FROM POLLIWOG TO SHELLBACK .....CROSSING THE EQUATOR

Bill Atherton's NEPTUNUS REX DIPLOMA and jolly rodger memento flag.....
King Neptune's swimming beauties like in Busby Berkley's musicals.......
Flappers or mermaids !!??.......
The flip side of the jolly Rodger. Gotta love the hand stitching....
From polliwogs to shellback back in 1926.......
King Neptune's police .......

Another interesting flea market find .while digging in an old suitcase packed with old Navy uniforms ,my attention was caught by a black piece of fabric.It happened to be an hand made jolly Rodger flag .Next to it was a parchment like king Neptune's diploma .I knew right away what it was : remnants of a classic Navy tradition held when crossing the equator.This example dates from 1939 . In the U.S. Navy, when a ship crosses the equator a time-honored ceremony takes place. This is a Navy tradition and an event no sailor ever forgets. With few exceptions, those who have been inducted into the "mysteries of the deep" by Neptunus Rex and his Royal court, count the experience as a highlight of their naval career. Members of Neptunus Rex's party usually include Davy Jones, Neptune's first assistant, Her Highness Amphitrite, the Royal Scribe, the Royal Doctor, the Royal Dentist, the Royal Baby, the Royal Navigator, the Royal Chaplain, the Royal Judge, Attorneys, Barbers and other names that suit the party.

Officially recognized by service record entries indicating date, time, latitude and longitude, the crossing of the equator involves elaborate preparation by the "shellbacks" (those who have crossed the equator before) to ensure the "pollywogs" (those who are about to cross the equator for the first time) are properly indoctrinated. All pollywogs, even the Commanding Officer if he has not crossed before, must participate.

A Golden Shellback is one who has crossed the equator at the 180th meridian.....

BACK IN THE DAZE 4 .....BILL HALEY & HIS COMETS

The first cover was obviously inspired by the great David Stone Martin who did some of the most amazing and collectable covers in jazz history......
Covers for the French edition of the famous ESSEX sides......
The original ep cover for the "black board jungle " soundtrack .The one that started it all.The French title "graine de violence " means :" seed of violence".......
Can't beat this one right !!?........
In France the ep was teenager's favorite format as it allowed them to stack records on the turntable and dance for "hours" without flipping records ........

Few days ago ,Matt of RIVET-HEAD fame, posted some interesting ep covers and i've promised him that i'll reciprocate with some rare European one .Here they're.... some of my favorite French ep covers.i've chosen Bill Haley, because he was without a doubt at the origin of the R'N'R craze in France .Back in 1955 ,after the release of Richard Brooks "blackboard jungle" every French teenager wanted to get his hands on a copy of the now seminal movie's soundtrack.For my part i started collecting records back in 1977 after the first season of "happy days"probably for the same reason :I couldn't get this intro out of my head ....I had to have this record .So the first step was to dig into my friends and family's vinyl collection ,the second was to go to my favorite record store and ask the owner ,if he had some ol' inventory that he wanted to get ride of.Well the rest is all about a never ending quest for rare platters ......

1930'S HORSEHIDE HUNTING/MOTORCYCLE BOOTS

A very similar pair from a 1934 Sears catalog .Nowadays such a pair in good vintage condition will cost you around 250$ that is if you find your size......
Perfect patina........
Ready for game......
Note the two-tone triple stitching ........
To top it all ,a nice double loop stitching ...

Do i have a boot fetish or what !!? Sometimes i wonder...Enough is enough i need to downside, it's insane !!.Before it goes to another house, i've decided to feature this rare pair in "RIVETED" for everyone to enjoy.this pair made of horsehide,comes straight from the late 20's early 30's .I've always loved their special cordovan shade ,that works perfectly with an A-2 an a pair of ww1 jodhpurs. So long old faithful ......

A NOT SO DRY RUN TODAY......A WW1 MARINE FAMILY ALBUM

Fresh from the crate: the WW1 photo album ,with its unusual locally made bark and leather cover .....

