Monday, November 28, 2011

you gotta fight for your rights....



While this picture has fired up the righteous outrage over US police brutality....and rightly so...I confess that I was also quite transfixed by the poor protesting girl wearing Levi's and LL Bean Boots.... and now, maybe it will be the Go-To wardrobe choice for protesting in America when one is expecting rough anti-Constitution conditions, or hunting in the woods....or anywhere the words "Don't worry, I'm going to spray these kids down." may be spoken with a lackadasial air....this combo is a standard in my wardrobe.
infamous/famous photo credit: Brian Nguyen/The Aggie.


"Introduced in 1912 for navigating the wet, muddy Maine woods, these boots have been appreciated for over 99 years." So says the most current catalog of  LL Bean, and shipping is free!

Made in America, In Maine, the Maine Hunting Shoe by L.L.Bean Inc. of Freeport,ME.
LLBean is one of the many labels I always buy......because I'm trying to raise the level of usability and do it with style........
You can change the world if you refuse to buy CRAP. If you buy things that are quality to begin with, you tred lighter on the earth.  Quality will last. And refusing to fall for every stupid fast-fashion 3rd world manufactured crap....you can create a serious style, based in ethics and smartness.....
The Pacific Northwest, the West Coast has its own style....mostly rugged, but not afraid to be stylish and fun....
Oh sure these boots are from Maine...but Levi's are San Francisco, California, USA. Born, bred, designed, invented, and until 2002, sewn there too.....  I only deal in the Made in USA Levi's...because I only deal in quality.
The back pockets of Levi's have the trademarked arcurate stitching...which looks like the pocket stitching (I think) on the butt of the poor unfortunate protester girl.

...and to show that indeed I do have a Sense of Humor....here's a great little article about the history of Levis in San Francisco, otherwise and sometimes knows as Baghdad By The Bay....(I ooze irony and satire)... in the Wall Street Journal.....the Wall Street, those kids are all kinds of pissed off about...a little movement we revolutionaries like to call OWS.  The kids in the UCDavis protest had more to do with a crazy tuition increase, but it is all connected...the destruction of the American economy trashed the budget of California....leading to, (maybe) a huge tuition increase at public universities....or they could have taxed rich people more....




The beloved Levi's jeans....and a staple of covering my butt sartorially since the 50s....
"Levi Strauss & Co. has been innovating since 1873, the year we created and patented the world’s first blue jeans. And while that patent has long since expired, our commitment to innovation continues. Throughout our long history we’ve inspired change in the marketplace, the workplace and the world. We invite you to take a look at our proud heritage."


Why LL Bean? Why Levis? Quality. Longevity. No Fads. No Trends.



If it has leather and a buckle I'm
probably wearing it......
I have worn out a few pairs of LL Bean boots...a few pair of lace-up calf high boots, and most recently ..a pair of LLBean mocs that I wore for the few years I gardened pro-style on the water for the Rich People.
I just passed them on to a thrift, so the next person could buy them for a couple of dollars and have the rubber replaced for about 25 bucks. Yes, these are items that are Fixed. Repaired. To wear again.


This is a weird concept in the throw-away culture that has boomed in the last 25 years. I'm glad I'm old enough to know what life used to be like...and I'm thrilled to see the very beginning of a turn-back to the ways of buying quality and not spending every penny on crap clothing.
Of course, giving you excellent quality things is what funkoma vintage is all about. I don't deal in the stupid fast fashion......Every item I deal in ...has to be something good.

I'm a classic-sturdy-quality-tomboy clothes nerd.
I love rubber, and stitching and leather, and canvas, and rawhide, and denim and wool, and tweed and corduroy....
So can you imagine my delight when I found these last year?
a LLBean boot with a belted buckle across the vamp.






I love them better than the lace up kind or the mocs...and I lurve them....
I don't know exactly how old this style is...that resembles an Engineer or motorcycle boot....I'm gonna guess 80s or 90s tho.
And that's the deal with The Classics.

Because the style changes very little over time, it can be hard to date.
At the very bottom of this post is a little video to watch of the real LLBean factory right here in the USA.


Here's more more more on the Pepper Spraying Cop and the 'shopped photos that ruled the internetz for a few days, and has its own tumbler....





Sunday, November 27, 2011

rustic and then we move right to the plaid

take a beat-up old license plate and make something of it!


