Mister Freedom® x Sugar Cane MFSC Spring 2012 “Men of the Frontier“: Calico Trade Shirt
You have a second? Let’s look into the amazing A.C. Wroman photograph annotated “Volz’s store. Oraibi, 1901” posted last week. The store featured was located in the center of the largest Moki village of that reservation.
Mr. Volz, trader and guide, had also opened one about thirty miles away from the railway (and the UPS dude thinks he has it tough now).
As seen in that scene, a large variety of fancy calico printed fabric was available by the yard in trading posts and dry goods stores. Even in the most remote location, locals (or, more accurately in this photograph, “relocated” individuals) could come and pick a few yards of bold color cotton calico to make the family clothes. The young woman with her son is considering a large flower printed cloth, under the shopkeepers’ enigmatic stares.
Bartering jewelry, blankets, pottery or baskets for those ready-made fabrics was an alternative to relying on the traditional century old tasks of hand spinning yarns and hand weaving to clothe one-self. The traders would in turn sell the Natives’ crafts to travelers or collectors.
According to period photographs of the early 1900’s, it appears that calico printed ‘homemade’ shirts were a well spread non-traditional garment for many Native Indians. Since the 1800’s those fabrics had been imported from Europe and widely used and reused by the pioneers and homesteaders (see “Calico Chronicles”, Betty J. Mills, 1985.)
One can speculate that adopting some “white man’s” textiles was a small step towards reluctant integration amongst some Indian Natives… This other Wroman photograph, annotated “Hopi Towns, men of Sichimovi, 1901”, shows Hopi men wearing a wide variety of homemade shirts made from assorted imported shirting fabrics, calico and stripes.
All this rambling, of course, stays my subjective interpretation of what really happened a century ago.
On a much lighter note, these are the background premises of our MFSC “Calico Trade Shirt” this spring. From our collected archives of many dozens of early American calico swatches and garments, we have selected two that we freely called “Apache” and “Pueblo”.
Our shirting fabric base is an Indigo dyed 4.5 Oz fine all cotton broadcloth and we used a discharge print technique. These fabrics were exclusively milled and printed in Japan for this MFSC collection. The shirts are a European pull-over type, collar less with chin strap extension. We used rare and authentic 1920’s New Old Stock ox bone buttons we happily found, in limited quantities, buttons of Portuguese origin.
I am not a big fan of untucked shirts, as a personal preference, but those look also good that way, notably for our lady friends. I am, however, a huge fan of early indigo calico fabrics and finding an actual 1900’s surviving men’s shirt shares it’s odds with the discovery of a hen’s tooth, in a hay stack.
So, in or out, I’m now happy wearing mine.
Some folks might think that a “polka dot” shirt is not “manly” enough in 2012, but it sure was in 1912. And, in years to come, I wouldn’t be surprised seeing calico shirts as popular amongst discerning gents as blue work chambrays have become. I’m just sayin’
And now, the…
SPECS:
PATTERN: An original MFSC pattern, inspired by 1900′s~30′s pull-over shirting, with its origins in Europe before becoming a popular Old West garb feature.
FABRIC: 100% Cotton broadcloth, 4.5 Oz., dark Indigo dyed and discharge printed. Milled, dyed and printed in Japan. Two options: “Apache” calico print (tiny sun looking prints) and “pueblo” calico print (reminiscent of pueblos architecture)
This is NOT a cheap navy blue print on a white fabric. By the time a Trade Shirt reaches us, many people have been involved in its making, none of them residing in China:
* Our natural broadcloth was dipped many times in an indigo vat to reach the desired shade of dark indigo.
* A special paste wasapplied to the dyed fabric with a screen of the Apache or pueblo print.
* The discharge process is finalized by way of steaming, the paste ‘bleaches out’ the fabric. The face of the fabric looks different than the inside because of the inconsistency of the ‘bleed through’ effect.
* Then the shirts go to the long and tedious cut/sew production period…
* After some airborne time, we get them delivered here, caught red handed killing time playing Nintendo (I actually mispelled this last word originaly, Nitendo…)
DETAILS:
* Early homesteader, reminiscent of early non-traditional Indian Native style/silhouette
* Stand collar with chin strap
* Back panel and cuffs shearing.
* Real 1920’s ox bone NOS buttons.
* Button placket facing with contrast white all cotton muslin fabric.
* Original rayon woven MFSC labeling on bottom of the button placket, reminiscent of early European Henley type undershirt label placement.
* Flat felled chain-stitch seams and single needle machine construction.
* Side gussets, European construction.
* 100% cotton ivory color high count stitching.
PACKAGING: For the USA, the blouse comes in an old school cardboard box with original artwork. This sturdy box can be used for storage of small items, please re-use.