Hawaiian camping trip 1917......

Ol' timey music ......

Young marine and best friend....

A marine/navy family. love the matching outfits....

Most of the pictures date from 1917/ 1919......

WW1 pictures of denims are rare to say the least ,as guys would rather have their pictures taken while proudly wearing their uniforms.Note the pull over 2 pockets shirt....

1918 Honolulu.......Note the collarless pull over shirt......

Dad in his summer marine uniform......
Marine back from overseas ,a nice family portrait...

It was a beautiful day today in SF and for once ,it felt like spring was kicking in .What started as a lame day at the flea market, ended with an unusual find .what's so unusual about a family album you might say!? ,well considering the fact that more and more people are sorting old vintage albums to sale pictures on ebay ,finding a complete and unmolested one dating from ww1 is indeed unusual....This marine / navy family settle in Honolulu back in 1917 after the father's return from overseas .The entire album covers a period ranging from 1917 to 1919.Just selected some of my personal favorites and will most definitely post some more soon ........

Cœur de Lilas (1932) - La môme caoutchouc

SAMPLER.......

Found this nice 40's sampler from a company specialised in custom made embroidery, 12 years ago, while looking for clothes at the fort Lauderdale flea market .back then it was a gold mine for vintage .....
Nice close up.....

Typical chain stitch job as seen on your "classic american workwear" from the 20's up to the 60's....

Singer Cornely type embroidery machine ......

A French engineer named Bonnaz invented the first sewing machine for embroidery in 1866, soon he joined with the Cornely Company in France to manufacture and market his invention. A few years later Singer received the US Patent.The early ones could work both chain and moss stitch and could sew in any direction . By 1900 models were produced which could make raised cords, double zigzag lines and do two needle braiding. As the Cornely machines were no bigger than an ordinary domestic treadle machine they were excellent for outworkers and did not have to be used in factories only. In America it is known as the Bonnaz machine.

Since the original machine very few design changes have been made and the basic machine has remained the same for well over one hundred years. Today hand operated chenille machines are made by a number of machine manufacturers but cornely and singer remain the standard. These machines must be used by skilled operators only....

BACK IN THE DAZE 3....the story of a world wide premiere: the 1stLEVI'S auction

Yours truly ...posing for Gilles Lhotte's book :le jean des heros" back in 1992 .I'm wearing a 1930's Blueridge chin strap chore jacket over a 1936 Levi's 506.the pants are late 40's lee carpenters with crotch rivet .I'm holding a mid 50's Roy Rodgers jacket with zipped pocket........

What's left of the "15 minutes of fame " lol...the catalogs......

It was at the beginning of 1992 .At the time, we were literally an handful of vintage denim fanatics in France .Of course Japanese were coming strong, but it was still "doable" for us money wise .Info on the subject was scarce,evasive and sometimes based on assumptions .don't forget that we didn't have the internet at the time.Our best sources were mostly,original catalogs ,movies ,pictures and so on .... It was then, that i was asked by my friend and journalist Gilles Lhotte,to be a part of his new project: what was to be one of the first books on vintage denim :" le jean des heros".Needless to say ,i was on cloud nine and ended up lending a serious bunch of pieces for it.Shortly after ,while looking for an original way of promoting his new baby, Gilles and some of his "media friends", came up with the idea of having and auction featuring some of the pieces shown in the book solely focusing on LEVI'S ....I was asked once more,to step up to the plate ,but this time, with my friend Florence Brandicourt as an artistic director.I was assigned the tasks of building the auction's catalog and creating the show/auction's look.After a short brainstorming session,Florence and i, came up with the original idea of showcasing these beautiful pieces ,as a works of art.we used custom made gold frames, built for the occasion .if only i could get a $ every times i've seen this done for store displays since then. the first worldwide auction for LEVI'S ,was held in September of 1992 at the famous Drouot auction house in Paris ,with full media coverage: tv, radio newspapers,you name it ...i was even featured in national geographic and did some tv too .good times indeed ,it was fun for a while,but i quickly realised it ended up being a bummer for me as an enthusiast picker. Everyone after this ,knew who i was at the fleamarket.....prices have never been the same since .lol .Over the years i've read and heard pretty much everything about this adventures, even people posing as the "originators" of the project.They were using this story, as a way to promote and perhaps ad some sort of legitimacy,to their newly created line of vintage denim clothing .Well as being one of the "originators" i can assure you there were only 3 of us .Gilles Lhotte ,Florence Brandicourt and i back in the daze......

