The Art of Vintage Leather Jackets

Profiles: Amato Roberto Tranquilli

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:17:00 +0000

It is my belief that the amazing clothing of the past was born out of necessity, but also the interaction of the stylish. These style makers were not always the average joe but unique characters with incredible sense of design and bravado. Part of my love of clothing is the wonder of who wore the vintage that I discover every day. I've asked people I meet along the way to send me stories and photos of these past style masters. You can trust me not everybody was cool back in the day. I go through hundreds of thousands of pounds of clothing every year and it is the rare man or woman who dared to live in the exceptional garments and leather that I love so well!!
"He was born Amato Roberto Tranquilli in 1902 in Porto San Giorgio, a resort town on the east coast of Italy.
He came to the United States in the 1920s. Evidently there was confusion about his paperwork which caused him to spend a few months in the immigration jail in Bellingham Washington, before being put on an Italian ship and deported from the US. Right away he got in trouble. Mussolini had come to power in Italy--he caught hell for not giving the fascist salute. Because he was a deportee, they wanted to chain him to his bunk, but somehow he talked his way out of it. The ship's first mate had it in for him, though---always picking on him for the slightest thing. Finally, my dad reached his boiling point and challenged him to a fight. They came to blows, and the fight was broken up by people who were alerted by a metallic banging...This banging was caused by my dad repeatedly knocking the first mate's head into the deck of the ship. Amato was in trouble again. Fortunately the captain (who had taken a shine to my dad) ruled that when the first mate removed his jacket and cap, that he no longer represented the Italian navy!!!

Dad had many adventures---South Africa made quite an impression on him. He recalled one time he gave a little boy a pair of his old shorts....the boy was as proud as anything of his new garment.....Later, my dad and the boys on the ship went to the black part of town to drink.....They stayed past curfew, and started getting some VERY hostile looks from the natives. It didn't look very good. Whites who stayed in the black township after dark had a habit of coming to a very bad end. But then who should appear but the boy to whom my dad had given shorts. He guided them to safety...
Other memories of Capetown include seeing a plantation where blacks toiled as far as the eye could see, and their overseers poised over them with bullwhips.
Another story he told was of giving loaves of bread to the crowds on the dock....Not a single person ate until everyone had a share. " As told by Bob his son.

Roberto was clearly a stylemaster. He worked as a fisherman, a miner, and he was ultimately and utmost a terrazzo mechanic. Bob told me his dad said of mining..."I'd rather work a mile in the air than 10 feet underground" . What amazes me about Bobs dad is the dignity that is apparent in every picture of him, and that as a working class immigrant that his sense of fashion was impeccable. What an adventurer he was!

1930's Jackets: The Perfect Horsehide

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:22:00 +0000

Part of making perfect jackets is learning about the materials that make up he bricks and mortar of vintage jackets. Another part is about learning the techniques used to put these unique materials together. These are not the same techniques that are used today in mass produced garments. The great challenges of the last two years have been about both the materials and the unique requirements necessary to put them together in an excellent jacket. Finding the perfect leather has been a global search. I have looked on my local doorstep and overseas searching high and low for the perfect horsehide and goatskin. The requirement was simple
: find tanneries that produced an ethical quality product that was made the way leather was produced pre-1940 and also did the least amount of "harm" to mother earth. My search was paid in spades. The horsehide I have is bark tanned in a solution for months, recreating a tough tear resistant leather that is a near perfect match for early horsehide. It is super strong and yet it is supple. It is hand staked and shrunk to create a perfect hide top grain. The horses are deadstock and therefore the hides are unblemished by mistreatment or transportation. My tanneries are subject to strict 1st world regulations that produce the finest quality leather with the least amount of impact. Interestingly this leather emulates early 30s leather so well that the leather had to be spray finished, the same as in the 30s. Early vegetable tanned leather did not take black dyes well as I learned speaking with my friend Wolfgang, the Chief chemist at Dominion Tanning throughout the 1950s and 1960s. On early jackets scuffs and scrapes often revealed the underlying natural color of the leather. Check out my latest versions of early 20s and 30s jackets!

