Style Forum

Over the past year and a half or so, I've become acquainted with a great group of people over at Styleforum.net, who also share an affinity for combing the racks at thrift stores for hidden treasure. It really is very unique, as there are people from all over the world that get together and post and brag about their thrift store finds. The really neat thing however, is that we regularly pick up nice things not in our own sizes to trade with other forum members straight up for something in our size or for future consideration down the road when something inevitably pops up. It's very remarkable and something unique in the world of #menswear as far as I know. Ask Andy About Clothes has something similar but not quite the same as the little community we've built for ourselves over at style forum.
      Case in point. I picked up a beautiful Barretta hunting jacket a few weeks ago, made in Italy out of a cotton and gore-tex blend, it had all the bells and whistles you could want from a traditional hunting jacket. On top of that, it looked to be very recent and never worn. As I usually do, I bragged about to the guy's over at Styleforum. Within the hour, one of my longtime trading buddy's messaged me saying he was interested in the coat, but that he didn't have anything to trade at the moment. No problem I said, as he usually finds some great shit. I knew it would only be a matter of time before he found something cool in my size. Low and behold, a package arrived on my door step yesterday.

The first thing I saw peeking out of the box was a vintage Hardy Ames 3 piece brown mohair suit, which, sadly, fit a bit too wide in the shoulder for me. The next item was a lovely Loro Piana linen button down shirt. Loro Piana is a great cloth maker based out of Italy who also makes some wonderful clothes of it's own. I've come across numerous blazers and sport coats made out of their fabric by the likes of Hickey Freeman and Brooks Brothers, but their own branded stuff is much harder to come by. I've only ever found a shirt for my wife, so this was a nice surprise, and it fits like a glove too boot! Rendered in a subtle white with blue stripes with thick mother of pearl buttons, this will be one of my go to shirts for the upcoming spring and summer!

The real gem in this package however, is this incredible, 100% cashmere, hounds-tooth plaid sport coat.

 From Wikipedia:
Jordan Marsh & Company (or Jordan Marsh) was a department store in Boston, Massachusetts, which grew to be a major regional chain in the New England area of the United States. In 1996, the last of the Jordan Marsh stores were converted to Macy's. The store was formerly part of Allied Stores and then Federated Department Stores. Allied also operated a separate group of stores in Florida called Jordan Marsh Florida, which were disbanded in 1991.


What can I say, the guy knows what I like. I plan to replace the dated brass buttons with a set of tasteful horn that I'm going to salvage from this moth eaten Oxxford cashmere blazer. This is a lesson to always triple check your items before handing over your hard earned money to the thrift store employees. Such a beautiful jacket, such a waste.

So there you have it folks! I'm sure this isn't the last of my posts concerning my friends over at  the Style Forum, they are always coming up with the good stuff. Did I mention the Tom Ford era crocodile Gucci loafers or brand new in the box John Lobb monk straps? I didn't? Oh well, next time. Cheers!

Back in the saddle

                                                

All right ladies and gents, I know it's been a really long time since I rapped with you, but I'm posting to let you know, I'm still alive and thrifting! It's been about a year since my last post, and I've learned so much about clothing and quality and thrifting in general, that I thought it time to fire up the ol blog again. I would like to change the direction slightly, and post daily about my findings and show some up close pictures of fabrics and such. Ok, here we go.
   I went out to a few of my local spots yesterday, but since I didn't have much time before work, I was kind of in a rush. I passed on a wonderful Ralph Lauren Purple Label (RLPL) pink gingham shirt with what looked like a small spot of wax right below the collar. Such a shame, the cloth was really fantastic. What I did pick up however, is this beautiful Gitman Bros yellow gingham shirt with a button down collar and smoked mother of pearl buttons. Gitman Bros is up there with some of my favorite shirts, but remember, as with any clothing company, they went through a period (mostly the 90's) in which they turned out a lot of shit. So be forewarned. This is not one of those shirts, made in the USA with 100% cotton and an unlined collar, it doesn't get much better than this. Dig.

I believe Gitman shirts, new, retail around $200. So paying $3.99 for a mint specimen in my size was not even a question.
      I love paisley, just ask my wife. So when I spotted these two amazing scarfs, I immediately had to go in for a closer inspection. The patterns and detail are superb! The tag mentions that they are silk and wool numbers by Grant Thomas. Not a name one usually looks out for whilst thrifting, and made in China is usually a deal breaker for me, but these were too beautiful to pass up. Plus, all winter accessory's were half off at this particular store, so I snagged both for $3.

 And finally, I picked up this ipod dock for our kitchen. Usually when either of us it cooking and we want to listen to music, we would have to crank up the record player in the living room and even then, the sound was less than optimal. $5 and works like a charm.

So that's my first post back in the blog game, hopefully it wont be another year before you hear from me again. Cheers!