Made to last.
New Age Fun with a Vintage FeelEd finds inspiration at two of the country's great vintage exhibitions
Here are some of my mottos around vintage clothing and new garments: Know your history. Respect the vintage pioneers because their ideas and garments have stood the test of time. Take inspiration and add your own take. Try to leave something good behind.
I’ve been getting out and about mixing factory visits, making HebTroCo films and visiting a couple of fantastic exhibitions.
Last week I went to London to pick up a sample USB36, the latest woollen overshirt for the range from our supplier Tower Garments. Based on a vintage shirt in our archive it’s one of my personal HebTroCo favourite things. English tweed but not made to a ‘tweedy trad’ design. Even the wool is sourced in the UK never mind it being spun and woven half an hour from our Hebden Bridge unit.
Tim the Director (Coronation Street, Emmerdale, East Enders) is making a HebTroCo 10 year anniversary film for us called BOTHER and he came to film the shirt going through the expert hands of the machinists.
A lovely thing happened as we were walking out of Liverpool Street station…
Tim was snapping a photo of me in the new overshirt as a group of blokes walked past. One of them shouted out, “Love the jeans! HebTroCo aren’t you? Great, love what you do.” Moments like this make my day.
Exhibition 1
Exhibition Club London at University of Westminster
I was invited to the opening of this landmark 3-day event by JoJo from Rag Parade where we buy lots of vintage pieces from. A couple of my favourite exhibits come from his personal collection. A phenomenal alpine woollen smock, made in England and used in a 1933 Everest expedition. Also a 1950s down parka, again made in England and the same style as worn by Edmond Hilary on his 1953 Everest expedition.
1950s down parka, same as worn by Hilary on his 1953 Everest expedition.
Everest expedition woollen smock c. 1933
This show is based around the interests and inspirations of Shigeru Kaneko, chief buyer from Beams Plus the Japanese lifestyle retailer.
Outdoor culture is represented by some awesome vintage down parkas and historic European Alpine wear mostly from the collections of Shigeru and JoJo. There were piles of amazing archive outdoor literature from the Outdoor Recreation Archive at Utah State University. The event was hosted by the Westminster Menswear Archive who essentially hold and curate the national menswear collection which helps give context about the relevance of men’s clothing through time.
Met some friends and shook hands with people I’ve previously only been familiar with on Instagram and in books.
Jojo Elgarice, Ilya Sobtchak, Ed Oxley
Exhibition 2
Closer to home and all about the way that Lancashire textile mills and innovators shaped technical clothing for the outdoors and wider field of world fashion. I was invited to the opening of Pioneers of the Material World, part of the excellent British Textile Biennial.
On display were vintage pieces from Burberry and Grenfell, pioneering outdoor wear brands long before being considered as fashion in our contemporary way. What most people don’t know is that the cloth they used was invented and production woven up here in the north of England.
From the 21st century, check out the beautiful orange Everest Parkas from Nigel Cabourn. Made in England from Ventile, wool fleece, down and rabbit fur. We’ve known Nigel from back in the days that we were both having garment made up in the same factory in Blackburn. Cheers Nigel!
As well as expedition wear there is clothing for outdoor enthusiasts, the military, football fans on the terraces, rock climbers and even astronauts.
Explorer Jacket / C.P Company
A stand out piece is the Lidl jacket, a copy of a famous Berghaus mountain jacket. Priced at £30 (including hilarious Liam Gallagher tamborine in Lidl colours) it makes you wonder what the manufacturers never mind the machinists behind the jacket were and continue to be paid. An exercise in hype no doubt but nonetheless a very relevant garment for our times. Ironic to hear that the site of the original mill that wove the famous Grenfell cloth in Burnley now has a Lidl store on it.
My invitation to both these shows came via Henry Iddon whose book Mountain Style featured on the cover and in a feature in issue 3 of BOTHER mag.
Words by: Ed Oxley, clothier
