Sunday, February 14, 2010

Archival Review: Man Up San Francisco


Two weeks ago, the Boulder and Eugene arms of Archival Clothing converged on San Francisco for a winter meeting. As it were, our visit corresponded with the Man Up menswear pop up market. Since we spend so much time browsing old catalogs and flickr photostreams, it was terrific to make contact with people behind some of the brands and shops we love. Highlights for us were our visits with Howard and John at the A-B Fits booth and the fine folks behind the shirting company, Taylor Stitch.

Howard of A-B Fits testing the fit of my SNS Herning cardigan

Rising Sun & Co. denim

John in the A-B Fits booth


Vest obsession

Although the show was billed as a menswear market, we were encouraged to find a few top quality clothing options for women including the Rising Sun & Co. chambray vest. With a little tailoring, I'm pretty sure I could have made the size small fit perfectly. But I'm holding out for a promised version for women. Front pocketing reminds me of one my favorite outdoor garments, the Filson original tin cloth hunting vest.

Browsing the A-B Fits Booth





Custom shirts for Archival Clothing

Shoulder slope calculator

Michael in P.G. Field vest (secured in Scotland)



Taylor Stitch Booth

We're very excited about the custom shirts Taylor Stitch will be creating for Lynn, Tom and me. At the show, our measurements were taken and we were instructed to select fabric from an overwhelming range of swatches. The details will be transmitted to the third generation US company who manufactures the shirts for Taylor Stitch. Since it's nearly impossible to find a well tailored, American-made shirt for women, we have high hopes for the Taylor Stitch product. We'll post a follow-up review once our shirts arrive. We'd love to see this kind of custom clothing service expanded to include pants and coats (ala Al's Attire). It would give women who like heritage style clothing a chance to source many of the same garments already readily available to gents (khakis, please!) .

Vintage French Rebour saddle (outside the show)











Jeremy and his vintage Aldens

I spoke with Jeremy (one of Man Up's impressarios) about possibly staging a similar show in the Northwest--in the fall. It would great to bring together many of the regional manufacturers and purveyors from the Portland, Seattle and Vancouver areas. We'd be there line with our full lines of bags and perhaps a few items for women.

Heritage overload


Full flickr set here.

5 comments:

Eugenia said...

Is that an archival tote I spy next to Sara? Looks like you had so much fun!

J. Everett Dixon said...

Nice to see hometown folks Beckel getting so much love lately. They're stuff is bulletproof... my little brother lived on some family property in the harsh climes of The Dalles for a year in one of of their tents with nary a problem.

Brossa said...

I wasn't sure where to add this, but you folks may be interested to know that Frost River is back up and running again. They have waxed canvas bike bags, canoe packs, and luggage made in Duluth. I saw that you'd mentioned them in the past and wanted to know if they started up again.

Anonymous said...

Who's the stud in the bow tie?

Adam Williams said...

Hi Archival, did I read right that you're working in Boulder, CO?

What are you up to? I'm a grad student at CU... drop a line!