A Woolly Christmas!

Out about town on Monday getting some Christmas essentials, I popped into a local charity which has occasionally come up trumps in the [distant] past.

I'm glad I did too, for there waiting for me on one of the racks was this pure wool jacket!  It was one of those things that just stood out amid a sea of nylon shell suits and worn out coats.  So I pounced on it straightaway and with mixed feelings noted it was a 42S, a size above what I usually take.  But it was of such good quality and condition that I thought I'd try it on anyway.  I was delighted to see that it lived up to its Short fitting at least, being just right in sleeve and body length.  Cursed with a short body and long legs - a genetic predisposition inherited from my great-grandfather - it has to be Short or nothing as anything else ends up finishing around my knees!  OK, so there was a little bit of room across the shoulders and around the middle, but not enough to break the deal I felt.  Certainly not for a measly £5, at any rate!  Besides, isn't that what sleeveless pullovers are for?  So home with me it came. 

On closer inspection and investigation it just gets better and better.  I'm not sure how well it shows up in these photos, but it is a lovely chocolate brown colour with a hint of red woven in and a blue check pattern.  Flap pockets etc., all present and correct.  I noticed the makers label on the inside pocket when I bought it, but the name conveyed nothing to me at the time.  Having just done some online digging I couldn't be more bucked.  It was made by Magee, an Irish firm that specialises in tweed but also dabbles in wool and linen.  They've been in business since 1866 and going by the contents of their website this jacket may well qualify as bargain of the year!

Pocket square also courtesy of American Auntie.  Quite popular too!

Now, staying with the woollen theme, you may recall in my post about Fair Isle jumpers a few months ago I mentioned that I'd had a sleeveless pullover knitted for me in the Fair Isle style using a special kind of "pre-treated" wool that creates the pattern as you knit and so avoids the fiddliness inherent in normal Fair Isle construction.  It's by no means up there with the best Scotland has to offer, but it's quite passable nonetheless.  And here it is - not bad, eh?

Finally, it is getting to that time of the year where it becomes necessary to roll out the big sartorial guns as winter really begins to bite.  Scotland has already been hit hard with snow, heavy winds and rain and by all forecasts that weather is due to head south any time soon.  I've got my heavy navy blue overcoats in readiness, but this is a good opportunity to show off the vintage brown wool overcoat that my lovely American aunt with the (shameless plug alert, shameless plug alert!!) eBay shop was kind enough to give me last year.  I thought my CandA International overcoat was heavy, but this is something else again!  This is a real beauty - prepare to be awestruck (I know I was!).

Snow?  BRING IT ON!

This baby was made some time between 1939 and 1949 (Union Made label on the inside pocket confirms this) by Kuppenheimer, a Chicago-based menswear manufacturer in business from 1876 to 1997.  It looks to have been made specially for Kaufmann's main Pittsburgh store.  Kaufmann's, for any non-US readers, was a major department store founded in 1871 and comparable to Gimbels (1887-1987) and Macy's (with whom they eventually merged in 2006).  This single picture doesn't do it justice, so I might do a whole post around it one day soon.

Well, that's it for this fashion post.  I hope you enjoyed it, and don't forget to wrap up warm - there's a storm coming by all accounts!

A fair (and freezing!) day out

Yesterday found me at the seaside town of Leigh-on-sea, which is a charming spot on the Thames Estuary and only a short train ride away from me. It boasts a larger-than-average selection of charity shops, antique dealers and craft stores as well as a preserved "Old Town", complete with traditional pub, sweet shop, museum/gallery and several excellent cafes/restaurants. You can also still see evidence of the area's once-thriving cockle-fishing industry and even buy a pint of cockles if you fancy it! Some time ago I discovered local vintage events organiser Betty Blue Eyes, who helps run a quarterly Handmade & Vintage Fair (left) in the town hall, so I thought I'd toddle along and check it out.

Although I awoke to a vista of heavy frost and freezing fog, with the mercury showing 2 below (otherwise known as "brass monkeys"), I decided to brave the elements and headed on out. A 1950s Chevy pick-up parked outside the venue boded well and the place was quite busy even at 10:30 on a freezing cold November morning! I have to be honest, from a chap's point of view there was definitely more handmade than vintage (as the ratio of women to men - and associated items - proved) but there were plenty of things that I'm sure some of my female readers would have liked, such as a lovely 1930s satin red gown, dozens of fur coats and stoles and vintage handbags aplenty, not to mention candlestick cake stands, knitted items and intricately decorated cakes. Local vintage caterers All The Tea & China of Southend provided these and other refreshments. Also on hand were local 1940s hair stylists Hair Raid Shelter, who were busy offering authentic dos for the ladies, all of whom seemed impressed and delighted and rightly so, for they were doing a great job at only £10 a time.

I did manage to find a couple of stalls selling menswear but it was sadly slim pickings and the only things that caught my eye were some wool jackets and fairisle jumpers, a few ties and a couple of 1950s 3-piece suits (a very reasonable £65 each, I thought, but we chaps have just as much trouble as the ladies finding vintage-wear to fit when we're pushing 6ft and 2/3rds of that is leg! Men before about 1965 all seem to have been midgets, from what I can see. Either of the suits on display would have left me looking as though I were back in short trousers!). I ended up leaving empty-handed but not too disappointed; it was a good day out despite the weather and it was great to see the people of Essex in so many numbers at such an event. The local Salvation Army's brass band was out in the town square playing Christmas carols as well, which lent a pleasant festive air to proceedings. Betty Blue Eyes also runs occasional tea dances at the Southend Naval & Military Club and I intend to get along to one as soon as I am able.

Going round the charity shops later I was delighted to find this perfectly-fitting, thick navy wool overcoat (above) for only £5! Not a vintage item per se but nevertheless a timeless design that's just the thing for these freezing temperatures. Winter, do your worst!

Glamorous 40s coats

Glamorous 40s coats

And now something for the ladies. Oh yes, I am an equal opportunities blogger dontcha' know. And let's be honest, chaps, wouldn't you be happy to see your lady friend in one of these fine coats? I know I would. Proof once again that vintage fashion isn't all staid patterns and unimaginative designs. I'd much rather see a girl in one of these instead of the ghastly "puffa jacket" or some such modern abomination, wouldn't you?