Warm Coat Cold Winter

In the winter of 2015 - 2016 the nasty boy El Nino is coming back to the planet earth for a visit. He's bringing rain and wind, and snow and ice, but where will he drop his weird weather?

Along the west coast of the USA where funkomavintage lives, El Nino will drop us some rain and wind, which is pretty nice after 4 years of a bad drought, but will it rain where we need it? Hope so. Up in the PNW, it will be warmer and somewhat drier, as will most of the east coast of the USA. Along the center, perhaps there will be more tornados and more snow and more cold, and along the southwest of the USA, wet wet wet...

Doesn't matter where you live, winter does always return. Some of you don't have much of a winter any year, but winter is coming.

In early 1955, photographer Dennis Stock followed James Dean around New York City, and also when Dean returned to his family farm, to his little town of Fairmount, Indiana, he chose to wear a long wool coat, a WWII US Navy military trench coat. And you know, if it's military, it can face, oh, I don't know. Oh a War!  Here is the coat he wore. I mean, A US Navy coat JUST like the coat James Dean wore.
clicky here to view it, this 40s US Navy uniform trench coat.

Quality and style, this is a vintage 40s WWII Navy trench coat. It is like the one James Dean wore in his famous series of photos by Dennis Stock, walking in the rain in New York City, and visiting his hometown and family in the Midwest.
It's an authentic WWII Navy overcoat with adjustable cuffs, and all the details that only vintage military has. Top quality, made to wear like iron, and it is always in style.
Double breasted buttons, cuff buttons and it's lined in dark navy satin. It has its original belt too.

funkomavintage has a lot more awesome vintage winter coats for men and women, and you can find them here in our etsy shop (clicky)
and we have more vintage winter coats in our funkomavintage website store too, so clicky here.
The photos of James Dean are by Dennis Stock, link:   and first published in Time magazine, link.

Denim, yes.

I think we all know that Levi Strauss got the ol' American denim jeans thing going in about 1873...and it is more popular today than ever. There is a revival going on right now all over the globe in American fashion.......When you think America.......denim jeans, denim jackets and denim ...denim...denim...everything......is as American as the old Stars and Stripes waving in the sunshine.
If dyed well, it fades, and that fade is half the beauty of denim. The other half of the beauty of denim is the way it wears to show your wrinkles, your holes, scuffs, folds and tears...the way the threads are twill woven.....one of blue and one of white. Pre-ripped and bleached out...not my preference. I like to see what a real person does to a real pair of denim jeans or a jacket. That's authentic. All else is a fake.

Denim jackets are everywhere again, and quite nifty......Want real vintage? I have 3 right now in my etsy shop.
We know this one ...The ever-popular  2 pocket indigo 70505.
Everyone and their sister copies this classic Levi cowboy or trucker jacket.

And a classic Lee 101J.....more indigo denim.........indigo is a vegetable blue dye that is a gorgeous color though most contemporary denim is dyed with a chemical blue, but still... why...it will fade to beauty all time. Lee Industries began in 1889, designed this type of 2 pocket jacket ...the 101J in 1946 just after WWII ended.

And....a Rare denim jacket with pleated front and 101 branded snaps. Note the patch pockets, sans flaps and snaps....Cute !  This was sold by Montgomery Ward, but I don't know yet who made it....This style was a hold-over copy from the Levi's original design with pleats on the front. Just when this Montgomery Ward jacket was made, late 50s to early 60s, Levi's dropped the pleats forever.

And how loved are Levi's ?? Well.....even when we tire of them as jeans, we girls make skirts! Here's one from the 70s, a pair of 217 Levis jeans with a zipper, real nice bells on these!. We know this vintage from the orange stitch at the corners of the pockets and the small e on the Levis tag on the pocket....

Denim was always the fabric of worker's clothes. It meant...you worked for a living, brother. If a rich guy donned a pair, he was pretending to be Marie Antoinette....play-acting like they could get a blister.

In the 50s, the youth and the outlaws of yesteryear wore denim because they were counter-culture, Man. This In-Your-Face rejection of slacks and ties continued through the 60s...and the 70s...and then...Majick! That which was counter-culture was co-opted and adopted by the main culture and now everyone wears denim all the time. It's just casual.

Here's some pix of Hollywood stars! also so American...can you guess the jacket and the star? I bet you can!!

answer: John Wayne in Levi's

answer: Elvis in Levis, and Barbara Stanwyck in something Edith Head cooked up for the movie Roustabout.

answer: Paul Newman in a Lee Storm Rider (like a 101J) jacket

answer: Steve McQueen in a Lee 101J jacket also.

And just because this movie rules for many reasons.....Dennis Hopper and James Dean in Lee jeans....Rebel Without A Cause.