From the Archives: Yakima Climbing Youth

OK, we know that the Life archive has been endlessly passed around the circle, but it doesn't mean that the images aren't brilliant. Having grown up rock climbing, I'm stuck on these kids from Yakima, Washington, right now. You cannot fail with khakis, Chucks, and poplin anoraks. Sign me up.






LL adds: one hopes these gents purchased their archival camping supplies from Sears Tent & Awning--a venerable canvas awning and canopy company still open for business in Yakima, Washington.

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.

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.