Halloween: Death and Flying with my Co-pilot

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:12:00 +0000

I love Halloween...being in the vintage clothing business I have access to the best stuff! Costumes become super fun and a great way to express your inner being during Halloween. My greatest joy is to go out to a rockin party and see what fantasies my friends and associates express in their garb and makeup. Halloween is a time for abandon where adults often release their inner scary stuff on the outer beautiful selves. It's just great...wife said Amelia Earhart and navigator...guess who gets to navigate, lol! Awesome that I have my early Swedish flight coat!

Sharing the First One!

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:36:00 +0000

So being a chronic oversharer I am proud to show off my first model. Its a size 38 1920s style goatskin jacket. The design is super primitive with a rare large one piece back panel and side gussets with D rings. The shawl collar is complimented by the 1920s cotton taped grommet zipper. The leather is 1.2 mm (3 oz) vegetable tanned goatskin identical in weight, tannage and character to original 20s-30s leather, with cotton topstiching. I tracked down original 30s buttons and have a small supply that I will be using until they run out. The liner is 100% cotton flannel Saskatchewan tartan. This is the very first, I will be making more this week tweaking style versions, design and techniques. I will say that I am very proud of the result!

Amelia: My Work in the Movies

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:02:00 +0000

Just a little over a year ago I was contacted through my blog by Kasia Walicka Maimone looking for some consulting regarding a film project she was working on. That project turned out to be Amelia, starring Hilary Swank, Richard Gere and Ewan McGregor. I hadn't worked on films before however the circumstances regarding this movie were different. It was set in the 30s, and Amelia Earhart actually lived and worked up the street from me. I immediately began to research the archives at Purdue University...browsing through their extensive collection donated by Earhart. After our first consultation I became acutely aware of Kasia's commitment to historical accuracy. The leather jackets that they had made to that date had not struck as historically accurate. I ended up both renting some of my collections to the production of the movie and even selling an early european trench coat that was recut into Amelia's long coat. I was excited to go to the premier of the film on Friday..not so much for the story, I barely paid attention, but for the beauty of the costumes (of course looking out for some of my pieces, lol). The wardrobe was fantastic..except for a few awkward jackets (notably a Belstaff jacket that appears somewhat plastic like with a logo on the arm) the movie authentically replicates the look and feel of 1920s-30s America (and Canada). I was most excited to see Fred Noonan played by Christopher Eccleston (Dr. Who Fame) wearing one of my jackets...Nice!

Halle Bros...and Halle Berry ...Thats Hot!

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:40:00 +0000

Oh..I will state the obvious..Halle Berry is one of the most beautiful women alive today without question. From a nerdy teenage actress she blossomed into a sensual talented goddess. Now according to my cursory google research...which we all know as potentially flawed she received her nomenclature from the famed retailer Halle Bros. of Cleveland.

Halle Bros was one of America's earliest grand retailers. Founded by the sons of recent immigrant Moses Halle in 1891, this store and later chain became one of the great landmarks in downtown Cleveland. Samuel Horatio Halle and Salmon Potland Chase Halle typified young Jewish entrepreneurs of the day. They bought a hat and furrier store and quickly turned it into a premier retailer of ready to wear.

This coat I have pictured (for sale on ebay) is one of their early mens overcoats. It has the classic early century primitive design..with a small tucked collar, oversized cellulose buttons and a cool reversible feature. One side is leather for inclement conditions and the other side is gabardine for fairer cold weather. How amazing is that...holding a piece of early American history!

These are a Few of my Favorite Things!

