Thursday, December 8, 2011

Vintage and Linen



For years I've been telling people "it's all in the material".  If you have a favorite shirt, its the cut, color, and most importantly, the material that you love about it.  For me, I don't have just one favorite.  It depends on the occasion, and definitely the temperature as to what I want to throw on.  My wife and I just went down to Ocean Reef, Florida after Thanksgiving, and the weather was warm and beautiful.  So of course I wore my favorite linen shirt.  I run hot as it is, and going from Northern Michigan's 21 degrees to a warm 76 degrees felt like an enormous heat wave.  Anyway, I love my linen shirt.  Its one I currently carry at our store, the Linen Work Shirt.  Its got a great feel of luxury when I get to wear it.  Usually linen isn't this smooth, but mine is probably the nicest quality I've seen in years.  Its made of course in the United States from start to finish.  
We had the pleasure of being in Ocean Reef, Florida at the same time they were having their Vintage Car, Boat & Plane show.  Man, what a sight.  They had an enormous display of all the crafts and vessels that I grew up seeing in magazines and later in person.  One of the coolest was a Buick from the 1950s that was designed for Harlow Curtis, the President of Buick at the time.  It was made for the time he spent in Florida.  
I love history.  I think its really important for everyone to see how far we've come with innovations.  And if it hadn't been for the ice cold beer, I wouldn't have been able to stay as long as we did.  But innovation is how we breath, learn, and grow.  My head is always running with ideas.  The vintage show gave me a lot of great ideas for how I want my new vision of Made in America Goods to look and feel.  Even the Linen Work Shirt I was wearing related to the whole thing.  Made in America textiles and clothing is where it began years ago, and the very shirt on my back is just one innovation I've made for my store of shirts and goods made in America.  It's all about history, craftsmanship, and knowing that the person who made the shirt lives right here in the States that I find so wonderful and innovative.  It's a classic or 'vintage' style that I feel makes a different statement now.  Reinventing and innovating with a wink and a nod to how it all started:  
Made in America.

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