance and extravagances of style which provoked much hostile criticism. That's what I've been told. Go figure.

I like LW's jackets. I own 6 of them and another one is on the way. As for Stuart's eccentric style, it reminds me of Don Quixote. Not Borges' Don Quixote, but the "real McCoy". My favorite literary character for sure. I also share Stuart interest in Melville. Stuart has a fondness for literature. Borges and Melville, which he quotes in the interview or on his website, seems to me to be very good choices. Chasing obsessively a whale calls emanating from the innermost corner of our souls or tilting at windmills. That sums up the human adventure quite well!

 

[Seb Lucas]

I have nothing worthwhile to add, but given there is 9 pages already on a slightly ambiguous merchant with a camp, not especially insightful manner of communicating, why not continue? I'm bored too. It's interesting to reflect on the tribalism that is visible.

The positions I think I've gleaned from this discourse are:

- The product is more important than the merchant
- The merchant is more important than the product
- The morality and likability of our merchant's matter
- The morality and likability of our merchant's doesn't matter
- I don't see any morality or likability issues here
- The product is so good, it overrides the merchant's deficits
- The product is overbuilt and/or unattractive and the merchant's deficits are unforgivable
- The merchant is authentic and of his time and culture, so we should celebrate him
- The merchant is a dinosaur poser and should be avoided out of principle
- The merchant is really nice in person and he doesn't mean any of the nasty things he has stated in his name
- The merchant treated me well so I don't care if he holds morally repugnant views
- The merchant's nasty attitudes are just politically incorrect humor and kind of fun
- The merchant hates people like us, so we should hate him back
- I agree with the merchant's views but won't say so in so many words and I like his jackets
- I find the merchant's views deplorable but I like his jackets and try to reconcile giving my money to a douche
- I am going to stay silent on the issues this raises because I don't really understand them
- I'm going to make banal observations on the issues this raises because I am a concrete thinker
- The merchant is a mystery with a cultivated persona - who knows what he really thinks? - but it's a fair bet he is marinating in his own misery and his jackets don't really interest me

There may well be more and it would be good to read something fresh. Who would have thought one pugnacious little guy turning out expensive leather jackets could provoke such an endless source of views and fascination. I bet very little of this is actually about Stu.

 

[Benny Holiday]

I was first directed to TFL in 2005 by a friend and back then learned of 2 major leather jacket makers: LW and Aero. Now I was obsessed with getting a jacket like the Tobey Maguire one in Seabicuit, and I weighed up halfbelt styles from both sites before deciding on Aero, simply because I thought their halfbelt was just a tad closer to the one in the movie (not that I knew much back then).

Now this might be typically apathetic Australian , but when I first saw Stu's ramblings on the website I thought, mate I'm not reading all that stuff, I just wanna look at the jacket pictures and the prices. So I just skipped over it, ignored it. The first I actually learned of his diatribe was from guys posting about it on here in subsequent years. That's how the Aussie mind works. "What? Nah can't be bothered readin' all that! Just show me the pictures." We're an easy culture to parody.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I think you missed one Seb, or I can't seem to find it. Goes like this...' Stuart is a dick '.

 

[red devil]

I was first directed to TFL in 2005 by a friend and back then learned of 2 major leather jacket makers: LW and Aero. Now I was obsessed with getting a jacket like the Tobey Maguire one in Seabicuit, and I weighed up halfbelt styles from both sites before deciding on Aero, simply because I thought their halfbelt was just a tad closer to the one in the movie (not that I knew much back then).

Now this might be typically apathetic Australian , but when I first saw Stu's ramblings on the website I thought, mate I'm not reading all that stuff, I just wanna look at the jacket pictures and the prices. So I just skipped over it, ignored it. The first I actually learned of his diatribe was from guys posting about it on here in subsequent years. That's how the Aussie mind works. "What? Nah can't be bothered readin' all that! Just show me the pictures." We're an easy culture to parody.

I also tend not to read the marketing fluff, I also went straight to the pictures

Interestingly, it was a friend of mine who made me discover these makers. as well as the lounge. When I started reading here Stuart was painted as extremely aggressive, difficult to deal with, etc... basically someone you would never want to deal with, and at the same time there was this idea that his jackets were "overbuilt" painted in a negative way. @Sloan1874 you just reminded me of that one
I couldn't understand how something overbuilt could be a bad thing, if anything, you do want the jacket to last a life time and if it can do that while surviving a nuclear war... all the better or so I thought. If Mad Max had had a LW, it would have looked pristine in the movie
In any case, I tend to be sceptical, and like to verify claims so I got in touch with Stuart. Our first phone call lasted over an hour... and long story short that's how I ordered the suburban. That one could have easily been an "exit" jacket if I were so inclined, but I wanted more colours and styles

 

[ton312]

The LW site should go full force. Rather than the galloping blue pony gif here’s what I’d like to see:
Super tight jegging, man bun sporting, hipster with a weak thin beard puts on LW jacket. Cut to Stu “You’re the disease and I’m the cure” Flicks cigarette butt at man bun who explodes into a huge fiery ball. Pan out from the smoldering ash and the jacket is all that remains, walks itself to an A-team type armored van and salutes Stu as it drives off into the sunset, queue Kenny Loggins soundtrack. As the scene fades Arnold, Sly, JCVD, Carl Weathers and Chuck Norris appear as ghosts in the clouds, thumbs up, this image is then swiped with the final scene of an SR-71 Blackbird streaking across the border of space and the pilot is Rue McClanahan.

 

[Fonzie]

The LW site should go full force. Rather than the galloping blue pony gif here’s what I’d like to see:
Super tight jegging, man bun sporting, hipster with a weak thin beard puts on LW jacket. Cut to Stu “You’re the disease and I’m the cure” Flicks cigarette butt at man bun who explodes into a huge fiery ball. Pan out from the smoldering ash and the jacket is all that remains, walks itself to an A-team type armored van and salutes Stu as it drives off into the sunset, queue Kenny Loggins soundtrack. As the scene fades Arnold, Sly, JCVD, Carl Weathers and Chuck Norris appear as ghosts in the clouds, thumbs up, this image is then swiped with the final scene of an SR-71 Blackbird streaking across the border of space and the pilot is Rue McClanahan.

My goodness Tony, what are you doing in Chicago? Hollywood needs your scriptwriting talents big time!

 

[ton312]

My goodness Tony, what are you doing in Chicago? Hollywood needs your scriptwriting talents big time!

Well I already see where the castIng was off. Should’ve been Estelle Getty as the pilot.