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:35:00 +0000

Ok, so not every post is about jackets. Fall has come and Canadian thanksgiving and Simcha Torah came on the weekend. I celebrated of course by going up to my sisters place on the Bruce Trail and eating copious amounts of local foods. Sis's neighbour is an Italian trained chef and his house sits right on the headwaters of the Boyne river, a spring fed brook trout river. I awoke stuffed full of turkey and listened to the gurgles of the river running right by the back door, looked out and watched the brookies waiting for flotsam to eat flowing down the river. My wife packed us up to go for a 10 k walk down the Bruce...where I put on my new boots (vintage Herman's) and my vintage Carhartts and trekked down the hillsides. It was cold and I was amazed how incredible my vintage duck canvass pants and Survivor boots performed. My feet were cushioned and warm. Even the burrs and thistles didn't stick to my 80 year old pants, they were incredible.
The Carhartts are from the 1940s...Hamilton Carhartt opened the company in 1889. This guy went from a small 5 sewer shop to an empire. He was a trade unionist to his core...I once sold a deadstock 1930's Carhartt chore jacket and the flasher had 3 paragraphs celebrating the unionized employees of the Carhartt plant. And the best part...there was a plant right here in Toronto...proudly emblazoned on the hardware of his amazing overalls!

The Perfect Skin: Harvest Time

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:43:00 +0000

Fall has come and my labours have born fruit. As the leaves change I took a nice long drive up to the tannery and finally worked out the perfect skin. My horsehide and goatskin are finished, and they are perfect. The leather is an absolutely perfect recreation of 1930s horsehide and goatskin. The leather is soaked and shrunk for 3 months in a bark solution and cured and finished with an absolutely grainy perfect patina..and its strong. Wow we pulled on some of the belly skin and could not tear it..smooth and character ridden, flexible and soft with just a little stretch. This is absolutely the most perfect leather ever made, even my 1950 cafe racer blends in perfectly with the hide.

Advertising, Clubs and Outrageousness.....

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:44:00 +0000

Check out this rare S.T.P. cotton jacket by Artex that I have listed on ebay. I often wonder what makes for "cool" clothing..and I'm speaking to clothing made back in the day before branding, advertising and Ed Hardy designs took ordinary men and turned them into extraordinary cockatoos. Back in the day, clothing was more or less a uniform. A man's job was to represent his job and his family in the socially sanctioned uniform, it was the woman that would dress in an extravagant manner. There is an amazing tension that exists between clothing created within the convention of the uniform and the sanctioned violation of those codes by various "subversive" groups and their custom clothing. These groups countermanded social convention to "customize" and or rebel in various forms, and subverted mainstream fashion both for economic and social recognition. There is a definite postwar development of this kind of subversion that eventual develops into Kustom Kulture. You can see it in Biker culture...which often stemmed from military culture, you see it in Gay and Tourist culture in the artful themes of early gabardine shirts and silk Hawaiian shirts, and you see it in corporate advertising prints which mimic and intertwine with the culture of customization.

These STP jackets and outfits were given to staff, sponsored racers and employees. While I was wearing this STP jacket I was stopped on the street by a woman who's dad worked for the company...they gave him an entire closet full of jackets, t-shirts and coveralls to wear and give out...how cool is that!!!

Designers...Cabaals and Canada....Nafta

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:03:00 +0000

What does a rag dealer in Canada, a rag market in Tanzania, and a rag market in Pasadena have in common?

Ever wonder where and why and how all these marvelous items of clothing end up here on my blog. I often take for granted the weird magical world that I have been living in for the last 20 years. Basically a confluence of events led to my interest in vintage clothing. Besides the vintage wearing professors in my department of Film Studies (Thanks Will Straw) and a bizarre obsession with film noir, I had classic bad Gen X timing. I should note that I have some how modeled my life after Desperately Seeking Susan. I live in a loft in Chinatown with my own movie theatre and with my gorgeous vintage wearing wife. When I graduated from university Canada and the U.S. were in the biggest recession since well...now. Job options were few and I was left to my own resources to survive. A little known fact but Toronto is the centre of the vintage universe. In an intersection of seemingly impossibly happenstances as intricate as that which led to life forming on Earth, the creation of vast oxygen atmospheres and oceans and the perfect distance from the sun...all the factors of my sad state of employment came together at once.
Here in Toronto we have the highest immigrant population in North America. One particular group of Ismail's arrived here from East Africa fleeing the regime of Amin in Uganda. These intrepid newcomers were looking for business' to buy, simultaneous to the retirement wave of elder Jewish rag dealers whose children had no interest in the rag business...and bamn Toronto became the rag centre of the universe. Needless to say cut off from the centre of rag dealing in Los Angeles...Toronto rag dealers used cutting edge tools to flog their massive stock of unique historical clothing pieces to the really important guys in L.A. Slowly a complex network of clothing historians, vintage dealers, fashion buyers/designers and stylists developed a web of stock and trade that has shaped almost all of the fashion style trends of the last 20 years. And people thought it was The Sartorialist or something...Hah! I will not reveal who these style makers are of course for fear I may end up dead...but I can tell you that it is the beautiful admirers and wearers of original vintage that ultimately fuel the fire of design.

