blanket « CHRISTOPHELOIRON®

Mister Freedom Waterfront Coat, Linen Cotton HBT, Troy Blanket lining, Fall 2016 mfsc Anniversary Collection

It was about 95°F in San Pedro that day…

The Waterfront Coat, HBT cotton Linen, Troy Blanket lining.
Fall 2016 mfsc Anniversary Collection
Made in Japan

The final drop in the ocean of goodies issued for Fall 2016 will be the Waterfront Coat.
Not yet a wrap for our mfsc Ten Year Anniversary adventures, merely the last page of its nautical chapter. After two deck jackets, a couple of naval chinos, a blue shirt, and a souvenir jacket, all we needed was …one peacoat!
Anchors aweigh!

The familiar silhouette of the Waterfront Coat is another homage to the early pattern of the classic USN P-Jacket, a.k.a. peacoat.

Sometime in Spring 2008, we released a denim version of that iconic manly garment, part of the “MFSC Naval Clothing Tailor” concept, our first full-fledge collection in collaboration with Sugar Cane Co. If a 10-button peacoat made from selvedge denim didn’t necessarily sound like a good idea back then either, it kinda caught on. Some of our jackets even made it to unlikely retail doors, finding their way to Sir Paul Smith’s store shelves in swinging London, or on J.Crew’s catalog, eventually ending-up on sale partly because, you know, raw denim in 2008 was not exactly the most convincing selling point in menswear…

In case you missed it and enjoy a bit of Costume History at times, a previous blog post, concocted while introducing the MF® indigo twill Caban Peacoat, quickly taps into the history of peacoats, a garment adopted by Navies around the World for over a Century.

For Fall 2016, our design approach was to ‘demilitarize’ the famed War Department-issued blue jacket, twisting a USN regulation uniform into a civvy garment, morphing the peacoat into a mackinaw coat.

The shell fabric we chose is an old mfsc favorite, a blend of linen and cotton woven in a heavily-textured herringbone twill pattern, milled for us in Japan. Inspired by the fabric of late 1800’s/early 1900’s Sapeurs Pompiers (french firemen) work uniforms (bourgerons), we originally issued a handsome ‘gunpowder black’ version of it, as featured on the Faro sack coat, waistcoat, and britches of our 2012 Men of the Frontier Collection.

Recognizing at the time how attractive this HBT fabric looked in its un-dyed, un-bleached state, our design department kept it on the back burner, as a contender for a future project. So here it is, at last, in all its natural beauty!
For the lining, we went with an American vintage classic. Canteen blankets have been a bit overplayed in ‘Heritage Fashion’ in recent years, cut and sewn into all kinds of improbable garments and accessories, so we opted to keep it fully concealed on the inside.
Troy Blankets come in several colorways, our 2010 “N-1H Tr0y” featured one of them, and we chose a stripe pattern of warm tones that was new to us this time, the flecked brown-dominant version.
Replacing the classic foul anchor black buttons with natural brown corrozo wood buttons contributed to the ‘maritime to workwear’ make-over.

If the resulting jacket looks quite different from previous MF® iterations of the classic USN peacoat, it still fits our eclectic vintage aesthetics, this time Corto Maltese meets Terry Malloy and his docker comrades.

: Corto Maltese by Hugo Pratt (1981) Courtesy of Cong SA

: Terry Malloy and the waterfont crew (1954) Courtesy of Getty Images

Photo credits:
* Corto Maltese watercolor courtesy of Cong SA. Official website here.
* On set of “On The Waterfront” (1954), courtesy of Getty Images.

The “Waterfront Coat” is designed in California by Mister Freedom®, and manufactured in Japan by Sugar Cane Co.

SPECS:
PATTERN:
An original MFSC pattern, freely inspired by early 1910’s -1930’s USN and US Coast Guard sailor wool peacoats, and 1930’s-40’s vintage mackinaw-type outdoor coats.
FABRIC:
Shell: A fancy 80% linen and 20% cotton blend fabric, HBT pattern, selvedge, milled in Japan.
Lining: Soft-hand “Troy Blanket” wool blend fabric, 60% re-used wool, 28% cotton, 12% rayon). Brown dominant stripe. Woven in Japan.

NOTE: The combination and specifics of these two fabrics make the Waterfront Coat quite unfit for foul weather and extreme cold temperatures, but quite appropriate for moderately chilly days, and in-between seasons under temperate climates.

DETAILS:
* Early USN peacoat pattern.
* Canteen-type “Troy Blanket” wool blend stripe lining, brown dominant.
* 10-button front closure.
* Brown corrozo wood buttons.
* Four outside pockets, two ‘hand warmer’ slash pockets and two flap closure pockets. All lined with golden brown cotton-wool blend corduroy.
* Inside chest pocket and traditional ‘cigarette’ pocket.
* Leather arrowhead reinforcement on pocket edges.
* Fabric selvedge conspicuously displayed inside pockets and on back vent.
* Removable chin strap (displaying either fabric if left dangling, or concealed if buttoned under the collar.)
* Traditional Zig-Zag pattern under-collar reinforcement stitching.
* Double labeling, original MF® and mfsc woven labels.
* 100% cotton stitching, tonal.
* Made in Japan.

