Vintage Workwear

[mattfink]

That glove bag is amazing!

 

[cookie]

Maybe this topic is more suited for the reproduction workwear thread, so if it needs to be moved, i don't mind.

There was a superfuture thread about this here:
http://www.superfuture.com/supertalk/showthread.php?t=148829

This topic is actually something that I plan to incorporate into my own work as an academic sooner or later, so I would love to get input from the Japanese members here on the Lounge.

I don't necessarily see it as a veneration of American culture due to their victory in WWII, however instead you have a longer trajectory starting with Japanese teenagers introduction to American Rock and Roll music in the 1950s.

Fast forward a couple of decades to when those teenagers where successful middle aged businessmen. Like most affluent middle aged men in the industrial world, their mid life crisis made them yearn for the trappings of their youth, especially clothing, especially especially blue jeans (what's more iconic of youthful rebellion than jeans?). So by the late 1980s you have guys like Hidehiko Yamana buying up vintage denim looms in the US to reproduce the EXACT jeans that they wore when they where kids. Americans couldn't get rid of these looms fast enough as USA continued their march towards deindustrialization and outsourcing.

With looms in hand, it wasn't too hard to reproduce jeans from the 1940s, 1930s, and 1920s alongside those from the 1950s. Looking beyond the the middle aged rock and roll fans, and aided by Japanese vintage enthusiasts desire for Quality anything, it's wasn't too much of a stretch for these companies to produce reproduction vintage workwear to supplement the market for actual vintage workwear. Of course a global recession that reminded people of the iconography and mythology surrounding the American great depression didn't hurt either.


But that's my take on it, and like any other theory, subject to change given more evidence and different perspectives. (please excuse any typos).

I reckon that is a good bit of sociology of fashion there. If it were not for the gradual control of the Japanese political machine by the militarists the Japanese would have continued there close association and alliance with the West (founded in WWI) rather than go to war eventually. Basically the Japanese turned from haters to lovers of America having realized what the militarist clique had done to their country in WWII. All my supposition of course.

 

[Lefty]

That glove bag is amazing!

Thanks.

Here's the auction link from that Barekat shirt above.

The seller had a second one, took better photos, and (I don't think I'm hurting anyone here by posting this) will do even better this time.

40x32

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Tuff Nut overalls.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

(I don't think I'm hurting anyone here by posting this)

You know this place well! :eusa_clap

 

[mattfink]

Are you calling them cheap Marc? LOL!!!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Are you calling them cheap Marc? LOL!!!

Naw. The glass is half full: I'm calling 'em not expensive.

 

[mattfink]

You must be in marketing...or middle management. LOL!!!

 

[Lefty]

Here's today's estate sale find. This thing weighs a ton.

That breast pocked is actually on the inside. As a piece of functional clothing, I guess it didn't matter that the stitching went through to the exterior.

Apparently, the company was set up to build a monopoly.
For the purpose of monopolizing the trade, and to eliminate the plaintiff as a competitor, the defendant, BAUSCH & LOMB, set up the Kimball Safety Products Company at Cleveland, Ohio in the middle of the year 1937, and the defendant, AMERICAN OPTICAL COMPANY, acquired the interest of the Safety Equipment Service Company at Cleveland, Ohio, to compete with the plaintiff in the general safety equipment field, and as an outlet for its industrial lenses. From then on to this day the defendant, BAUSCH & LOMB, has used the Kimball Safety Products Company, and the defendant, AMERICAN OPTICAL COMPANY, has used the Safety Equipment Service Company for the purpose of ultimately driving the plaintiff out of the safety clothing business through destructive price-cutting tactics. By means of the wide contact with industrial users of safety equipment developed by it through the Kimball Safety Products Company, the defendant, BAUSCH & LOMB, endeavored to destroy plaintiff's business, in order to gain for itself and for the Kimball Safety Products Company the more lucrative industrial goggle business. * * *

But, they're also sexy, so it's hard to fault them.

Running some searches, I found these on the bay.

 

[Lefty]

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

Did you see this waistcoat on ebay? I love it. I am already thinking how to get one made like this.

I really wanted to have it but couldn't spent the US $373,99 it went for. The trim reminds me of the brown knit waiscoat worn by the character Jimmy in Boardwalk Empire:

But the patch pockets are even better.

 

[Dinerman]

Did you see this waistcoat on ebay? I love it. I am already thinking how to get one made like this.

I really wanted to have it but couldn't spent the US $373,99 it went for. The trim reminds me of the brown knit waiscoat worn by the character Jimmy in Boardwalk Empire:

But the patch pockets are even better.

And let's not forget Jimmy Stewart in Harvey.

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

Oh I almost forgot about this movie. Nice outfit indeed. Jimmy Stewart isn't one of my favourite golden era actors but the character in "Harvey" suits him well ;-)

 

[Dinerman]

Looks like Haversack is doing a version, for a "paltry" $268.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

.

Work vest? British riding or shooting waistcoat? Who knows. Whatever it is, this has to be the most elegant fur vest ever:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390366783563

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Looks like Haversack is doing a version, for a "paltry" $268.

This one is better, and it's vintage: http://www.ebay.com/itm/vtg-20s-30s...pt=Vintage_Men_s_Clothing&hash=item3a6d1ed292

 

[Dinerman]

Yup.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Yup.

Yep, I'm blind.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

.
Such a bargain... http://www.ebay.com/itm/VTG-1910-19...pt=Vintage_Men_s_Clothing&hash=item2eb98bf104

 

[herringbonekid]

vintage workwear prices have gone absolutely nuts. i've pretty much given up hope of ever finding an affordable 1920s-30s shawl collar cardigan, an item which has become a bit of a holy grail for me.