Winter Coats Part Duex: The Pea

For the second installment of our continuing series devoted to winter coats, we will turn our focus onto one of my personal favorites, the Pea Coat.

  No self-respecting gentleman who lives in a climate in which any sort of coat is required, be it a blustery Autumn day or a furious snow storm, should be without, at the very least, one pea coat and perhaps as many as two or three in his closet. I personally like to have a couple of different colors, at the moment I own two, a black and a blue but up until recently I also had a grey one. The first coat I would like to talk about is the one purchased from Urban Outfitters about 5 years ago. Back in those dark times, what I like to call B.C. (before Chicago) and before I started lurking around style forum, A affordable Wardrobe, and the many other menswear websites and learned what a quality garment looks like I actually believed that this was a coat of pretty high quality. It was cut short, how I liked it, and had the anchor buttons on it as well (something I always liked in a pea coat.

Winter Coats Part One: The Chesterfield

Of all the winter coat options available to the sartorially minded gentleman, the Chesterfield coat has to be one of the most elegant. Of course, one could don a tail coat or a morning jacket, but neither of these options are viable to the modern man living amongst savages who call "dressing up" putting on an ill fitting blazer from the gap. Of course, you would be hard pressed to find even that these days. From Wikipedia:
 The Chesterfield coat is a long, tailored overcoat. It arose along with the lounge suit as an alternative to the highly shaped coats it replaced, such as the frock overcoat with its heavy waist suppression using a waist seam. The Chesterfield has no horizontal seam or sidebodies, but can still be somewhat shaped using the side seams and darts. It can be single- or double-breasted, and has been popular in a wide variety of fabrics, typically heavier weight tweeds, or charcoal and navy, and even the camel hair classic. It has often been made with a velvet collar. These variations make it extremely versatile, so it can be worn with a city suit or even semi-formal dress, as well as casual sports jackets. It was a staple of smartly dressed men's wardrobes from the 1920s to 1960s, and is still very commonly worn.
   I can't remember where I first saw the Chesterfield, an old magazine or film perhaps, but I knew that I really liked the style and the way the velvet collar popped off the coat, so one of my first orders of business when moving to Chicago, was to acquire one for myself. This proved trickier than I first thought, you see, apparently Chesterfields were popular for women sometime in the mid 80's to early 90's, as I couldn't go into a thrift store without running into a couple of them. Alas, after a couple months of searching, I had come out empty handed. I was starting to think that maybe menswear company's had abandoned the style and that I would have to start hitting up actual antique shops in order to procure one. Then one day at one of my usual stops, I happen to stumble upon this bute:

A men's Chesterfield topcoat in a really beautiful grey wool herringbone weave, and in my size for a mere $15. It looked to be in near mint condition and judging from the tags, might be from the 80's or 90's as well, from Ashforde and Reede, made in England. The quality seems to be top notch and it will definitely keep me warm this winter as it is very heavy. I can't wait to bust it out.

I still have lots of coat styles to discuss, so stay tuned, I haven't even got to the suede double breasted top coat yet. Cheers, and happy thrifting, Ethan.

Duffle Shuffle.....

I can remember my first duffle coat well, made in West Germany, it was a tan beast that when wet, weighed about ten pounds. Don't get me wrong, I liked it, it kept me warm as hell and it was made like a tank. However, it had a couple of things wrong with it that I could never quite get over. The front left corner looked like it had been chewed by a dog at some point, it was about two sizes two big and it was missing the fucking hood. After I had it for a couple years and only wearing it a handful of times, I traded it for some cheap urban outfitter grey wool overcoat (which I later gave away). I thought that finding the perfect duffle coat was going to be a lifelong search fraught with many obstacles. I know what I want, I just don't want to spend upwards of three to four hundred of my hard earned dollars on one, although if I could it would probably look something like this:

 which come to think of it, looks a lot like my old West German made one. Or this

Never mind that the Burberry shot is of a woman's coat, you get the gist. Anyway, now that I'm in one of the thrift capitols of the world, my options of finding one have increased exponentially.  One of the thrifting mantras is that if you want something bad enough, and you are diligent and thorough in your thrifting ways, that eventually you will get what you are looking for. And so it was, I picked up this beauty from one of my spots in the dead of the summer (another thrift mantra is "always buy off season", because who the hell is looking for duffle coats in July?):

A vintage Eddie Bauer tan colored duffle coat with horn toggles, and it had the hood, for $6.99!  It just had one small problem problem, it was a woman's. No matter, it fit me like a glove and was in great shape, piss on the haters I say! And yet, it still was not the duffel that I sought, merely a stand-in, something to get me through until I found what I was truly looking for.
          It had been some weeks before I saw another duffle  in the wilds of the thrift stores, sure, I had seen glimpses, toggles sticking out from the racks of winter coats only to be put back when I saw they were either way too big or way too small, beat to shit old Gap and Ann Taylor wool/poly blends. That is,until I came across an International Scene, early 90's, black and orange monstrosity.  I grabbed this for three reasons, one, it fit me really well, two, it was in mint condition, and three, it was, after all, a duffle coat. Only one small problem, it was an early 90's black and orange International Scene duffle coat. I would post pictures but to save myself some dignity, lets just say that this thing does not photograph very well.
        I had now come to the realization that I would be forever doomed to wear an 80's vintage Woman's Eddie Bauer duffle coat, which in itself is not that bad of a thing, but being a person who is obsessed with clothing, this simply would not suffice. Enter my next duffle:

I saw this baby and nearly shat myself. Could it be, a knee length, black with plaid liner, hooded duffle coat? In my size? With the throat latch? It was, and for the very reasonable price of $12.06, from one of the most crowed and dirty thrift stores I frequent. Kind of looks like the Burberry one, no? Except it has no manufacture's tag, just a  good ol'  Made In The USA one and it was about $900 dollars cheaper. It just goes to show you that perseverance pays off. Happy Thrifting!

