woolrich, hanna, and brooks

i've been thinking a lot about quality lately. it may seem to you that i have been thinking about fashion. hanna hats, woolrich coats, pendleton shirts, dickies boots. but it really isn't fashion. i mean, i think a lot of my recent acquisitions are pretty freakin' dope, but fashion (form) has almost been secondary in the choosing of these items. to be historically accurate, i have had the hanna hat forever. and i didn't buy it. it was a gift. but it did sort of set the stage for the rest and get the ball rolling, to be butcherously metaphoric. all the items i mentioned (a few of which are shown in the photo above) are vigorously rooted in quality. that woolrich jacket is about 10 years older than me. and it's pretty much brand new. i wonder if there were ever any pheasant actually in the kidney pockets. they were lined with plastic when i got the jacket in the mail... the pendleton shirt i am wearing now is newer, but was still probably made when i was in grade school. and it looks like it came right off the rack. the brooks bag is new. but brooks has been making bomb proof stuff for more than a century, so i am fairly certain this waxed cotton and leather vision of loveliness will be around longer than me. the dickies boots may seem a little out of context in this conversation, but these things are bomb proof, and water proof, with just a little mink oil.

legacy has been a topic on my mind lately, especially related to my art. but i guess it can't help but spill over into other areas too. and in terms of clothing, i suppose legacy is best recognized as quality. to a certain extent though, legacy and quality are kin. woolrich has a legacy that only exists because of its quality merchandise. well, that and maybe a little 21st century marketing thrown in. pendleton is the same, been around a long time, known for making plain good stuff. except maybe those flag shirts...

it's all related though. legacy, quality, time. how you are remembered depends on how well you spent your time. as i gain what i hope is a little bit of wisdom (just a little), i would like to think that my perspective gives me a viewpoint from which i can use what i have learned to live the best life i can, and make the best work i can. standing here in between those that came before me (thank you, dad. miss you TONS) and where i am going i hope i have enough of a grasp on what they have done to pull at least a little bit of it back into the present, and leave it as the past for someone else's future.