An Excursive Mind

Mountaineer carrying a goat

I’m always drawn to vintage photography of mountaineers, lumberjacks, miners, field hands, and laborers of all kinds. The classic laborers clothing and tools that it took to get the job done right is a fascination and obsession of mine.

This particular image is great for some many reasons. The mismatched striped pants and coat of a heavy denim kind common at the time. The thick canvas or leather gators and tweed hat are nice as well. There even seems to be a glint of a pinkie ring on this fine mountain climbing chap.

The goat is excellent though! Clearly this image was taken in a studio. Did they come all the way down from the summit to stage this image? Was this the same goat from all the way up top? Is resting the goats bottom on the back of your neck, the most efficient way to carry his carcass? We’ll never know.

• Title: S.A. Crawford carrying a goat
• Other Title: S.A. Crawford on the summit of White Pass, Sept. 3rd 1905
• Creator(s): Case & Draper, photographer
• Date Created/Published: 1905 Sept. 3.
• Medium: 1 photographic print.
• Summary: Studio portrait showing man carrying a goat over his shoulder, in front of a painted backdrop of snow-covered mountains.
• Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsc-01711 (digital file from original)
• Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
• Access Advisory: No known restrictions on reproduction.
• Call Number: LOT 11453-1, no. 156
  c-P&P
• Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
• Notes:
  • Title transcribed from caption accompanying item.
  • Forms part of: Frank and Frances Carpenter collection (Library of Congress).
  • Gift; Mrs. W. Chapin Huntington; 1951.

Caribou hunter on Mt. McKinley, 1912

I like how this hunter on Mt. McKinley was outfitted in 1912 when this shot was taken.

• Title: Caribou shot on the north side of Mt. McKinley and dog team ready to haul the meat to camp
• Creator(s): Browne, Belmore, 1880-1954, photographer
• Date Created/Published: 1912.
• Medium: 1 photographic print.
• Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsc-01609 (digital file from original)
• Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
• Access Advisory: No known restrictions on reproduction.
• Call Number: LOT 11453-1, no. 54
  c-P&P
• Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
• Notes:
  • Title transcribed from caption accompanying item.
  • Forms part of: Frank and Frances Carpenter collection (Library of Congress).
  • Gift; Mrs. W. Chapin Huntington; 1951.

Mister Freedom & Sugar Cane take on Les Apaches

Mister Freedom has never failed to provide amazing clothing that is both timely and timeless. The Spring 2011 collaboration with Japanese brand Sugar Cane departs from the usual Americana and dives instead into the dangerous alleys of 1900’s Paris. From Mister Freedom’s website: “The Paris of the Belle Époque (1900s) saw the emergence of a certain type of street outcasts. They lived in secret dens in the seedy and dimmed outskirts of the City of Lights, abhorred honest labor, hunted the Faubourgs and Quartier de Halles, and danced in local Guinguettes and dives, decked out in flamboyant outfits.

They were called Les Apaches… Issued from the French lower working class, with a lack of education and absence of Future, they regrouped in loosely organized neighborhood gangs. Abiding by their own hoodlum code of honor, they woke up late, spoke the obscure slang Jare, and wore specific flashy clothes. Their dandy accoutrement combined with intimidating attitudes imposed both respect and fear from the Parisians and their police.

For 30 years, Paris’ Apaches gangs marked their territories by terrorizing honest bourgeois citizens, committing petty larceny, pimping and street fighting their lives away. For those who had ducked the knife and the bullet that bared their name or the ravage of the “Grande Guerre” (WW1), it was the inevitable outcome of Biribi or the Bagne de Cayenne.

In the 1920’s many a high society dame was spotted mingling with charismatic Apache groups in local Java dance halls, letting her hair down in a famous Dance Apache, immortalized later by Hollywood (“Charlie Chan in Paris”, 1935) and several Broadway Shows. The French movie Casque d’Or (1953) relates a true story of a famous Apache event that took place in 1905. Bourgeois newspapers of the period and universal fascination with the underworld turned the reign of the Apaches into a mix of myth and imagery that will forever mark the Paris of the 1900s to 1930s… These are the premises and backdrop of the MISTER FREEDOM® x SUGAR CANE Spring 2011 Collection. Influenced by early French haberdashery and work clothes, European tailoring and Old World silhouettes, this new venture is a departure from the “Americana” inspiration of previous seasons. After extensive research and development we turned a corner onto an unfamiliar avenue (Rue de la Grande Truanderie?) to offer this new look of the Old World…

The collection includes: * Fancy shirting in printed calico fabrics, cotton jacquard, indigo “Métis” (cotton/linen weave) and pastel color dyed cotton pique. * French workman outfits in cotton/linen indigo “Métis” twill and indigo ticking. * Fancy city clothes in intricately woven stripe cotton fabrics.” Mister Freedom

(Source: theexcursivemind.wordpress.com)

Engineered Garments

There is something truly wonderful about the 2009 Spring/Summer collection from Engineered Garments. I can’t help but admire their mens clothing. Fashion for men is a tricky thing. It’s often classically boring or sickeningly trendy and gimicky.

Engineered Garments manages to continuously craft collections that look like something and eccentric Brit might have worn in 1930 while on holiday or harken back blue collar work wear that would have felt at home in the coal car of a steam engine. “Engineered Garments took its brand name from a pattern maker hired to draft the first round of patterns. She claimed that the clothes were not designed by engineered due to the vast amount of detailing involved in each garment.” (Engineered Garments - Story)

Getting Khuffed

Some of you were asking where you could find those great leather socks or moccasins that I like to sport around the house instead of shoes. Well I don’t want to offend anyone’s religious beliefs, but what I wear are “khuffs”. These are leather socks that followers of Islam wear when praying which both protect your feet from cold floors while meeting the requirement of removing your shoes. They are also nice for around the house in my opinion.

from Al-Mujalbaba

“The Prophet Muhammad SAW used different types of Khuffs. The etiquette of wearing Khuffs is that the right one should be put on first. Before wearing the Khuffs, the inside should be cleansed and dusted out. The reason being that in the Imam Tabrani RA’s kitab - “Mu’jizaat” (“Miracles”), Imam Tabrani RA has written a narration on Khuffs in which Rasulullah SAW once while in the jungle, had on one of his Khuffs and as he began to put on the second one, a crow came and took away that Khuff, flew into the sky and dropped it. What had actually happened was that a snake had entered that Khuff! When the Khuff fell, the snake got injured and came out. Rasulullah SAW thanked Almighty Allah for His help and made it etiquette of the Khuff, that the inside be cleaned out before putting them on.” — from Revivalry blog

A good idea whether you are putting these on in a mosque or your house. Snakes in the khuff aren’t ideal. While not of the Islamic religious persuasion, I find Khuffs to be highly functional and great feeling over traditional cotton socks.

from Middle Eastern Fashion Center

Al-Mujalbaba
Middle Eastern Fashion
Reems
idara

—— sources:

Revivalry Al-Muttaqoon geocities