Monday haul.......

We've been having somewhat of an Indian summer around these parts for the past week or so, and I thought what better way to spend my afternoon off then digging trough some smelly thrift stores. I mean that in a good way. First off I decided to check out a  spot I had not yet been. It was a clean little store, kind of tucked away in a pretty nice neighborhood, so my hopes ran high. As soon as I walked in, I noticed a nice Burberry trench coat hanging from the wall with a price tag of $55.00, a little steep as far as thrift store fare is concerned, but a good sign none the less. I started digging through the ties and pulled out a nice gem, a brown knit YSL in mint condition. I'm usually not one for ostentatious logos splashed across the front of a garment (unless it's on the breast of a sweater or tennis shirt), but because I have such a preference for knits, I couldn't pass such an attractive specimen up. And at only $1.29 too boot!
      My next find was a rather attractive vintage Coach note book. I cannot attest to the quality of their products as this is only my second Coach find, next to a belt I picked up the other day. Anyways, the leather is buttery smooth and just the right amount of broken in. It looks as thought the stories are true that Coach at one point produced some quality products, not just the gaudy shit you see at the malls. Open it up and there is a three ring binder, slots for various cards and a holder for your pen, all in all, not bad for $2.90

        The third and final item I found at my first stop of the day was a really neat print of a nautical battle involving two tall ships, one British, the other American (with the American winning of course). I was really excited to see this because my wife and I have a little nautical thing going on back at the house and I thought that this would be a fine addition. It's large size made it all the more attractive so I scooped it up on the spot! Sale price, $15.00. My wife is also talented in the arts of stripping and refinishing wood, so I asked if she could over-haul the frame and get rid of the ugly silver top coat. See kids, doing activities together is the key to a successful marriage.

      My second stop of the day was another store that I had never been to before. The first thing I see as I walk in was a really bright, flowery patterned tie sticking out like a sore thumb. Upon closer inspection I find that it is a Fendi tie that is so loud and bright yet stunningly beautiful. It is also very wide so short of having it narrowed, this one might be relegated to the closet or made into a bow-tie. The fabric was just so cool I couldn't pass it up. I must now comment on the fact that I have yet to figure out how to use my wife's camera, so please excuse the shitty photographs. In the same bunch I found an all silk vintage Dior tie in a really nice paisley pattern, the pictures really do not do it justice. I have to say that for all the smack that gets talked about Dior's vintage clothing on websites such as  Style Forum, I actually like their silk ties and have a really nice vintage blazer by them as well.  I also picked up a 100% cashmere scarf by a brand called Handcraft, although I've never heard of them before, the scarf is super soft and is in a nice shade of blue-grey, price, $2.06.
     Last but not least, I picked up my first really nice pair of shoes today. While I have heard stories of people picking up unused John Lobbs with the shoe trees still inside for 2 dollars, I've been happy stocking up my shoe collection with a fine assortment of Allen Edmunds  and Florsheim Imperials. But today I found a beast of a different nature. I was walking past the shoe section and one pair seemed to stand out amongst all the rest.I could tell they were better made than the racks of Cole Hann's and Johnston & Murphy's I had been seeing all day. I picked them up and saw the insole was stamped Made In England. I had never seen this stamped on a shoe at a thrift store before so I took a closer look. The staff there most likely thought I had gone mad because there I was staring at the inside of someones used shoe. Anyway, I could just make out the word Churchs. Yup I had just scored a pair of "Made in England" Churchs longwings in fantastic condition, in my size, for $6.00.
      All in all today was a good day, I scored some great stuff for myself and the house but I also got to check out some new parts of the city. I will try to post some pictures of my new stuff in action next time. Cheers!, Ethan

Chicago...

Being from Milwaukee, I used to come to Chicago often to attend concerts or check out the museums or just to party, so moving here in June of this year was not that difficult. What I didn't anticipate were the sheer number of thrifting opportunity's that were mere blocks from my new home. I literally had everything I needed in terms of food, drink and other odds and ends  for living in the city, on my block; but I also had a plethora of Salvation Army's, Goodwill's and the like in the neighborhood, a veritable goldmine if your hobbies include wearing other peoples used clothes, like me. My intention with this blog is to show you the cool stuff that I find as well as give you some insight and ideas as far as clothing goes. Hopefully you will enjoy my ramblings, I'm still learning, and there are a lot of people out there who know more about this stuff than I do, but maybe I can inspire you to go out there and try finding some cool stuff for your house or wardrobe like I did. Cheers!, Ethan

p.s. I will try to get my wife's camera up and running so I can upload some of my most recent finds.

In the Begining....

Today marks my first foray into the world of blogging. I have been reading other peoples blogs quite often over the past few months (usually some sort of menswear blog) but I had never given a thought to writing my own until my wife suggested it after she saw I was following another menswear blog pertaining to the art of thrifting. You see, some months ago I stumbled upon the very great blog An Affordable Wardrobe, if you haven't checked it out, I must advise you to do so immediately. Here I had found a kindred soul who shares his musings on the sad state of men's clothing and tips on how to be a better dressed individual, but the best part is that most of his clothes come from thrift stores. So this blog is going to be in the similar vein, I didn't want to step on any toes but I figured that I'm in the Midwest anyway, which is far from the east coast in terms of thrifitng destinations and that I could give my own take on the theme. So here's to you Giuseppe, thanks for the inspiration!