SHRINKAGE/SIZING: The trade shirt comes RAW, unwashed, and will shrink very minimally with cold wash and hang dry (the indigo dying process has technically taken care of the shrinkage)
I recommend minimal detergent (such as Woolite for dark or equivalent), in order to keep the rich indigo color longer.
See chart below for raw and rinsed/line dry measurements
DISCLAIMER: As with ALL indigo dyed garments, color bleeding and rubbing is expected and unavoidable. Arms and body or white undershirts and skivvies WILL turn blue (no Smurf panic here, it all washes off easily). Wearing a white tuxedo jacket with the trade shirt WOULD leave the jacket lining and underarms with indigo color rubbing. But you know better than to wear a white tux with it anyhow.
The color rubbing will minimize after several washing/wearing cycles, until it eventually stops.
Designed in California by Mister Freedom® and crafted in Japan by Sugar Cane Co.
Limited edition.
Available RAW/Unwashed
Sizes:
14 ½ (Small)
15 ½ (Medium)
16 ½ (Large)
17 ½ (X-Large)
18 ½ (XX-Large)
Retail: $ 359.95
Call John or Jordan at (323) 653-2014 or mail sales@misterfreedom.com to get yours while they last. We ship internationally. Much obliged for your support, pardners 😉
Mister Freedom® x Sugar Cane MFSC Spring 2012 “Men of the Frontier“: The CHAPARRAL BLOUSE
Because most tailors/sewers/garment suppliers had a European background in the early days of the American Frontier, and because a lot of the fabrics used were imported from the old Country, this collection combines both American and European elements. Stitching techniques, textiles, styles, patterns and inspiration were drawn from both Worlds, a reflection of the coexistence of both cultures at the time.
You will notice, as we unveil each item, that you don’t need to live out on the range, be called Tex and pack a six-shooter to pull of our “Men of the Frontier” garb. It was not designed for re-enacting 3:10 to Yuma, but to mix with what you feel appropriate. I personally like to mix it with stuff from previous MF® collections, such as shirting and trousers from our 1900’s “Apache” French hoodlums.
After introducing the new concept for Spring 2012 last week, here is the first installment: the CHAPARRAL BLOUSE.
Inspired by 1920’s~30’s vintage jackets, styles and silhouettes, we combined elements, left the wheel as is but slapped our own hub caps on it. This jacket was born from an original sketch, many old photographs and memories.
Since I got you already yawning, here are the specs:
SPECS:
PATTERN: An original MFSC pattern, inspired by 1920’s~30’s sport type light jackets, leather A-1 type coats, early Chimayo jackets etc…
FABRIC: The Chaparral comes in two very different fabric options (not two colors of the same fabric.)
Exclusively milled for us in Japan, in limited batches, both options are inspired by rare turn of the century French workwear textiles from our archives.
a) MFSC Brown Canvas: A blend of 80% linen and 20% cotton selvedge canvas, 12.5 Oz., in a “cachou“/ brown Duck color.
b) MFSC Indigo Canvas: A blend of 60% linen and 40% cotton selvedge canvas, 8 Oz., Indigo dyed.
DETAILS:
* 1920’s~30’s silhouette
* Original A-1 type round collar (yes Sir, we like)
* Back darting and expansion gusset, 1930’s style.
* Horsehide leather side and cuff cinch straps (with vintage NOS French metal slide buckles) and leather pocket trimming and leather detachable chin-strap.
* Corozo wood buttons, tonal.
* Lightweight and un-lined withNO exposed/overlocked seams on the inside (that was some task…)
* Flat felled seams and single needle machine construction.
PACKAGING: For the USA, the blouse comes in an old school cardboard box with original artwork. This sturdy box can be used for storage of small items, please re-use.
SHRINKAGE/SIZING:
Both canvas options come RAW (un-washed). Both fabrics are un-sanforized and will shrink down to the same fit after several wash/soak/dry cycles. The Indigo canvas shrinks ‘faster’ than the Duck canvas. I recommend doing an original cold soak and hung dry. See how it fits and take it from there. With rinsing/wearing, the fabrics will shrink/stretch back and forth for a while and settle eventually.
DO NOT BOIL those canvas blouses, as the leather would NOT like it. The leather can take a full heat drying cycle for several minutes though (check to see what’s happening once in a while.)
Refrain from using soap also, unless you HAVE spent the summer on horseback up the Chisholm trail. This will guarantee an amazing fade and patina overtime.
Click on the sizing chart bellow for approx RAW (Brown) and rinsed/hang dry (Brown and Indigo) measurements:
FIT: I am usually a Medium (38 ) in MFSC jackets, and wear a Medium (38) Indigo blouse in the silly shots above. It has just been rinsed and hung dry once, still has some shrinkage in it. I just started wearing it, and will see .