Immigration, England and Canada...

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:30:00 +0000

One of the greatest and oldest leather jacket manufacturers was Lewis Leathers in England. I had never been exposed to Lewis' jackets because of the high cost of quality and the fact that few North Americans owned British jackets. I bought my first Lewis jacket ten years ago and immediately fell in love. In Rin Tanaka's first motorcycle book there was a healthy chapter on British jackets and of course a tiny section of Canadian makers. Once I held a Lewis jacket in my hands I was an instant convert. Thick European hides and tight fitting manly designs and that unique square map pocket differentiate Lewis' jackets from the competition. Lewis' jackets are highly revered in Japan, making it pratically unaffordable to purchase one on Ebay.
Recently I spent some time interviewing the owner of British Manufacturing Company or Brimaco...possibly Canada's oldest leather jacket maker. Jerry gave me a long history of his company going back to his Great Uncle who emigrated from Germany to London and from London to Montreal to open Brimaco around 1895. British society and the empire was exceptionally tollerant toward Jews in the period. The British were the first to elect a Prime Minister of Jewish heritage in 1874, Benjamin Disraeli. Because of the horrid living conditions elsewhere in Europe the finest tailors of the day dispersed amongst England and the colonies bringing their expertise with them. During this time early industrialization and the invention of the sewing machine gave rise to the boom of the "Schmata" business.
Jerry told me that he would visit motorcycle competitions in England and California to see what designs were popular. He was directly influenced by Lewis Leathers and Bates of California. Obviously there was cross fertilization between English designs and North American makers. These are pictures of a classic Lewis Leather Jacket and a very early Brimaco jacket from the 1940s. See how the Brimaco is a hybrid of a Harley Davidson jacket cross combined with some details that are clearly European in inflection. Canadian jacket makers were not boring, nor were they copiests. Each maker had their own unique styles. Jerry who ran Brimaco clearly brought inflections of design details back to Canada from his Hebrew "cousins" in England.

ヴィンテージレザージャケット、特に硬式野球のボール、北米では長い歴史があります。ヨーロッパからの移民とそのスキルの歴史に翻訳自分仕立てのスキルや北米に知識を持って構築Leathertogs、Langlitzと、すべての他の偉大な企業

Gen X...The Glory and the Pain....

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:28:00 +0000

One of the curses and benefits of being of "my generation" was the great social confusion and privileged that was the bounty of GenXers. What I mean to say is that I grew up with all the ideological lessons of the sixties combined with the boom in marketing of the seventies combined with the economic vacuum created by the Yuppies (read post Hippies). The forces at work created an incredible melange of youth cultures in the eighties influenced by lots of esoteric education, real social discord and a rich tapestry of aesthetics and hyper-post-cynicism. More or less I come from a generation that knew too much and has been politically emasculated by playing social and economic catch-up. That aside what I really want to write about is one of the great fashion and social influences of my childhood, psychedelic art!
I grew up reading Mad Magazine, being exposed to hot wheels, build Revell models of monster cars...winning black light posters at the Exhibition (the local fair in Toronto) and watching tripped out television like Batman and H.R. Puffinstuff. I had no idea that all this consumption was secretly programming my brain with an absolute love of trippy design. When I was in my twenties I was so influence by comic art that I actually applied for and was offered work drawing comics for a small company in the city I went to university. Doodle Art (a Canadian invention) was one of the earliest creative influences I had. They were 3 posters of psychedelic line art with markers inside a tube and the goal was to colour the huge poster in until your brain burst with acid infused exhilaration. One of my many ventures in my later life lead me to Salt Spring Island where I met one of the many artists who contributed to the Doodle Art Pantheon..Bob Masse Bob met me on his motorcycle and took me back to his beautiful studio and gave me a personal tour of years of rock poster designs and stories. Sadly my dream of reviving Doodle Art ended when I realized the originators had sold the international rights to a mega-publisher, however they are still trying to sell the old sets in Canada...Doodle Art
These genius' have inspired an entire generation of clothing designers...guys like Peter Max, Crumb, Rick Griffen, Stanley Mouse, Rat Fink, Bob Masse and so on!!!

