From this side of the Atlantic there has always seemed to be an allure to the London Fog brand – a classic name in American clothing. For many years I thought the company was based San Francisco – not sure exactly why. In fact they were (and still are) based in Baltimore, MD.

In the 1980s when there were numerous options for finding vintage US clothing in London, I was always on the look out for a London Fog raincoat. Why London Fog? Well, it was always the brand that seemed to be the most iconic when I ever I came across a second hand example, and in an early version of technical clothing, the wash’n’wear fabric with the zip out furry lining for winter use just seemed like the perfect raincoat. Added to that was that the coats also had the right sillhouette – unlike the British coats made by Burberry and Aquascutum that looked like a giant ‘A’ when worn, the London Fog models had a straight drop.

There were two items of clothing that London Fog made that seemed to be definitive: the ‘fur’ lined Maincoat and the Baracuta copy golf jacket that had straight hems and cuffs instead of elastic. (One of the first ever things I bought on Ebay in 1998 when it started was a Lemon Yellow example that turned out to a bit small).

Back in 1983 a friend of mine managed to find a Maincoat in his size, complete with lining and I remember being most jealous. I eventually found one in my size but without the coveted zip in part – the bare coat side of the zip remaining to remind me of its missing insides.

Flash forward 25 years and like all classic clothing, the tan raincoat is sure to be making a comeback anytime soon. Of course many of my contemporaries over on Film Noir Buff have been wearing them all along, but my own forays into single breasted mac-dom have rested on Burberry, Aquascutum and a non branded model bought from one of those long gone stores on Regent St that have a perennial sale and are run by Filipino ladies. That coat was wonderfully made, in England, but again the cut was a little strange on me.

Ebay has of course brought all of our youthful pasts back to haunt us and one day suddenly the light bulb went on: ‘why not check on Ebay for London Fog?’ Turns out there are hundreds of them listed there, from the vintage sellers who describe everything as ‘rockabilly, punk, indie’ and swear its all in ‘great vintage condition’ (read cheesy, smelly with holes and stains) listing buy it now for $100.00 to genuine house clearing ‘mom and pop’ sellers who have gone through the attic and just want to clear things out. It was from the latter that I found my coat – from one of the nicest sellers I’ve come across on Ebay, a lady in Florida called Marcelle, who changed her listing so that I could bid for worldwide shipping and then sold me the coat in perfect almost unused condition, just as she described it. It seems her husband had had little use for it living in Florida.

As I seem to be doing a lot lately, I sized down to a 40R based on Marcelle’s measurements and the coat fits me perfectly. I wore it for the first time last Friday into the City and met up with D my Senegalese Ivy Style loving friend. He couldn’t believe I’d found this coat on Ebay and asked me to try it on there and then in Regent St. Afterwards he told me he was tempted to just run off, so that he didn’t have to give it back. I couldn’t let him do that, so instead when I got home, I checked on Ebay and found another one, identical and almost as perfect for only a few dollars more than I’d paid.

So thanks to Marcelle and the guys at FNB who all helped me with the sizing problem based on their own London Fogs, I finally got myself ‘the coat of my intentions’, as you might say.

Paul Newman Walking on the Beach in 1957

It’s a wet weekend in Weejunland, winter not yet shrugged off. A simple post today. Just an iconic image, a new series for those days when a picture tells a thousand…

The Weejun has been on a bit of a shoe spree recently on Ebay, but searching through tons of listings last weekend I found this little gem. It languished at $9.99 until yesterday when it ended whilst I asleep.
I think I had competition from someone in Korea so I had a feeling it might go fairly high.

Strangely, when I woke up I knew exactly how much I’d had to pay to snaffle it, even before I turned on my MacBook. The Susquehannock Camps are apparently a 100 year old institution in Pennsylvania for kids summmer camps. Of course 40 years on and in England, no one is going to know what it is or what that means which is all the better. The jacket itself is new old stock with tags and made by the great Maple Sportswear Company, who made loads of baseball and hockey uniforms as well as coach and varsity jackets.