As far as my brown canvas version, I have worn it for a few months, washed/machine dried it several times (again, it takes ‘longer’, meaning more cycles, for that option to fully shrink and stabilize)
Garment designed in California by Mister Freedom® and manufactured by Sugar Cane Co, under our MFSC collaboration label.
Limited Edition.
Available RAW/Unwashed
Sizes: 36, 38, 40, 42, 44
Retail: $629.95
Call (323) 653-2014 or mail sales@misterfreedom.com to get yours while they last. We ship internationally. We thank you for your support.
Mister Freedom® x Sugar Cane Spring 2012: “MEN of the FRONTIER” Trading Post
For about two centuries, somewhere between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, stretched a line moving westbound at a rate of 50 to 100 miles per generation.
It was known as the “Frontier”, an explosive powder mix of guns, recent immigrants, Native Indians, European explorers, pioneers and early Spaniard settlers.
Whether these rugged men adapted to the Land, fought their way West, traded, enforced or dodged the Law, preached new religions… none of them would remain the same after their experience on the Frontier of this wild territory they now had to share. This previously occupied Land, we now call the United States of America, would also never be the same. The Men of the Frontier eventually reached California and by the late 19th century America had, what felt like, as rich of a History and as diverse of a cultural background as the Old World had.
The “Frontier Thesis”, written in 1893 by F.J. Turner, and later to become a controversial text, elaborated on the fact that “American identity occurred precisely at the juncture between the civilization of settlement and the savagery of wilderness”. As every generation moved further West, each member became more American, severing from its European roots of the East.
Focusing on a style perspective by studying period photographs (as often, reality is stranger than fiction, as seen in some of the shots above), one can see an eclectic mix of imported fancy fabrics (in what could be imagined as bold colors), homespun local textiles, indigoes, calicoes… With the need for sturdy and practical garments, designs from traditional European gentlemen’ tailoring were adapted and modified. Rules were broken and new patents applied for.
By the early 1900’s, sack coats were replacing tail coats; ‘ditto suits’ found more practical and affordable than dandy garb; canvas and denim chosen over moleskine, it’s European counterpart, as the workwear fabric of choice; bright calico printed cotton fabrics favored by native Indians facing the inevitable integration and bartered from the white man’s Trading Post; fringes on buckskin jacket sleeves added as an easy way to fence off flies when riding horses… and so on. All that contributing to the creation of a new “American Style”, with elements still very well present today.
It is through digging those roots that Mister Freedom® new collaboration with Sugar Cane Co found inspiration for the “MEN of THE FRONTIER” MFSC Spring 2012 Collection. The resulting garments are not replicas, not Tom Mix recreated outfits, not Santa Fe tourist T-shirts, but a combination of imported European fabric styles and detailing, adapted patterns and silhouettes from the late 1800’s up to the 1930’s.
Although inspired by the early American Frontier days, we stayed away from the Hollywood clichés of the “Cowboys and Indians”, as interpreted by early movie studio costumers. Instead, freely incorporating American/Native Indian/Mexican/European elements, we milled original fabrics and designed garments that could plausibly have existed, but stay our own humble addition to today’s attires for discerning gents.
The following dry goods will be our Mister Freedom® Trading Post offerings of the season:
* The “Blouse Chaparral”, “Britches Chaparral” and “Range Vest”: Indigo and duck cotton linen canvas.
* The “Prairie Shirt”: Indigo selvedge light denim and madder calico printed cotton.
* The “Gun Slinger Jumper” and “Gun Slinger Pantaloons”: Indigo and Sand color selvedge denim twill.
* The “Trade Shirt”: Two Indigo calico discharge prints, “Apache” and “Pueblo”.
* Accessories, such as leather MF® ‘Strongman’ leather cuffs, MF® scarves…
Thank you for tuning in Folks, I reckon I need to lie down after this one,
😉
Christophe Loiron
Photo credits (to the best of my knowledge):
* The works of A.C. Wroman 1895-1905
* “Saloons Bars & Cigar Stores”, 1999, by Roger E. Kislingbury
* The works of Henry Madison Wantland
* The works of F. Jay Haynes
* Public Domain
We have cooked up this little accessory to wrap around your neck this winter: The MF® “Boro” Tie
Boro is a Japanese term describing patched up textiles. Repairing and patching was a necessity in early Japan, when new fabric was scarce and expensive.
A garment may have had many lives, often ending up in small pieces to repair a futon cover, monpei pants, yukata, furoshiki…
I came across some original folk indigo boro in the early 1990’s, while in Japan, and have been an admirer since then. Although not originally done for aesthetic reasons, some surviving examples are to me Folk Art at its best.
This is the background story of our little neck ornament here.
