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Posts from the “Travels” Category

Hickoree’s + The Hill-Side Rummage Sale

Posted on July 17, 2012

This past weekend I was enormously fortunate to be able to be in Brooklyn, NYC for The Hill-Side’s Rummage Sale at Hickoree’s Hard Goods. For those of you that missed it, the sale is on top of their already insane Summer Sale, and included factory seconds, press samples, prototypes, and other kinds of amazing rare business for comparatively next to nothing. Ties and scarves were $20 apiece, handkerchiefs and pocket squares were $10. I think I was there at 5:01 and there was already a line to the end of the block. It was Black Friday the 13th madness as soon as the doors opened: ties flying back and forth, the metallic clack of clothes hangers sliding on every side of you, the envy of seeing the next guy in line with the perfect pocket square! Right as you get to the register, another box of ties comes out and everything reshuffles as you spy that perfect selvedge chambray from across the room. Despite the heat, nobody even touched the beer for at least half an hour. That’s focus.

Hit the jump for more photos…

Categories: Travels, Uncategorized, Writeups

Inquiries & Responses vol. 8: Rogue Wave Surf Shop

Posted on June 11, 2012

Rogue Wave Surf Shop

Charleston, SC.

This is the eighth in a series of interviews with people who have a keen interest in menswear, style, design, or generally cool stuff. Most of these people are doing something of great note that you should absolutely take a look at.
In the early spring I took a trip to escape the cold and rain of Philadelphia and hit the road with my band to play some shows in the Charleston, SC. area. Not only is the area remarkably beautiful but the people are also incredibly hospitable. Charleston’s a town that, through thick and thin, has looked ahead without forgetting it’s past. I had an afternoon off and wanted some recommendations of places to check out so I sent an email to K. Cooper Ray, better known as the man behind Social Primer, asking for some hometown advice. At the top of the list was the one and only Rogue Wave Surf Shop, known for their quirky approach to peddling both surf goods, menswear, and lifestyle functions. It was a rainy afternoon so I cruised by a few shops and saved Rogue Wave for last.

 

I met with owner Rhett Boyd who was quite honestly and quite unexpectedly one of the nicest and most genuine dudes I’ve met since starting The American Classic. With basically zero knowledge of what I do or why I was there, he showed me around the two room shop on the first floor of a beautifully secluded house on the north side of the main drag through Charleston. I snapped some photos and checked out the goods while his wife and young son visited outside. The shop sells products from Baxter of California, Iron & Resin, Imogene + Willie, Gato Heroi surf boards, Penny skateboards, Yellow Rat trunks and shirts, and many more including a few pairs of selvedge denim and other accoutrements. There’s some amazing things on the horizon for Rhett and his company and we’re excited to watch it unfold. We bounced a few interview questions back and forth and this is what we wound up with. Click below to read the full article and interview and view all of the photos.
Categories: Inquiries & Responses, Interviews, Photos, Travels, Writeups

Confirmed Stock: A Recap

Posted on May 1, 2012

This weekend we drove down to Baltimore, MD. for a visit with the fine gentlemen of Drexler, the firm behind Confirmed Stock, and the 18 stellar brands being presented at menswear’s latest pop-up shop. The event took place in an old church, perfectly matching the interesting blend of heritage brands, vintage shops, and new companies pedaling goods pandering to classic American sensibilities. The turnout was great and the space gave the illusion of being enormous but provided just enough walking room and vendor spaces to make it feel very cozy. We spent much of our time getting to know the dapper dudes from Lumina Menswear, Ed from Hellbrand Leatherworks, Andrew from Ball & Buck, Sandtown Millworks, Randolph Engineering, and Federal Shop but had the opportunity to say hello to nearly everyone in the room. We took a ton of photos but whittled it down to a few dozen; that being said, these photos are enormous and take a lot of time to load. When you’re viewing all of them, please be patient with your internet connection. To enlarge, open any image in a new tab/window. Make sure to click the link below  to see the entire set.

Categories: Photos, Travels, Writeups

Field Trip to Self Edge and Hickoree’s Hard Goods

Posted on March 7, 2012

This past Friday I took a trip to NYC to drop off a pair of jeans to Andrew Chen of Self Edge (sidenote: thanks again for sending them down for the Natural Process show!) and finally get a chance to check out the shop. I arrived a bit earlier than when they opened, but since he’s a nice guy he let me in anyway to talk about the show and about the shop. The space itself is relatively small (which means it’s average Manhattan 1st floor size), and they also have two other shops in LA and San Francisco. The details of the shop are what really sets it apart, from the furniture (all hardwood and metal) to the fixtures (custom wrought iron hangers). The curtain for the fitting room is even one single piece of selvedge denim. These details were perfect but since I only had my 50mm prime with me and try as I might could not get a full shot of the shop.

