Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Archival Ebay: Hebden Cord Shooting Jacket

by Lesli Larson

Archival Clothing readers are well acquainted with my obsession for Hebden Cord, an out-of-business UK clothier. Hebden Cord offered made-to-measure jackets, trousers and breeks in a selection of moleskins, cottons and tweeds. Upon request, Hebden Cord mailed out a sizing guide and matchbook sized fabric swatches (some quite shopworn or sun damaged). From overseas, one could spec the size, cut and finishing details of any garment in the Hebden Cord line. At the time Hebden Cord went out of business, I was plotting my order for double seated cycling shorts in heavyweight twill whipcord.

The nearest contemporary match to Hebden Cord is Old Town Clothing where one can still customize the fabric on a fixed range of garments, but not the fit.

Hebden Cord print catalogs were simple, rarely changing from year to year. For this reason, I like to collect ebay images of Hebden Cord items to monitor how patterns were customized over time. Here is a recent tweed shooting jacket which would be perfect for either game poaching or Tweed Ride use.





Hebden Cord Tweed Shooting Jacket (ebay item: 180458736173)

Coming soon: full Hebden Cord catalog reprint. Shopping from 2004!

10 comments:

Jing Qian said...

I wish I had a tailor who can reproduce anything I like from your blog!

BJFO said...

I remember seeing Hebden Cord frequently at country shows. I have a pair of breeks from them. As well as shooting clothing they used to produce hunting outfits including wonderful pinks. I always craved a pair of their high-fishtail backed work trousers.

candice kim said...

Have you ever watched the BBC adaptation of "All Creatures Great and Small?" It is like tweed and cord on parade in the Welsh dales. You could seriously do an entire fashion blog on the amazing outfits in this show. If I ever win the lotto, I'll hire a seamstress to remake all of Helen's dresses for me.

Lesli Larson said...

Candice--

Yes, I definitely have an "All Creatures" post in the works. Just trying to track down quality dvd copies of the show.

LL

candice kim said...

I watched the entire series on Netflix instant. There are so many seasons and I watched them all. They literally made the show until the actors were too old to go on. They had to write some fictional material for the last seasons.

Lesli Larson said...

Candice--

I'm going to start screening them tonight!

Thanks for the netflix tip.

LL

jshelly said...

Thank You for the heads up, I was the winning bidder. It wound up costing about $80.00 with shipping.

I'm a 38 so it will be a little big, but I am sure adjustments could be made by my tailor. I doubt if I could find anything close to this quality for < $100 here in the US

Lesli Larson said...

jshelley--

Great to hear the jacket is going to an archival household! I've found that the hebden cord stuff is pretty trim fit so you may be able to make the 38 work with minimal tailoring. I have some climbing breeks from HC that are cut quite narrow. Send photos and a user report.

jshelly said...

Will do, I will follow up after it arrives.

If they run slim then it will probably be a perfect fit. Thanks again for the find!

Michelle said...

I am selling a Hebden Cord Tweed Jacket (vintage) - other than Ebay, does anyone know the best place to sell this? Thank you.