If this post is a bit bad tempered it is because, having spent a couple hours in the Virgin airport lounge and a couple more on an aircraft taxiway, I am back in the lounge with JFK closed due to thunderstorms. As a situation things could be worse except that we face a four to five hour wait for the weather to blow through and they kick us out of the lounge in an hour. Then things will change, from relative comfort to the deprivation of an empty terminal at night.
In some unfathomable way this turns my thoughts to John Partridge, the English outerwear maker that in my opinion upholds the standard for country stuff and does it better than the diluted efforts of that other waxed cotton jacket maker. Not that I would be wearing one now - it was about 90 degrees in Manhattan - but one of them would make a much better pillow than my forearm for the type of roughing it I am doing today. All that aside, I plan to offer their most popular model this fall, when it will pair nicely with Le Chameau's Wellies.
John Partridge is probably the most stand-out purchasing experience I had this past week. I go to the MRket menswear show principally because buying the Drake's line for the coming season requires seeing it in person. I have no way to estimate how many silk and other cloth choices are there for review but it cannot be done in an hour. Even at speed, just looking at the stuff takes more than that. And it cannot be done digitally.
Highlight of the week was probably a short video I made with Steve Taffel of Leffot on the spur of the moment after the vendor I planned to film refused to let us shoot their collection. The footage (bytes?) has not been edited yet but it was fun to make. Thank you Steven.
Now I will go take a nap on the floor somewhere.
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2 comments:
I presume Partridge is still in a place called Rugeley in the British midlands. I've got a couple of his items purchased a long time ago and they are holding up well although the workmanship wasn't very refined. The other has of course moved into the mass market and travelled a long way from their roots but in all truth I don't see a big fall off if any in the quality from the days when they first came to notice in Britain in the late 60's/early 70's and they used to sell their stuff at country fairs.
Agreed. Mine keeps me warm and dry and will likely outlive me. What else do you want from a country coat?
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