SIZING/FIT:
The Waterfront Coat comes raw/unwashed/loomstate.

Although this garment can be worn as-is (raw), for a clean, pressed look, the pattern was adjusted to match a specific silhouette after an initial cold soak/hang dry process. Aside from fabric shrinkage, the HBT linen-cotton material takes on a ‘new life’ after this process. Linen fibers expand, the high-count stitching causes ‘roping’ and subtle twisting, the lining pulls the seams up a bit… and the garment looks about 50 years older, without the use of obnoxious chemical ‘vintage washes’ dear to our industry.

We suggest soaking the garment in cold water for about 3omn, occasional hand agitation, spin dry and hang dry. Please note that unless you live in the Atacama Desert, the Waterfront Coat might take about three days to fully dry. We do not recommend using a heat dryer. We do not recommend boiling this garment either, as the leather trims and lining will probably get ruined.

Please refer to the sizing chart to see if this garment’s proportions work for you. We suggest sizing down on the Waterfront Coat. I usually wear a Medium (38) in mfsc jackets, but opted for a Small (36). After the initial soak/hang dry procedure, I still had enough room to layer a mid-weight shirt and a close-fitting Cowboy denim jacket.
Do take in consideration that the Troy Blanket lining adds a bit of ‘puffiness’ compared to a thin cotton twill lining.

CARE:
After the initial cold soak, we recommend taking the Waterfront Coat to your local eco-friendly dry cleaner for cleaning. Do not use a home washing machine to launder, as the coat is quite heavy and stiff when wet. Spot cleaning can be performed by using a damp cloth and common sense.

Available raw/unwashed.
Sizes
36 Small
38 Medium
40 Large
42 X-Large
44 XX-Large
Retail $799.95

Available from www.misterfreedom.com, and our Los Angeles brick & mortar store.
Email sales@misterfreedom.com or call 323-653-2014 with any questions unanswered above.
Thank you for your support.

Christophe Loiron
Mister Freedom®
©2016

MF® Trade Blanket “WOOLIES” and Boro Ties “SHORTIES”

A little update on a few new MF® accessories available at the store… All made in California, USA.

Boro Ties SHORTIES:
We made an edited version of our “Boro Tie“, with some recently acquired vintage Japanese indigo textiles. Ranging from the turn of the century to the 1950’s, the narrow shuttle loom fabrics are of assorted patterns, textures and colors, all one side selvedge and the other side frayed.
Home spun, cotton, hemp, natural indigo, katazome prints, plaids, solids…
Single wrap around the neck, simple single knot, they look great with different outfits, dressed up or down. You can also use an antique silver ring as a slider. We stopped making our leather sliders, as many companies seemed to have found them to be a good idea and made their own…
Check out the collage of old photos for a sample of different neckwear fashions in the late 1800’s~1930 (credits to the ever inspiring FaceBook page “Native American Indian – Old Photos“)
Retail $129.95

Trade Blanket WOOLIES:
We are making small batches of iPad sleeve “Woolies” with recycled vintage wool trade blankets (Pendleton, Beaver State etc…)
Same specs and size as the military blanket woolies. The linings are made with assorted matching vintage fabrics from our stock.
Retail $89.95

Call the store at 323-653-2014 or mail sales@misterfreedom.com for infos on how to these little buggers. Paypal preferred. We ship Internationally to select countries.
Thank you for your support 🙂

Mister Freedom® MFSC Fall 2012 (Part 5): The “DROVER Blouse”. New Old Stock Denim & NOS Blanket

Mister Freedom® MFSC ‘DROVER Blouse’
‘Men of the Frontier’ Collection, Fall 2012

All hasn’t been quiet on this Western front lately. Let’s unleash another heavy hitter of our Mister Freedom x Sugar Cane collaboration, the 5^th installment of Fall 2012 “Men of the Frontier”: The Drover Blouse.

We used the pattern of our popular “Chaparral Blouse” from Spring 2012. That was the easy part.
The challenge came from sourcing the fabrics. We had to dig deep to find enough undamaged raw yardage of NOS American made selvedge denim for the twill option. We managed, ‘cause we’re kinda stubborn.

For the other option, I wanted to use vintage wool blankets, ideally with woven stripes, and that’s when the trouble began. Old photographs and illustrations of fur traders, boat men and other mountain men show that wearing coats made out of blankets was quite common practice. Those coats were often very primitive in construction, a hooded T shaped capote or watchcoat that did the job to keep you warm during the harsh winter months. In remote trading posts, trappers would barter beaver pelts for manufactured goods such as wool blankets imported by the famous Hudson’s Bay Company.
With buffalos happily slaughtered to extinction by the White Man, a mere few hundred survivors by the 1850’s, wool blankets became a needed (and, as it turned out, cursed) commodity for the Plains Indians as well. Wool coats steadily replaced buffalo robes.