BACK IN THE DAZE 2

In the 80's back from London with some goodies ready to spin.....

In the mid 80's,the loss of the French government's monopole over the air waves and FM band ,saw a plethora of so called :"free radio "emerging from every corner/region of the country .We went from the best ,to the worst.I guess we've heard it all then.It was a little bit chaotic and amateurish to say the least.Everybody wanted a piece of the pie.I was living in the south at the time and my buddy PASCAL FABIANI [a young doctor at the time] and i couldn't get enough of our favorite music on the air waves.So we decided to approach one of these radios in Cannes,to see if they were willing to let us spin some "good ol' rockabilly platters" .Well !!our one hour weekly show, lasted one year and the small local radio was sold to a bigger one. The rest is just history ......

IT'S A MAN'S WORLD

An issue dated 1954 .Life on the trail .Gotta love that "branded" pair of 501 hanging from the chuck wagon .....
The July 1947 issue features on its cover a nice 506 jacket.Men are wearing the first 501 with concealed rivets with the now gone back strap ....Lots of male hormones indeed

While looking for old illustrated ads in my old magazine collection , i came upon 2 great covers featuring men in LEVI'S.

True, aka True, The Man's Magazine, was published by Fawcett Publications from 1937 until 1974. Petersen Publishing took over in 1975 and sold it to Magazine Associates in August of the same year. Publication ceased shortly afterward.

High adventure, the great outdoors ,sports profiles and humor pieces were your basic articles. It was packed with ads about guns ,booze and shoes....mucho macho!!

BACK IN THE DAZE 1

In the late 80's when i've started to be really serious about collecting vintage ,i didn't have any real mean of referencing/archiving my troves. No computer then and taking pictures was way to expensive for me at the time . So i decided to draw everything i could get my hands instead.This week end ,while on a "spring cleaning mission", i came upon my old note book filled with such drawings.........

VINTAGE ANKLE BOOTS

German SALAMANDER ankle boots with a "French style" cap toe from the late 20's .One of my favorite pairs, as they work with either work or dressed pants .perfect combo!?....

CHAMBRAY SHIRTS FROM THE VAULT :1920's to 1950's

An example of the original Chambray's fabric with this pull-over shirt from the early 1920's....
A close-up of it's tag ."GRAND TEINT " can be translated into : color fastness the term originated in France in 1880 ....
One of my favorite shirt.......




And finally ,what seems to be everybody's fixation on ebay lately : a dead stock ww2 US NAVY shirt .the real deal here......

Sunny days are back again .Time to pull out our favorite chambray shirts right !!?.So i took advantage of a day off ,to go through my collection and select some cool labels for you to enjoy.

The fabric originated from a town in the Normandy/Eure region call Chambray.It was originally woven for farmer's wardrobes by a man named Bastide Chambray.The light blue colored material was actually the fabric of choice for the working man's shirt. Hence, the term blue-collar worker came into use.

Chambray is a closely woven plain weave cotton fabric.The fabric is made of dyed warp (down) and white or unbleached filling (across). Both carded or combed yarns are used. It has a white selvedge to prevent raveling.A spring/summer favorite and a collector's dream ,chambray as never been outta style as far as i can remember that is.....

GOLDEN NUGGETS

Few days ago, while shopping at a local garage sale, i came upon a jar filled with 20/30 workwear buttons .I'm always on a look out for that kind ,you know me by now, so i could not resist temptation .....Started to check them out this morning and this is just what i've found so far .Some of the rarest and hardest brands to find for sure.....