On the table is a pair of the Self Edge x Iron Heart x Leather Soul jeans. These babies a gorgeous deep deep indigo with no contrast stitching. To borrow a description from the Self Edge website, “…the jean is completely stitched together with dark indigo thread, so while being a 5-pocket jean made of an indigo denim it’s easily dressed up because of the lack of contrast stitching. For the jean we had Iron Heart produce us the darkest denim they’ve made that’s still indigo (blue) colored in a new 23oz weight, the denim is sanforized and therefore even due to it’s heavy weight, it’s still comfortable.”

Andrew graciously sent us one of these wood blocks for the Natural Process show which I, understandably, had a difficult time parting with.

Huge selection from 3sixteen and Roy, amongst many others.

The custom iron fixtures totally put every other store décor package to shame.

Check out the selvedge line on that fitting room curtain, floor to ceiling of course.

So after another cup of coffee from Handsome Coffee Roasters (courtesy of Andrew) and a few videos of Spanish bullfights (courtesy of Thomas), I was ready to make the trek over to Hickoree’s in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The store was a bit difficult to find (being on the second floor), but once I got up there it was really spacious and well laid out. They carry a lot of pants & jeans from Phigvel, Tender Co., and Choctaw Ridge, as well as Levi’s Vintage. Lots of awesome boots from Wolverine and Thorogood as well. Of course, there was a huge selection of ties, pocket squares, and scarves from The Hill-Side that immediately caught my attention.

While I was figuring out how to move some money around to pair up a chambray pocket square with one of their new pointed ties (though don’t get me wrong, I love the square selvedge ends), I spoke with Will from The Hill-Side about some key holders they were packaging up. They’re made in Japan by Phigvel, and apparently since being recently featured in GQ were severely backordered. If I could pair my keys down to a select few, I would have put my name right at the bottom of that list. Embossed details for Home, Office, Door, and Ignition really seal the deal.

Phigvel also makes some incredible clothing, like this selvedge denim deck shirt. From what I understand, Hickoree’s is the only place outside of Japan that you can find this piece.

They make an awesome cyclist’s jacket as well. This thing fits like a glove with all the pockets in exactly the right spot. The Napoleon pocket was extra deep, and just the right angle to fit your hand into without looking like, well… Napoleon. I’m also a bit of a sucker for an asymmetrical button closure.

I was glad to see a few hometown favorites from Art in the Age up there as well.

And without further ado, some more gorgeous shots of the rest shop:

Following this, I was trying to make it up to the Hella Bitters release event later that evening. Unfortunately, after a bit of socializing in Manhattan, the weather turned sour and we didn’t make it on time. From what I gather after following up on it, it was a hell of a party (as a cocktail bitters release party should be). I met some great people during the day, though. I’d like to thank Thomas and Andrew at Self Edge for hanging out (they’re some of the nicest people in Manhattan), and Will at Hickoree’s for letting me get in the way to take photos and even grabbing some Phigvel stuff out of storage for me to shoot. If you’re in New York, you should definitely stop by both of these places and say hi; tell them The American Classic sent you.

Categories: Travels, Writeups

The Pop-Up Flea: A Recap

Posted on December 6, 2011

I spent about 18 hours in NYC this weekend for the A Continuous Goldberg production of the Pop-Up Flea which takes place annually somewhere in lower Manhattan. I made it up last year which was an awesome experience and went back a little better armed with what I wanted to do while I was in the area. Unfortunately in my rush to leave my house in Philadelphia around 4:45am, I inadvertently left my DSLR on my desk so all images in this post are graciously donated by Mr. Ryan Berger of Simple Threads whom I spent some time with on the day of the Flea.

The brand representation at the event was excellent including the likes of Levi’s Heritage, L.L. Bean‘s vintage line, Hickoree’s Hard Goods, Oak Street Bootmakers, Billykirk, Tanner Goods, Tellason Denim, and many more. The beauty of this event is twofold; smalltime bloggers like myself can go and meet people we read and write about on a regular basis while knocking out a large chunk of our holiday shopping in one fell swoop. I got to spend a little time chatting with Pete Searson and Tony Patella of Tellason who so graciously donated  an old pair of their jeans for our Natural Process Denim show coming up in January as well as the gentlemen behind Hickoree’s both at the Flea and in their new Brooklyn brick-and-mortar shop. I also got to finally meet up with Ryan of Simple Threads and kick it in a few shops around town with him and his fiancee and their city guide Drew. If anything it’s a good way to solidify connections by making your e-mail exchange face-to-face. Click below to see the rest of the photos of the event courtesy, again, of Simple Threads. I work with a fixed width theme. This means that the beautiful photos aren’t going to show up in their entirety due to some crap planning (will take care of this soon). To see the entire photo, open in a new tab. Seriously, it’s worth it. The photos are gorgeous and my theme doesn’t do them justice. There are plenty more on his site linked above.

Categories: Photos, Travels, Writeups