Vintage Wyoming License plate clock
Vintage Wyoming License plate clock
zoom
Vintage Wyoming License plate clock Vintage Wyoming License plate clock Vintage Wyoming License plate clock Vintage Wyoming License plate clock Vintage Wyoming License plate clock
It's recycled....a vintage license plate that once rode on the bumper of a Wyoming truck.
Love that bucking bronco and the cowboy with his hat in the air. A perfect clock for the Wyoming native, the man cave, or the cowboy who lives in a condo.
Deep gold metal vintage license plate, brown cowboy and horse, with a new clock movement. It's in rustic condition.
**********
It runs on one AA battery. You can hang it from the hook on the back or thread a rope thru the holes in the plate, that once were for screws....
I have a few other plates that I'll make a clock with if you'd rather have....
Maine, Montana, Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Washington state.

more handmade goodies....
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
http://www.etsy.com/shop/thatyountvillegirl

Clock Lobster






Rather have Arizona? I can do it!



Lots of Levis coming this week....One pair of new old stock....



Plaid...








and another US Navy pea coat...





and now...a delighful poem...

Mambo Cadillac

by Barbara Hamby

Drive me to the edge in your Mambo Cadillac,
turn left at the graveyard and gas that baby, the black

night ringing with its holy roller scream. I'll clock
you on the highway at three a.m., brother, amen, smack

the road as hard as we can, because I'm gonna crack
the world in two, make a hoodoo soup with chicken necks,

a gumbo with plutonium roux, a little snack
before the dirt-and-jalapeño stew that will shuck
the skin right off your slinky hips, Mr. I'm-not-stuck

in-a-middle-class-prison-with-someone-I-hate sack
of blues. Put on your high-wire shoes, Mr. Right, and stick

with me. I'm going nowhere fast, the burlesque
queen of this dim scene, I want to feel the wind, the Glock

in my mouth, going south, down-by-the-riverside shock
of the view. Take me to Shingles Fried Chicken Shack

in your Mambo Cadillac. I was gone, but I'm back
for good this time. I've taken a shine to daylight. Crank

up that radio, baby, put on some dance music
and shake your moneymaker, doll, rev it up to Mach
2, I'm talking to you, Mr. Magoo. Sit up, check

out that blonde with the leopard print tattoo. O she'll lick
the sugar right off your doughnut and bill you, too, speak

French while she do the do. Parlez-vous français? So, pick
me up tonight at ten in your Mambo Cadillac

Chile, Argentina, Peru. Take some time off work;
we're gonna be a lot longer than a week

or two. Is this D-day or Waterloo? White or black—

it's up to you. We'll be in Mexico tonight. Pack
a razor, pack some glue. Things fall apart off the track,

and that's where we'll be, baby, in our Mambo Cadillac,
cause you're looking for love, but I'm looking for a wreck.

"Mambo Cadillac" by Barbara Hamby, from All-Night Lingo Tango. © University of Pittsburg Press, 2009.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

A few of my favorite men things...

When there's Red Wings, when there's belt buckles, and plaid cowboy shirts.....I simply go look at Brown boots, Levi's and safari shirts....these are a few of my favorite men's things....


like the song says.....


Willis and Geiger. Hemingway wore shirts like this. nuff said.


source.


Old school...the real good stuff from the 70s, not like the crap made today.




More stuff of legends.....
Red Wing Boots at funkomavintage





Cashmere scarf... handmade from a recycled cashmere sweater.



Men. Men. Men. Vintage men.





















Men. Men. Men. Vintage Levis, and an LL Bean jacket.



Today

sittin' in the Chrysler
Listening to Liza
Gaying off with the hand sanitizer
You're no wiser
you're a miser
you're a Neo-con in  a diaper.

You a swiper
a coniver.
You'd rat off your brother for a fiver.

Sell out the country
soft and crunchy
funky monkey
Power junkie.

You're so lucky
you got all the money.
We're gonna get it back
sonny
come Monday.

It ain't funny
gonna do ya like
Quaddafi
It ain't gonna be pretty
Hard times in the city
ain't life shitty.



 (c) 2011Mark Schindele

Monday, November 14, 2011

The bride/party girl/housewife/gardener wore black...

this week...there's a lot of black.
I like black. a lot. It's always right....here's a few looks from around the internetz, and then the new stuff in my shop...Including a jacket modeled on the suit that Marilyn wore when she married Joe DiMaggio in San Francisco in 1954. I got married in San Francisco, but I wore an antique lace 2 pc set I made myself...mmmm..must scan those photos.

....if I had to wear only one era, it would be, with no hesitation the 20s. Jazz Age, Roaring 20s....ha cha cha ! some of my favorites are the Gish Sisters, and Louise Brooks, and of course....Chaplin.

The Gish Sisters, Lillian and Dorothy, with a friend, Richard Barthelmess.


Theda Bara with a skeleton.


-------------------------
 a leather top hat.....I used to make these in the early 70s....






Cute 1969 pattern


from my new shop update...



this jacket is like the one Marilyn wore on her 1954 wedding day to Joe. Her's was a brown suit with a mink collar....but it was made up in black wool, mostly, with mink, fox or rabbit collars....so cute !



this pic is from the San Francisco Examiner newspaper