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Embroidery
The grainy image of nana creaking in a rocking chair, stitching endless ducks and daisies onto tea towels is a common, but misleading representation of the craft of embroidery. At its most elemental,...
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Panama Hat
Legend has it that a common straw hat, that favorite accessory of both the leisure class and field hand, ushered in a revolution. Or two, maybe even three. It was an businessman named Eloy Alfaro who...
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Natural Dyes
There was a time when color was worth crossing the Sahara for. It drove men to risk life or scurvy to bring back logwood bark from across the Atlantic, or swim under the surface of the sea to harvest...
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Harris Tweed, Part I
It's not Harris Tweed unless it is made in the Outer Hebrides. Image from Harris Tweed Hebrides. You may know nothing about the production of regulated Scottish cloth Harris Tweed, or you may be highly...
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Felt
A felt home. Central Aisa, circa 1910. Felt is said to be the oldest man-made material: its story goes back 8,000 years. It’s used in everything from carpets to garments to chalkboard erasers. Felt is...
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Harris Tweed, Part II
Setting up the loom. Photo by Mike Donald. A couple of months ago we introduced you to Mike Donald, a young Scot who decided to forsake city life and return to the western isles of Scotland. He won a...
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Stifel Textiles
Stifel fabrics logo. J.L.Stifel and Sons, a textile manufacturing brand, was the foremost cotton production company in West Virginia from 1835 to 1956 and was known for quality, indigo-dyed cotton...
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Camel Hair
Tweed, ivory cashmere and dark grey lambswool are the signature textiles of fall. And camel hair, that specialty textile of the gentleman’s wardrobe, is still considered the best-looking cold weather...
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Cashmere
Grand Odalisque, by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1814) Professor Aldred Barker, a professor of Textile Industries at Leeds University, deemed Kashmir as the producer of the most narcotic and...
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Quilts
A worldly quilt. For a good part of their history, quilts have been a product of making due with less – the most practical of textiles. They served the utilitarian task of keeping people warm, layered...
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Undergarments Pt. 1
We still wear the undershirts for about the same reasons that Victorian men took to wearing their long johns: they save wear-and-tear on the layers above them, and can be used long after a visible...
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Undergarments Pt. 2
“Now that I was compelled to think about it, reading was something that just came to me, as learning to fasten the seat of my union suit without looking around, or achieving two bows from a snarl of...
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Knot A Tie
Clearly, a tie sets a man apart from the crowd. That, and a white suit. “What do ties matter, Jeeves, at a time like this?” “There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter” ― P.G. Wodehouse Rather...
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Silk
Unlike the Bombyx mori, the Atlas moth secretes broken strands of silk. The discarded cocoons are sometimes used as purses in Taiwan. (Image courtesy woodleywonderworks via Flickr) Soft and smooth to...
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