I found another Maple jacket on Japanese Yahoo listings and as you can see from the photo below, the cut is identical, despite the material being corduroy in this case.

There’s just something about the cut of this jacket that really appealed to me – the deep elastic on the cuffs and stitch seamed pockets are all classic, and I like the fact that the logo is discrete for one of this style, and there’s nothing written on the back. Great for British summers where it often rains, worn with old chinos, off white Supergas and a sweatshirt.

Had my eye on these off white bucks for the last week, and having had a pair of Walk-Over dirty bucks in the dim and distant past from John Simons (circa 84), and of course now that there is no longer the option of buying Walk-Over shoes new, I determined they should be mine.

Although it’s easy enough to find fairly good white bucks again these days (Lands End US have an authentic looking model) they are all without exception made in Brazil and China and not goodyear welted but stuck on soles with fake welt stitching.

Having said that I do remember that the coral coloured sole material that Walk-Over used was not as good as their uppers and I can see on this pair that the heel has worn down somewhat, so I may have to seek out a repairer in the near future – not as hard these days as back in the 80s when no one in the UK had shoes with these soles.

I can feel it being a seersucker and pincord summer with a touch of Madras…

Walk-Over shoes were made for their first decades by the Geo Keith Company in Brockton Massachussetts and despite the very mid-Century modern sounding name were already a venerable old company by the time they introduced their classic bucks.

This Japanese store has a couple of pairs of Walk-Over deadstock. God, they look great in their original boxes. Still, I’m really pleased to have found this pair on Ebay in my size and such great condition.

Amongst the vintage deadstock dress shirts I picked up recently on Ebay were two 1960s era Hathaway button downs in white. Both of these shirts had some serious yellowing from age and having been in an attic for nigh on 40 years they had that distinctive sour sooty smell.

I decided to open one up and check out the shirt and prepare it for wearing if it was possible to ‘rejunvenate’ it.

I love the Hathaway printed tissue paper fixed into a carboard collar ring – a really nice touch. I posted a while back about the Hathaway Eye Patch Gent who was the company’s famous logo for many years.

When I took the shirt out of the packet the buttons had left their mark and each button hole had a kind of tide mark of yellow, and there was yellow colouration on the front where the shirt had been folded.

The Hathaway shirt as presented here shys away from the almost identikit Brooks Brothers model that most other manufacturers followed. At first I wasn’t sure about this, but the quality of the oxford broadcloth is excellent and I quite like the idiosyncrancies like no box pleat at the back, and the peculiar elliptical front tails. The shirt also has no button placket unlike jut about every other button down shirt I’ve ever seen. having said that I had one of these in blue oxford in the early 80s from FLIP but with a store brand in and I don’t think I realised it was a Hathaway at the time.

Thankfully the modern world has brought us the non bleach oxygen technology of Vanish. A few hours soak in the mix in super hot water and the shirt came out like something from a before and after ad on TV – the difference was amazing. The shirt was literally brilliant white again, the little red stitched Hathaway ‘H’s hadn’t faded or bled (as they would have with traditional bleach) and ironed up a treat.

Now, I’d always thought the shallower collar with short collar point that Ralph Lauren insists on using was a kind of late 70s update on the preferable deeper collars of other makers, but interestingly here the Hathaway has the same size collar as the Polo models. Maybe this was Ralphy’s inspiration? Who knows. It means that there is little of the much desired (lusted after even?) collar roll, but in it’s way this Hathaway is a really well made shirt that is going to look great with the Corbin cashmere herringbone sports jacket I recently aquired from the States.

Ok, so it’s not a SERO or GANT but hey, I’ve got another identical one still in its packet, too!

Two dudes for the price of one here. I remember clearly lusting after a seersucker suit when I first saw the movie W.U.S.A on TV in about 1982. I can’t remember it ever having been on UK TV since then. Of course the movie was a Newman vehicle but Perkins was excellent in it too.

This image comes from a LIFE magazine spread on Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. It’s also been dug up before by Decline & Fall over on Film Noir Buff. Whenever I find these images myself I always find that the boy has been there first!