A MAD MAN'S SWEATSHIRT from the famous © 1962 Beethoven series

Howard Luck Gossage [1917-1969] was one of the original "MAD MEN"

H.L Gossage's agency was based in a repurposed firehouse in San Francisco, in the late 1950s/60's. HLG was frequently referred to, as "The Socrates of San Francisco,"He never did a TV commercial in his life; and sometimes turned down business in order to keep his staff under 13 people.

At the time, many of his peers regarded him as an oddity ,but HLG, was a natural and active fundraiser, He helped launch the environmental movement and left a legacy of brilliant communication campaigns, which for the first time showed that advertising isn’t just about selling a product, it can be used to change the world.

 When dying from leukemia in July 1969, he lamented: ‘I’ve never done anything that means anything to anyone in this world except maybe inventing the Beethoven sweatshirt.

And for those of you who'd like to go a little further with this post ,here's a court report dating from April 1962 regarding  copyright infringement on the famous sweatshirt line :plaintiff the Weiner&Gossage company who created the original sweatshirts back in 1961 ....

 

The Ramsey Lewis trio sporting the Bach version of the sweatshirt 

DEPRESSION ERA STIFEL QUILT

As my friend Kevin would say :" for real quilt collectors , a depression era quilt is not old" and i agree with that statement ,but for a vintage denim enthusiast, it's a total different story ,especially if you mention the words Stifel and calico in the same sentence .so today's post will be about a 30's quilt from my collection entirely made of Stifel calico prints .i've chosen to only showcase the indigo ones ......enjoy 

Born in 1807 in Germany, Johann Ludwig Stifel immigrated to Baltimore, Maryland when he was 26. He later moved to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he learned the textile trade working in a wool mill. Armed with the knowledge of the trade, the young entrepreneur made his way to Wheeling in the 1830s,Legend says he walked all the way to Wheeling, where, in 1835, he established a small dyeing shop in a log cabin with just a $10 investment and a piece of cotton cloth. within a short time of opening his dye shop, business grew enough for Johann to open a larger 2 levels calico shop .The lower levels was for dyeing and printing while the upper level housed Johann's family...

In 1859, Johann’s sons Louis C. and William F. joined the company and, when their father retired fifteen years later, J.L. Stifel and Sons had grown into one of the nation’s largest calico printing establishments.
The third generation of Stifels moved the calico works to a new location in Wheeling on Main Street between 3rd and 4th Streets.  The company had grown from a one-man operation in a log cabin to a 70,000 square foot plant, with many employees, which was shipping products like indigo dyed prints internationally. A meticulous process, the manufacturing including singeing the cloth to remove fuzz and lint, boiling the cloth to remove waxes and oils, bleaching the cloth to remove natural colors, and dyeing the cloth with indigo extracts to give it the distinctive Stifel indigo blue color .all dies imported from Calcutta.
During the First and Second World Wars, the company switched over to war time production, providing textiles for France as well as khaki for American soldiers. By 1943, almost 90% of the company’s production was war-related like most of his competitors .....
After World War II, increasing costs and foreign competition caused instability in the national textile industry. Stifel merged with Indian Head Mills in New York in 1957, but even after the contracts were signed the company had to phase out operations. On December 17, 1957 after 122 years of service, Stifel & Sons Calico Works closed. The plant sat empty until March 8, 1961 when it caught fire and the entire building was destroyed. All that was left standing was a 275 foot smokestack, which was finally toppled on March 25, 1969......

20'S HERCULES OVERALLS BY SEARS

Today's post is about a rare 20's pair of overalls made under Sear's iconic brand : Hercules.To find such a pair in a crisps condition ,is almost impossible nowadays ,especially a pre 30's small single pocket example.So ,for your eyes only , here are some details ,such as the interesting mix of single and triple stitching ,watch pocket and change pocket with selvage and so on .......enjoy

HOWDY HOWDY !!!!...THE NEW RIVETED T-SHIRTS ARE HERE

For those of you who have been following the blog for a while ,you might remember that a little over 4 years ago ,i came up with a very limited run of silk screened t shirts that ,thx to friends and enthusiastic customers ,sold quite fast . 

This time ,even if the general idea is basically the same :making some shirts that "could have been", I wanted a more authentic feel ,so i gave it a twist .Each design is hand printed using old paints and brushes on a recycled used shirt carefully selected for its feel and look in order to achieve that "been there done that" look of a customized field made shirt .

Four themes were developed for that project:USN,USMC,AAF and hot rod all inspired by real vintage pieces from my personal collection.Every shirt was printed differently also ,some monochrome ,some 2 tones ,some front and back mixing some designs in the process.As always the more you're gonna wash them the better they'll look .

This time, i've decided,that the collection will be sold uniquely through what i consider to be the best vintage store in SF period :RELIC VINTAGE.

I'm pleased to have the collection featured in such a great place ,for my good buddy Oran Scott ,owner of the store,has been very supportive of the project from the beginning.

So,for those of you interested ,don't hesitate to get in touch with Oran or his lovely staff for the lowdown on that little project of mine .

and forget to ask for the RVETED T-SHIRTS

they can be reached at:

www.relicvintagesf.com

relicvintage on instagram or on their facebook page 

phone #: 415-255-7460 

hurry up ...... 

TALKING ABOUT WW2 USMC P44 CAMOS

"Well ,it seems that,for the last year or so,there's been a new interest for the USMC frog skin's camos, mostly from wanna be designers and vintage newbies all wanting a piece of them,ready to pay crazy stupid prices just to "pretend " creating a new obssesion and most likely moving on to something else next year.....Is USMC camo the new "30's " !!?

today's post is about a nice set of P44 second pattern shirt and pants. Don't expect me to tell you how to tell a first pattern from a second one,or how to detect a fake from the real deal. 

At this point I am sure no one really knows when they stopped with one pattern and brought out the later, nor would it have any significance with regard to their utilization. There is no value difference in either pattern..If you want such an item,do your homework,work for it .. .not everything has to be about instant gratification .... ;-)

 

Yes,i know there's lots of nice setups in collections using the 44 camos, but they are not correct regarding your typical ww2 Marines."the P44's came in use only in the last few months of the war. 

The real issue, is that the only evidence[pictures] of P44's in use during the Pacific campaign,is that picture of a medical evacuation unit on Iwo Jima.

At that point i'm  not even sure if they are Navy or Marines. They apparently operated between shore and ships as some pics show them on ship. Even later on Okinawa, there are no P44 patterns to be seen at all,for now. As far as i known, they never were issued to front line combat units.I might be mistaken though .... 

Examples found nowadays,showing wear,were most likely used in stateside training  or post war for the same purpose. They were also apparently issued to some non USMC organizations such as USCG AND USNR,for training use as well....

Surplus were plentifully  sold to the French Army and can be seen modified on numerous pictures taken during the Indochina war by French paratroopers.

Regarding USMC camos,I think most people are still not aware,that beside a VERY LIMITED use by the Paramarines, and some Marine artillery outfits who were issued some army camo coveralls too in the Salomon's, the only camo the Marines used to any extant in ww2 were the 42 pattern and the helmet ....

Interestingly, there are a lot of pics showing Marine aviation ground crews etc. in the islands that are wearing the 42 pattern. Apparently they continued to use them well after the combat infantry stopped wearing them and switch back to the HBT P41......