We have used some ‘scraps’ of rare antique Japanese indigo textiles to put together our “Boro” Tie (boro~ bolo…get it? and yes, I’ll be here all week…)
The fabrics are assorted, ranging from circa 1850’s~1930’s, and selected from our textile archives. Home spun, cotton, hemp, natural indigo, katazome prints, plaids, solids… We have mixed some red cotton antique japanese
fabrics on some of the ties, red being the sugar if indigo is the tea.
We also hand made those leather ring sliders, using vintage recycled leather, some tooled, some plain.
Very limited edition, all one-of-a-kind, none are perfect, hand made in our studio in Los Angeles, CA.
Retail $229.95
Please call John or Jordan at (323) 653-2014 or Email sales@misterfreedom.com to get yours while they last.
Thank you again for your support 😉
Here is the final installement (5 of 5) of Mister Freedom® latest Collection entitled “American Sportswear”. Introducing the CALIFORNIAN Blue Jeans, Lot.44
Same drill than with the Ranch Blouse, we have selected some New Old Stock selvedge denim from our archives to make the Californian Lot.44
Cut and sew has been a challenge, as previously mentioned, but we are happy with the results. One “five pocket” pattern in about 35 different denim… 28” to 33” width old shuttle loom made selvedge denim, collected throughout years of warehouses digging. Origin Japan and USA. Click on scan below for approximate colors and selvedge IDs
The pattern of the Californian Lot.44 is very similar to that of the Californian Lot.54, with a few design modifications:
* PATTERN: Original Mister Freedom® pattern, inspired by traditional 1950′s era blue jeans.
* FABRICS: The assorted New Old Stock selvedge denim limited edition is only available at the MF® Beverly Blvd location, and at “Bazar” (1108c Abbot Kinney Blvd.,Venice, CA 90291, USA, phone 310-314-2101).
* Lot.44 vs. Lot.54 DETAILS: The Lot.44 has an added back cinch strap, longer inseam, yellow “M” pocket and side stitching, different fabric pocket bags.
* POCKETING: 100% cotton NOS stripe ticking denim. Some bag bags are made with indigo/white plaid twill. Random.
* FIT: Based on the general silhouette/image of the “BRMC” blue jeans of the Wild Ones (1953). Traditional mid-rise, “tubular” silhouette legs, fit seat.
These blue jeans are NOT skinnies, as we don’t dig the ‘men in tights’ or “girlfriend’s jeans” thingy.
* CONSTRUCTION: All made in U.S.A. Five pockets style. Selvedge legs and button hole fly flap. Riveted back pockets with ‘zigzag flush’ stitching. Original “M” back pocket stitch design, securing inside all cotton twill backing.
* STITCHING: All 100% cotton colour thread. We are using an original MF 12 types of gauge/colour combination thread for each pair of jeans. Main colours are Orange/Yellow, non colorfast.
* TRIMS: Original Mister Freedom casted combo metal fly buttons, steel back. Unmarked copper flat top rivetting.
* LABELING: Handmade original MF® debossed natural cowhide leather patch on right back pocket. Cheeze cloth size labeling stitched in rear part of waist band.
* PACKAGING: In the USA, the Californian Lot.44 comes in an old school cardboard box with original artwork. This sturdy box can be used for storage of small items, please re-use.
* SHRINKAGE: All fabrics are RAW and unwashed. Due to the assorted denim, shrinkage is all over the place. Please refer to chart below, where we shrink tested some of the jeans (cold soak for about 30mn, no agitation. Turned imside out and machine dryed for about 20mn, until 80% dried). Measurements are approximate.
Please don’t BOIL your jeans, as you will alter the color of the denim and ruin the leather patch.
The Californian Lot.44 comes UN-WASHED and “oversized” so that the measurements match the labeling AFTER shrinkage (more or less).
Example: A tagged W32 x L36 “Californian”, off the shelf, actually measures 33” x 38” before wash. Some denim will shrink to approx. 32” x 36” after rinse/dry.
Which size works for you depends on how you like your jeans to fit, so you can size up or down.
WASHING: To each his own, but we recommend the “quick cold rinse, hang dry and wear when damp” method. Subsequent washing when REALLY needed, minimal detergent and hang dry.
Garment designed and manufactured in California by Mister Freedom® in collaboration with Sugar Cane Co (MFSC). Limited Edition.
The Mister Freedom® “CALIFORNIAN” Lot.44 is available RAW/unwashed.
Available tagged Sizes:
W30 × L34
W31 × L36
W32 × L36
W33 × L36
W34 × L36
W36 × L36
W38 × L36
(see “Shrinkage” section above for the low-down)
Retail $289.95
Available here.
Please call (323) 653-2014 or mail sales@misterfreedom.com for more info.
Thank you for your support.
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