Simplicity of Design; Back to the Earth!

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:35:00 +0000

The real beauty of design today can be found in the simplicity of the past. The new counter culture of design contrasts sharply against the overwrought Ed Hardy styles of Los Angeles. There is a counter culture bubbling in the fashion world of brave designer/producers that are willing to look past the easy path of Chinese production and corporate reification for a hands on craftsman's approach to fashion. This counter movement often captures the imagination of the big fashion producers like Ralph Lauren and Abercrombie who seek to imitate and create mini lines of clothing trying to capture this authenticity without the process required to actually have the character of the "craftsman". There are no shortcuts, and branding does not make up for small batch production and passion for fashion. These pictures may seem to have little in common but many of the features of these very unique items are being recreated by craftspeople across the globe. The simple 1930's triangular expansion gusset, which shows up on the sides of early jackets or in the neck and armpits of early sweatshirts is both a beautiful and practical feature. It was replaced by lycra banding and bi-swing backs which were more efficient in the 1940s and 1950s. See how the sole of a work boot was simply a "nail delivery system" with some nice "Branding" for traction! Between single stitching and simple graphics these have become the new characteristics of the "new craftsman"!

Mr. Chapman..Mentors and the Web

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:02:00 +0000

One of the most amazing effects of blogging is that I continue to meet people who are both incredibly interesting, talented and just awesome human beings. I find it renews my faith in the business that I am in. After years and years dealing with the same people and knowing all the players in the vintage clothing business my world has been opened up globally to a whole new field of international vintage enthusiasts who bring their bits of knowledge and experience to the fore. I find myself communicating and sharing with knowledgeable people on a global scale!
One of those people is John Chapman. John has grown to be both friend and mentor to me. He started a leather jacket production company in 2006 abandoning his other career to bring into the world the most authentic replicas of a-2s available on the market today. His company Good Wear Leather is a small one man operation where John's commitment to detail and authentic materials and design are reflected by the fact that he makes each jacket himself for his clients. He sources out his leather globally for the most authentic veg tanned horsehide, and even uses original war era zippers and produces authentic reproductions of the tiny tiny paper lot tags that used to be sewn under the label. I am thankful for the internet because it has allowed me to meet such fantastic genius' like John and pushes me forward to completing my own project to design and produce perfect small batch slow food leather jackets!

WW2, Militarism and Development

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:55:00 +0000

As I am a student of fashion I am amazed how little pure history there is about the clothing industry. Often clothing is a cursory tale attached to other histories about industrial innovation, advertising, military history, immigration or other such stories. The internet is rife with silly ideas about French fashion houses and hem lines. Often implying that fashion styles were plucked from the "spirit" of depressionary economies, austere fashions reflecting economic realities of the day, or sensible hemlines as a result of rising feminism. This kind of stuff is sophomoric in my opinion.
By the 1940s and the beginning of WW2 the fashion industry in North America was maturing at an incredible rate. After the depression a natural thinning out of badly managed and run companies resulted in lean, mean companies poised to take on the challenges of huge government contracts available because of WW2. Small and large producers lined up for this economic boon. With all this potential wealth available combined with money for research and design, the military demanded quality garments with more practical designs. WW2 set the tone with many manufacturers, building in quality design through researching pattern architecture that improved and invented modern clothing. Bi swing backs, zippers, standardized production techniques and sizing were just a few of the innovations that resulted from the war. Advances in fabrics and synthetics also blossomed, leaving us with outdoor fleece gear and any number of flame retardant, tear resistant, quick drying fashion miracles.

