A Glimpse into Vintage Menswear

On this Sunday afternoon, as I root through the contents of my basement finding piles of vintage, I discovered this outdoorsman jacket. Adding it to the pile I intended to wash, I felt crunchiness along the lining of the coat. I figured it was probably dry-rot from years of outdoor activities. However, when I opened what turned out to be a lining pocket, I discovered the interior was filled with small clumps of pheasant feathers, twigs, string, leaves, and debris!  

After I dumped all of it into the garbage, it occurred to me that these were probably remnants of what he used to make fly fishing lures... and it hit me: This is why people don't deal in menswear. This is why we don't SEE menswear. Because, on a very basic level, men are just dirtier.  Now, before you attack me for gender stereotyping, I should point out a few things to consider. 

This jacket came with a matching ladies' vest and jacket, which belong to this man's wife. 

The women's pieces, which I've already long sold (because they were cleaner!) showed the same amount of wash-wear and use that demonstrated that these pieces were used together. This couple was adventurous. A husband and wife who threw lavish parties, dressed to the 9's, and lived life to the absolute fullest. It's obvious she was involved in hunting and fishing with him, but she apparently took better care of her items and washed them frequently. And because of that, her pieces survived and sold a lot easier than his, without the amount of work I'm going to put into this jacket.

I thought it was cool that these remnants of his sport told a story about the jacket. He saved these clusters to use during his fishing, perhaps, making flies or possibly other things. But they also represent something that is typical of vintage menswear: They are used hard and worn out. This is evident time and time again with every piece of men's vintage I acquire. Motor oil and paint stains on good Sunday suits and dress shirts. Worn out elbows and tattered sleeves because he didn't like shopping and re-wore the same garments until they fell off. 

In no way am I attacking men for this, but it does demonstrate (to some extent) why menswear is so much less prevalent. Why buy a new suit when you can wear the same one to a wedding, dinner, AND a funeral? A woman will buy a dress and be lucky to wear it twice if she's frugal, but chances are she's going to wear multiple dresses more gently and less often than a man wears his clothing. Thus we see a helluva lot more women's vintage than men's, and that is exactly why I don't mind putting a little extra effort into pieces like this!