A fascinating brief history of the point blankets, a key element in the fur trade of the 18^th Century, can be found here on the official site of the World oldest corporation. To clarify, we did NOT use any of the aforementioned rare and colorful vintage blankets to make our Blanket Drover Blouse. Those belong in museums, and we don’t have a bridge to sell you.
Read on.

Recommended reading:
* “Language of the Robe” by Robert W. Kapoun & Charles J. Lohrmann, 1992
* “Chasing Rainbows” by Barry Friedman, 2002

But, revenons à nos moutons. We didn’t have to canoe up the Yukon, fight bears and dodge arrows, but finding enough vintage matching blankets to justify production was no walk in the park either. We thought of giving up as prices were fluctuating, making this venture a financial risk. But after many efforts, we sourced out enough military dead-stock lots in a journey that took us from Nevada to Europe, with a few stops along the way… The 100% wool blankets we used for our Drover Blouse were originally manufactured for the Military, guaranteeing high grade and quality. They are of several 1960’s~70’s original military contracts, with slight variations in manufacturing specs.
They then took an ocean liner to Japan, where they were cut and sewn and turned into this puuurdy cool coat. In 40 years, when you pass it on to your grand children, you’ll have a story to go with it…

Did I also mention we were originally told that this jacket would be impossible to manufacture? Let’s say we made them an offer they couldn’t refuse, not involving a horse head, but a lot of perseverance.

Designed in California by Mister Freedom® and expertly manufactured in very limited quantities by Sugar Cane Co in Japan.

SPECS:

PATTERN: An original MFSC pattern, introduced as the “Blouse Chaparral” in Spring 2012, and inspired by 1920′s~30′s sport type jackets, leather A-1 type coats, early Chimayo jackets…
FABRIC:
Two entirely different options, NOS denim and NOS wool blanket.
Option a) NOS Denim: Vintage dark indigo new old stock American milled denim, sanforized, white with black line selvedge ID, 3×1 twill, about 12 Oz.
Option b) NOS Blanket: Heavy 100 % wool blankets, vintage military NOS, with blue woven stripes pattern. There are three main lots of blankets, each with a slightly different stripe pattern and color background. This is due to three different origins and specifics of the military manufacturers contracts. What you get is what we found. Each jacket will be slightly different, making it unique and collectible.
LINING: Both options are fully lined.
Option a) The NOS denim option body liner is made of striped “Troy Blanket” (60% re-used wool, 28% cotton, 12% rayon). Soft touch. Woven in Japan.
Option b) The NOS Blanket option is lined with an original MFSC 100% cotton plaid, woven turquoise/white/red yarns, milled in Japan exclusively for MFSC.
Both options arm lining is of a vintage NOS 100% cotton stripe denim twill, from Mister Freedom® fabric stock.

DETAILS:
* 1920′s~30′s type silhouette.
* Original A-1 type round collar.
* Back darting and expansion gusset, 1930′s style.
* Horsehide leather side and cuff cinch straps (with vintage NOS French metal slide buckles), leather pocket trimming and leather detachable chin-strap.
* Reddish/brown Corozo wood buttons.
* Full lining, wool blend “Troy Blanket” on option a) and cotton woven plaid on option b)
* No exposed seam, no overlock.
* Button facing with selvedge denim on option a) and bias tape edge on option b)

PACKAGING: For your future pro prop 37 grocery shopping experience we have packaged your Drover Blouse in an original MF® made raw selvedge denim draw string bag.

SIZING/SHRINKAGE:
Option a) The NOS denim is raw/unwashed. It is sanforized and should shrink from approx 0.5% to 3%. Some variation in shrinkage is expected and beyond our control, due to the nature of that particular NOS denim lot.
We recommend an original cold soak, no agitation, spin dry cycle and line dry. Further cleaning, if needed, should be handled by your professional environmentally friendly local dry-cleaner. Do NOT boil your Drover. I usually wear 38/medium in MFSC jackets but decided to go with a rinsed 36 for the denim issue Drover. I just won’t eat pasta anymore. Sizing chart below.

Option b) Professional DRY CLEAN only, when cleaning needed. DO NOT RINSE/DRY. If this fabric option doesn’t fit you size wise, then it’s not meant to be. DO NOT attempt washing to make it shrink, as this will ruin the jacket.
Those fit SNUG. I wear a 38, with not much room for pasta either. Chart below.

Available RAW/unwashed

Sizes
36 (small)
38 (medium)
40 (large)
42 (xlarge)
44 (xxlarge)

Retail
Option a) NOS Denim $849.95
Option b) NOS Blanket $869.95

Call 323-653-2014 or mail sales@misterfreedom.com to get yours while they last. We ship internationally to select Countries. Thank you for the support, friends.

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