Urbanity, Technology and Primitives

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:20:00 +0000

Primitivism by its nature connotes a naivete, or lack of skills or knowledge as compared to a modern norm. Today's modernity is tomorrows primitive, simplistic childishness. The truth is modernity can only really go so far. The human body doesn't change its shape. Paradigms are altered by technologies and advancing materials. The great leap forward in leather came fast on the heals of the invention of the sewing machine. Before the collaborative efforts of the sewing machine, individuals had to make their own clothing. Sitting at home copying some European model of a dress or jacket, or inventing a pattern that fell nicely on the human physique the designs were intuitive and often involved practicality and issues like saving materials and keeping seams simple for ease of sewing.
With the 19th century spike of Jewish immigration to North America, people with tailoring as their skill set powered a drive that created the new technology of the zipper, sewing machine and other such innovations. This powered the engine of a commercial "schemata" business. A man or woman with many languages, a small apartment and a couple of machines could start designing and producing small lines of clothing for the waves of new immigrants and industry growing in North America. This was a golden time of innovation, where designs and ideas were discovered and helped create and standardize the roots of modern clothing. Just check out these primitive designs, there almost seems to be design progression in the clothing and its complexities.

The Mysterious D-Pocket: Myths and Legends

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:12:00 +0000

The most amazing jackets I have seen over the years have a d shaped pocket on the front. This pocket configuration almost never shoes up on European jackets. I makes me wonder who came up with this design feature first? It shows up on the earliest jackets of the 30s. I asked the founder of a motorcycle jacket company about the "d pocket" and he referred to a jacket that he produced in the forties as having a curved patch pocket with a zipper, lol. Legend and common terms for this pocket often refer to it as a map pocket or a gun pocket. It often looks to have the perfect shape to hold a pistol, with a surface pocket to hold ammo. Others use map pocket implying that navigational papers might be stored there. The canvass jacket in the pictures is an actual WW 2 Japanese flight jacket with what was referred to as a "map" pocket. Patch pockets typically appeared on early jackets as a simple external pouch or wallet like device. Perhaps unique to North America the instinct to attach an external money pouch translated into the simple d pocket. What ever its origins, it is one of the coolest features of the North American Leather Jackets!

The Power of the New: To Design or to Copy

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:52:00 +0000

Over the last 8 weeks I have met with 20 or so elder statesmen of the schmata trade. These guys are serious old school players in the game of "cut and sew" Every single one was over the age of 65 and every single one was successful in the trade! These guys have more combined wisdom then all the jacket nerds like me combined. I meet with these wise old men to try and discover the secrets of how to make the perfect jacket. The more I meet, the more I am beginning to realize there is no one "right" way to make the perfect jacket. Every single company had their favorite tanneries, favorite seams, favorite threads and favorite designs. Many winged it based on deals on materials, or just hit the nail on the head when a finicky customer came in and demanded a particular design feature. Some just altered their designs to be different then Joe Schmoe down the road. We have the wind proof flap...he doesn't, lol. But when push comes to shove, old jackets were about functionality, fit and beautiful cuts. Look how shiny this dead stock Beck cafe racer is. You wouldn't think it would be that shiny when you found an old vintage one. And yet other finishes on jackets are matte or semi gloss. Wax finishes, aniline, oil...dye...urethane...choices, choices choices...oh and fear the jacket nerds!

Layers of History: Where we live!

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Mon, 25 May 2009 18:53:00 +0000

The magic of where I live is Spadina. This is one of the earliest streets made and named in my city of Toronto. Many here do not realize how much history past and present lives on this street. The neighborhood went from a wealthy stately residential street to a working class factory street in the early days of Toronto. By the early 20th century stately houses were torn down to build multistory brick "Schmata" factories where scores of Jewish, Irish and Italian immigrants sewed many of the "ready wear" garments that clothed the Eastern Seaboard. My neighborhood became known as the Jewish Market, but today is now Chinatown. Many of the remnants of the heyday of the garment industry still linger under the signs and floorboards of mostly original buildings.

