Trailer Trad Attire: Are You Man Enough to Wear This Hat?

There is an old American manufacturer of hats that are worn by more bad-asses than you can count. Texas Rangers (not the baseball team) wear 10-gallon white versions. County Mounties (10-4 good buddy) wear the gray, wool felt versions. Freakin' Smokey the Bear swears by them.

If you said Stetson, it would be a laudable guess but you'd be wrong. Family-owned Stratton has manufactured hats to the go on the heads of countless men and women that have sworn to protect and serve us with valor since before I was born.

I have to admit that I would feel unworthy wearing any hat regularly associated with law enforcement but, I gotta tell ya, the tan straw version of the forest ranger hat could really fit the bill, if you'll pardon the hat pun. I'm so fair-skinned that I get sunburned from the moon. It may be time to invest in serious sun protection that has some real stature. Let's face it, baseball caps are the corporate logo polo shirts of manly style. I've planted the hearty, oaken seed of headware desire in you. While on your next hiking or dry-fly fishing expedition, what would look manlier yet jauntier than this lid? You're welcome.

Trailer Trad Attire: Shenandoah Shopping Surprise

On a recent trip through the Virginia countryside, my sister took us to a very special place. She, my mom, and many others have complained (justifiably) that there are no places that simply sell classic, ladylike clothes anymore. If they do, they are in little boutiques with big prices. The malls offer rivers of cheap, disposable fashions meant for very young women (or those awkwardly trying to pass for very young women).

Rather than a boutique, The Fashion Gallery is really a small department store housed in an old horse auction gallery in the middle of NOWHERE (Verona Virginia, near Staunton). But, walk in the door and you'll be amazed at the presentation, inventory, and amount of women's clothing. They also do a great job with home decor and children's clothing. 

This is the view from the Verona VA corner where Fashion Gallery is located. What's inside the store is a little nicer...

This large, large boutique meanders back through a number of well-lit rooms. Around a half dozen nice ladies stand at attention to greet visitors or straighten up the racks. The owner, Linda Holden, was not in the store when we visited. From what I understand, she retired from teaching around 30 years ago to open the store. Ever since, one can easily see that see has kept a keen eye on her store though she's often in New York on buying trips. I find the image of a lady from the Shenandoah Valley patrolling the Garment District and NY runway shows and shipping $$$ of clothing back to little, tiny Verona wonderful.

Trailer Trad Attire: Air Mez Tie Score

Trailer Trad Attire: Pointer is a breed apart

I'm shopping for jeans because my go-tos are being demoted. Lil' Bean is referring to them as dreaded 'dad jeans.' That's ok. I explained to her how difficult it is for a middle-aged man to strike the right note with jeans. Skinny, hipster jeans would work for perhaps five percent (including me) of the Dad demographic while looser fitting, faded favorites are scoffingly referred to as dad jeans or rejects from the 1990's. Don't even mention 'Dockers.'

So, what to do? Go to your roots. What forgotten brand sat, their beauty and heritage utterly ignored, on Southern States or Farmer's Coop shelves for decades as other trendier brands grabbed center stage? Pointer brand jeans have an absolutely impeccable pedigree, like a show winning Weimaranar.


You can still find old, vintage pairs in hardware and feed stores out in the country but I've heard that the L.C. King Manufacturing Co. is trying to build it's sales online to nonfarmers like Brooklyn hipsters to Japanese denim aficionados. I recently bought a bunch of cool, spankin' new carpenter's jeans out of an old store but I didn't get my size. Darn. However, these five-pocket jeans pictured below could be just the ticket. They are quite a piece of american textile history for the price of a pair of Chinese-made mall jeans. The pair below is:
*Constructed in Tennessee in the original factory that has made work ware since 1913
*Made entirely of American grown cotton
*Sewn with American made sewing machines
*Uses the holy grail of denim, Cone Mills Denim woven in their 1940's White Oak factory down the road a piece in Greensboro, NC.

The Trad, Manly Art of Saying YOLO: Go To Hell Pants, Scandanavian Style

Loud pants on a curling team seems as out of place as a loud speaker at a croquet match. And what group of people would you LEAST expect to wear something outlandish like Go To Hell pants? Yep, Scandinavians. Perhaps those things are what make the Norwegian Curling Team the curiousity/sensation that it is.

