Shopping from the past: Hunting World Trousers

It's not often that you get follow through on shopping from the past. Hunting World NYC closed its doors in 2008, and currently seems to sell only in duty-free airport shops in East Asia. However, if, like us, you're still shopping from Hunting World and need a safari tuxedo, eBay seller cowboywest currently has a sizeable stock of NOS trousers and jackets. The seller, bless him, provides excellent measurements on the auction pages, and I ordered a pair of pants based on my shaky tape measure figures. The trousers are terrific - a nice mid-weight gabardine, quality details, hand-finished buttonholes, and not too baggy in the seat. Since we're always stocking up on quality provisions for the apocalypse, I promptly ordered two more pair and a pair for Lesli - at $20 a pair, you really can't lose.

-100% cotton
-Made in China (Surprised? Us too).
-Seven belt loops (earns top marks from Tom)
-Hand-finished buttonholes
-Frenched outer side seams, butted inner seam (for ease of tailoring)
-Allowance for taking in or letting out waistband
-Double front closure (helps fly to lay flat)
-Top-opening front pockets
-Sits just above waist
-Fitted in seat, straight leg
-1975 price: $85 ($330 adjusted for inflation!)
-Buy It Now for $26 shipped from cowboywest.


Now we're lobbying for other eBay sellers to continue this trend of offering dream products for reasonable buy-it-now prices. I'm hanging up a horseshoe in hopes of finding a few dead stock sweaters, in a wide range of colors and sizes, from Montgomery Ward c. 1947.

Archival Safari

Tom Baxter, Explorer

To Have and Have Not (Hawks 1944)

Overstuffed safari jacket signals villainy

Filson Bush Jacket for women (sans belt)

Filson Japan

90s Filson catalog (discontinued poplin pants and shorts)

Matching Kalahari shorts and Safari dress

In Swiss gabardine

Absence of Malice (Pollack 1981)

After several catch and release episodes, I finally ordered and removed the tags from a Filson Safari jacket for women. I've been a longtime admirer of the safari jacket. I'm a fan of its timeless design, warm weather wearability and cotton poplin fabric (the waxed cotton of August). If I could update the safari jacket styling, I might shorten the cut, remove the epaulets and delete the belt. For now, however, I'm wearing the belt buckled behind my back just to soften the Karen Blixen look by a few clicks. Wear test report to follow.

Shopping from 1975: Hunting World

Following up on 1968, here are a few uncollated pages from the 1975 Hunting World catalog.

Aspirational Living: Annie Hall (Allen 1977)

Cabaret

Books & Bookstores

Photography

Interior Design

Writing for Television

Adult Children

Tennis

Khakis & Safari Jackets

Argyles & Plaids

Moviegoing

Bergman

Post-Apocalyptic Couture

More Filson for women

Since I was left off the CC Filson clothing council, I've been convening my own private focus groups to test and report on fit, finish, style and sizing of the new women's product line. Last Spring, I issued a general report of the new women's product line. In my initial report, I commented on the poor fit/sizing of the Filson garments and noted some disappointing design decisions such as some non-functional pocketing (or coin purse pocketing), balloon arm-styling and one way rather than two way zippers. I was optimistic about the debut of the XS size range--hoping that by slightly shrinking the proportions of the garments, Filson would finally produce outdoor clothing for women with a trimmed but not sackcloth (or overly hour-glassed) proportions. Now, I realize the whole point of the product line was to produce hipster jackets for young urban gents. As it turns out, friend Tom, 6'3 and 180 lbs, fits the women's xs shelter cloth jacket like it was a fashionably shrunken jacket by Wes Anderson's tailor, Mr. Ned.

Japanese Filson

Ok. One of my primary obsessions at the moment is the hunt for Filson (and other waxed or woolen outdoor) items manufactured for the Japanese market (specifically--garments marketed to fashion forward Tokyo teens and gentleman flyfishers who doll themselves up in a full cruiser suit for a day on the trout stream). I've tracked down a number of sites selling Filson branded wares available to Japanese customers only. Filson reps refuse to offer these items for sale in US or make their own garments available in sizes smaller than a men's small (chest size 38). I'm not looking for "Lodge collection" sanded khakis or microfibre windbreakers--but rather, scaled down versions of classic Filson styles, for example, stylish safari jackets (see example), whipcord cruisers and/or some of the newer designs popping up on some of the Japanese pages which include clever modern stylistic details (see illustration). If you know of any sources for these garments (Japanese sites tend to restrict sales to Japanese customers) or know of an insider in the Filson company whom we could persuade to manufacture these items (or smuggle them out to us via a backdoor dumpster)--let me know. And please forward along your own spy shots of cool Japanese waxed cotton or woolen wear. More documentation to follow.