The name originates from the Ojibwa word ishpadinaa meaning "be a high hill or sudden rise in the land. This native history created a street which housed garment factories, booze cans, bookmakers, and underground economies. The famous Jewish American anarchist and feminist Emma Goldman died in a building across the street from me. Amelia Earhart discovered her love of flying on the south end of the street, and contracted her lifelong ear infection that eventually may have contributed to her death during WW1 working at the Spadina hospital for veterans of the war. My good friend at Grants Wholesale not only lent Mr. Kraft money to help start his famous farming and food business, but turned down Levis Strauss for exclusive rights to sell the famed denim in Canada back in the 50's. Sometimes I forget the history when I walk up and down my street, looking in on the Rotman's Haberdashery selling hats since before the war. And every once and a while a sign is ripped out revealing the generations of business' behind it. Moishe's tavern..or a famous theater or rooming house. This place bleeds history and schmata.

Curves, Bumps and Designs

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Wed, 20 May 2009 21:06:00 +0000

One of the amazing things that happens as I progress through this project is a journey of self discovery. I am blessed here in Toronto with many many elderly Jewish folk who are still actively in the clothing business. With many many years in the "schmata" business these guys are treasure troves of parts, and more importantly, knowledge about the "real" story of fashion. There are so many people just waiting to bust open stories and secret vaults of old stuff to help me along the way to completing my project. I'm just shocked and amazed. Today I spoke with a fellow who used to do business with my Grandfather who died in 1966, the year I was born. He remembered him and his company from over 40 years ago. I am discovering my own lost past. These guys have real stories about the "real" business when clothing and more importantly workwear was growing and peaking in North America.

On a second note, one of the great difficulties I have encountered in making historically accurate jackets has been the patterns. Modern patterns are often modeled with generic dimensions with the aid of CAD software. This software intervenes with the organic nature of "original" designs. Part of the great and strange process of learning about old patterns was the way these patterns were so organically curvy and hand drawn. Each pattern was adjusted on real people and perfected year after year until the strange interlock of all the curved fitted pieces formed the perfect shape and body that would stand the test of time. Then that body was transformed and built with the organic curvy wrinkly skin of beautiful well-treated animals, adding protection for human beings to go out into the world. Part of creating a lost jacket is recreating the lost art of the curve! Beautiful natural organic curves!

Native Themes, Tradition and America

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Thu, 07 May 2009 11:36:00 +0000

Indian themes and indeed Native cultural knowledge is essential order to understand the North American leather jacket. Culture is viral. Europeans arrived in North America and would have not established a foothold without the help and cross fertilization of Native cultural know how and European ingenuity. Sadly the payback was territorial stealing, disease and in some cases genocide. Natives influenced dress styles of the European settlers and blended technology and design into the mix. This influence stretches back to the roots of American settlement and its strong influence can be seen today in the idealization of "nativism" in the design of jackets, branding and labeling. I pointed out that it was the Indian wives of early fur traders that invented the Mackinaw, and certainly the ergonomic designs and beading of early traditional Native garb influenced the Europeans in the design of their own clothing for survival. By the time of the industrial age in the Americas, Nativism came to symbolize the warrior, the sportsman, and the athletic hero. That positive image was overshadowed by the dismal treament by settlers of their indigenous "enemies".

How I spend my Summer Vacations: The future

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Sun, 03 May 2009 20:30:00 +0000

As part of my strange personality I often ponder how I've gotten to where am at. I try to perceive the future and am always considering where Im trying to go. Im old enough that I have seen many of my friends rise to the heights of power and money and some fall to the streets and the abyss. This kind of stuff never really was on my smorgasbord of consideration as a youth. My vision of my life was about spending time in the wilderness, being unconventional and trying to make beautiful things. Realizing this vision and melding it with real social forces is a long and hard task. While my photos seem rather unconnected, I would say that in fact they all are parts of a cohesive puzzle. The question is: where do you find satisfaction and self worth, get compensated and leave a world that is better off then when you started. Im a nouveau Luddite. I want wilderness that I can run around in and show my friends and family, that is the Canadian way. I want to make an impact on peoples lives and leave some sort of legacy. I want people to consume better and learn to appreciate and pay for things that will benefit their lives. One avenue is my hope to restore the knowledge and history behind North American apparel industry and its great history of quality, production and beauty. As I watch many of my friends become powerful members of society I hope that they have similar goals, not just the desire for constant and ever growing financial gain. We have already seen the disastrous results of the morally bankrupt on Wall Street and here is hoping for a new breed of men and women who will make our world a more healthy, beautiful, smart and equitable place.

