Classic Shoes for Men are having a sale - 20% discount this weekend.

 Star1950's photostream on Flickr.

Utility Labels

£18 from Teagowns and Textiles.
Not an easy website with limited images of the products for sale but still worth a rummage as it's all very reasonably priced.

Womens Land Army Jodphurs

Thisisatlcostume are on Ebay right now selling these great looking Womens Land Army reproduction jodphurs.

Last year I bought a chocolate brown pair of cord jodphurs from Spitalfields Market but I can still feel an urge for a pair of these tan ones coming on... however they'll need to wait, I just bought a second pair of Womens 1920's chino Customised Levi's which I successfully dyed today, giving me a darker option.

They were half price in Cinch so I couldn't leave them behind..

The shop on Ebay is also offering Land Army dungarees.

Tiny Snorkel Parkas and Other Vintage Childrenswear

This weekend we took a trip down to Brighton to visit friends, they took us to loads of good shops where I could easily have filled the car with second hand clobber. One place we stopped at, Dinky Vintage, has a great collection of children's clothes for sale and to rent with excellent condition stock from the 30's through to the 70's. The clothes are all reasonably priced, particularly considering how hard it is to find such good condition and sometimes unworn, period kids clothes.

Apparently there's a website on the way, I'll link to it as soon as it's up.

Morreton Hats - Black and White Images.

Morreton Hats Cont.

Morreton Hats

Once again the blogging community and the internet have proved themselves to be things of great wonder.
Whilst I was in Japan I received an email from Charles-Henri Morreton regarding a previous post of mine and dialogue we had shared about the label I had found inside a Morreton hat.
My lack of knowledge of Morreton hats and their illustrators was addressed -

"It's funny because last week I made a book about MORRETON Hats' advertisements for me.

About the MORRETON firm, it was created in 1863 (in Chazelles-sur-Lyon, near Lyon - FRANCE) by my great grand father Jean MORRETON and the firm closed during my grand father's direction... 

So I never knew this firm :-(  I was born in 1981!

About your favourite label, I am not sure that was from Jean Desnos..."

The fantastic collection of artwork associated with the hats can be found here and to top off the correspondence, Charles-Henri very generously sent me a whole lot of images to blog.

More tomorrow.

Abernyte Antiques: Further Temptations

Ohio Knitting Mills

A slight diversion from all things Japanese to mention Ohio Knitting Mills' Pop-Up Shop.
I've been a fan for a while now, recommended to me by print designer and good friend, Kathryn Dale.
So much of their original stock has gone but there are a few choice items left and are on sale here.

1940's or 50's Popeye Fancy Dress Costume.

Terrifying.

Morreton Hats & Jean Desnos

After publishing my previous post I realised that, unusually, I had never Googled the name on the label - Morreton Hats. I found these three illustrations by Jean Desnos online here, along with loads of other great French fashion drawings of the period by other artists, but no more than that; no information about him, the company or the original publications.
I am presuming he was the illustrator of my label for now, although the label looks a little more late fifties or early '60's to me.
Any thoughts?
I'll endeavour to search deeper.

Wear with either side to the front or back, reproduction Mend and Make Do, one of nine by M.Goldstein, Hackney Road.

Andrew Fletcher's 1940's Shoelaces.

The impeccably turned out Mr. Andrew Fletcher's footwear, sporting a fantastic shoelace tip detail. 

Bart Cariss or Trevor Webb's Trickers deep background.

WORKWEAR IN THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

I can spend days rummaging around the US Library of Congress website. The early colour photography is fantastic and the occupational pictures, always my first call, are fascinating. The site can be tricky to manoeuvre at first and the items come up in list form but there is a GALLERY option which makes searching easier. There are also oral history recordings of ordinary people's memories, freed slaves, folk musicians and eyewitness accounts of history for example, which add an extra dimension to character study.
Remember to search with American English - color being the most obvious difference.