Sunday, November 05, 2006

Hebden Cord Co. Ltd





When my ship comes in I'm going to order up a full custom cycling suit from the folks at Hebeden Cord Co. Ltd (located, of course, in bespokelandia, Great Britain). First item in my order will be a pair of cycling "plusses" made out of an avantgard blend of twill and--gasp--stretch polyester (for the knee hinge, mind you).

Browsing through the Hebden Cord catalogue I come closest to realizing my central consumer fantasy: mail ordering from the past. The company's catalogue cover image and product illustrations resemble ads from old singer sewing patterns or department store circular/flyers from the nineteen thirties. I'm sure that if ever do secure my cycling plusses I'll be instantly transported back to a line drawing countryside scene in which I'm riding a Raleigh 3-speed against against orange acrylic sky.

In a future post I'll showcase of my personal collection of fabric and leather swatches (a central tenet of my austerity practice--delaying purchase by mulling over an infinite number of customizeable features) including about thirty wool and corduroy samples from Hebden (who lack any sort of web presence and thus require formal written requests by post).

2 comments:

Lesli Larson said...

Just read that Hebden Cord is out of business so I guess I'll be home stitching up my cycling suit from one thousand Hebden cord fabric samples.

Anonymous said...

What words..