Creating Beauty, Design and the Past

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:09:00 +0000

I spend a lot of time thinking about shapes and forms. Hours upon hours developing and trying to find out what the thin hair of difference is that creates genius vs mediocrity. With so much mediocre crap out in the world I am always terrified that I might step over the abyss and make or design something that is "mediocre" . Believe it or not as I was discussing with my friend John Chapman the other day, the difference between simple genius and today's fashion is often the concept of purpose. In the past every design, every line and every single cut seemed to be full of purpose. There was always a practical reason for each idea in a garment. The creativity was often the secondary thought. First you make a perfect garment, then you embellish it. Trying to understand that thinking in an age of computing and computer design is next to impossible. The task is daunting at best. I've spent the better part of the last 3 months trying to create new designs in the Zeitgeist of those long dead designers and it has been a fascinating process. We have had to unthink many of the ideas built into these jackets and unthink the way modern patterns are made. It is and will be a very scary process. I have been reticent to even share the results with my family. Hopefully I will have a jacket so beautiful that others will encourage me to bring it out into the world!

England, Punk Rock and Cate Blanchett

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:49:00 +0000

Part of my longtime passion with leather jackets has lead me to meet the global cabal of aficionados who share my obsession. Admittedly I was a bit late to the game of leather jacket collecting. I did not get serious about it until 2000. The jacket that inspired me was an Endura cafe racer made in California. That jacket was so cool with clean lines and a yellow racing stripe. I wore it and it reinvigorated my love of clothing. My first leather jacket was a gift, a loan from a friend really. It was a punk jacket and in Canada the only source of punk jackets was Brimaco. The standard copy of a Harley Cycle Champ D-pocket jacket was hacked and painted, safety pinned and studded. My friend Brendan lent me his jacket in 1986...it was his band jacket from the early 80s. I loved that jacket and found myself wandering the streets of Ottawa getting into all sorts of trouble in it.
The real catalyst for vintage leather was the publication of Rin Tanaka's books on motorcycle jackets in 2001. Many of the jackets in the book were sold by me and other friends of mine here in Toronto. It was so exciting to see jackets that I owned or held in my hands in a book! Rin seemed to connect a world of dealers and traders and other obsessive compulsives that had never even met each other except on the world of ebay and the internet. One of the key contributors to the books English side is my new friend Peter Makarski. Pete's London collections of English motorcycle stuff is legendary. Pete kindly lent me some pics of one of my most favorite women in the world wearing one of his jackets. Cate is as inspiring to me in her beauty as the jackets are inspiring in their design and authenticity. I listened to punk in the late 1970s as a 13 year old here in Toronto, and am always fascinated at the global network of music that connected us long before the internet via analogue vinyl.

J.P. Sartre...The New Age and the Overcoat

noreply@blogger.com (David Himel) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:46:00 +0000

Since I turned 40 I have lived with a strange sense of regret and nostalgia. Apart from the obvious which is that I dive through dead peoples clothing for a living there are many things about this new age that bother my core. Many of the best people that shaped my life have died, and many of the new ideas I thought might change the world in the end corrupted it. I grew up reading everything I could find in non fiction and science fiction. By the time I was 14 I was one messed up well read punk. J.P. was one of my greatest influences. I often wonder what Sartre would have thought of the corporate bastards on Wall Street and their philosophical inner selves. Does a trader ever suffer existential inner angst and nausea...or does his limited existence free him up from any responsibility that those who fear god live in...hopefully some will find out in jail! J.P. was a cool dresser and loved his old things. Look at these beautiful ancient canvass coats he used to wear. They used to bind you up like a canvass and sheepskin cocoon against the harshness of reality and reflect the zeitgeist of the period when they were made...that is what they were for. I have this European number on Ebay as we speak and it is unbelievable..it reminds me of a time when at least people questioned their reason for existence and feared for it!