Trailer Trad Attire: Fall Finds 2013

Has the corduroy craze come and gone? Has it come? Has it gone? Didn't notice. I don't really like corduroy, especially jackets. However, this vintage one had the little extras that I couldn't pass up. First, even though I'd guess that it is forty years old, the corduroy fabric is that ultra soft, thick kind that you can't find anymore. The lining is also very soft, made of satin or silk and the pockets have piping trim that is a nice little touch. It also fits me very well. -Nice with my old beat-up jeans.

A couple of new wardrobe workhorses, these H&K (that's Hilditch & Key of Jermin Street, London ) shirts fit great and have been in heavy rotation lately.

I never pass up old, vintage khakis in good shape with no stains and these are pretty good. This Korean War button-fly veteran fits well in the waist but are a little too short. Maybe let them down?

A really nice militaria dealer sold them (gave them away really when I bought this super WWII pennant with quite a history. It came off of the Iowa class battleship the USS Wisconsin. Because it came from this guy, I believe the story. It's hanging in the 'doghouse' (my living room) looking great in a place of honor.

These sky blue training shirts are all cotton and made in France. And they're cheap as sh*t. I love' em to run in or for off-season tennis practice. They're kind of unusual in that they have actual buttons on the sleeves so that they can be rolled up like a dress shirt!

Trailer Trad Attire: Flannel Shirts

Flannel shirts can be grunge. Flannel shirts can be preppy. The way that they can be simultaneously both makes them trailer trad. Of course, there are flannel shirts and then there are flannel shirts.

Filson made the finest flannel shirt that you could buy ("Might as well have the best" is the company slogan). -Do they still or have they sold out and gone to sh*t? Great American brands get taken over and trashed so quickly now-a-days that I can't keep up.

 

The good news is there is a vintage brand that is pretty unknown I believe so you should be able to pick them up at vintage stores or ebay cheaply. The brand is Frost Proof. Made in the US (of course), these were made during the middle of the last century and were often available at farm supply stores and the like where they were sold to guys who needed a tough, warm shirt.

Like Brooks Brothers buttondowns and old Levi's, the quality of the fabric is the main reason why I consider Frost Proof flannel shirts classics. These are almost blanket thickness but yet remain ultra comfortable. The last time I was home, I absconded an old one my dad used to carry in firewood thirty years ago. -Still right as rain.

Trailer Trad Attire: Classic German Engineering

I picked up a great vintage wool toggle coat by German company Loden Frey and thought that I'd check out Loden Frey's web site. A lot of their stuff is cool but I especially approve of their festive dirndyl collection. -Do you think dirndyls will find their way into the women's sections of department stores in Raleigh this Fall? Hope so.

The Yellow Butcher Stripe and A Lesson in Dressin'

This newly acquired 1980s butcher stripe Brooks Brothers dress shirt reminds me of a guy from work and a story he passed on the other day. This guy's an old school South Carolina guy brought up around textile mills, back when men were men and Weejuns were brown. -Not cordovan. Brown. Only brown.
He had on a navy sweater with pink shirt combination on the other day. "Jaunty pink shirt Sir," I said. "Thank you. Back in high school, I would have had on matching pink socks with my brown Weejuns. -I don't have any pink socks," he shrugged. He went on to tell me of this exchange that he had with his wife many, many years ago.

"When I have a yellow shirt on, I wear matching yellow socks", he told her.
"And when I have a pink shirt on, I wear matching pink socks."

His wife was curious. "Well, what socks do you wear you when you have a white shirt on?"
"Easy," he said. "I wear navy socks."

Class dismissed.

Trailer Trad Attire: Wrecked Jeans, Brass Buttons and Other November Vintage Finds

Blown out. Yeah, these jeans that I picked are beat-to-hell, but then again, so am I. So, why not?

I found these nice brass buttons and had them put on my Hickey Freeman Cashmere blazer recently. The blazer fits perfectly. -Ship Shape! I know what you're going to comment so I'll save you the trouble. "Where'd you come from, a SCOTCH ad?"

With these jaunty wool socks, I'll out Elmer Fudd even the most Woolrichiest, Filsonist Brooklyn hipster!

At the same estate sale where I found the socks, I found this great, soft loden wool trilby hat.

I came across a few of these 1950s Swedish military wool sweaters recently and thought that they were cool enough to purchase.  They are as warm as the now legendary Swedish Navy wool knee socks!