Marine Uniform - Black Sailor's Top

This black sailor's top is from United Arrows in Shinjuku. It's a wool/polly mix. A fashionable re-think on the traditional sailor's uniform.

Ralph Lauren Dungaree Workshirt

This Dungaree workshirt has triple stitched structural seams.
I haven't actually owned a "dungaree" shirt before. Here's a definition of the term from Wikipedia:

Etymology of "dungaree"

The term "dungaree" was associated with a coarse undyed calico fabric that was produced and sold in a region near Dongari Killa (also called Fort George) in Bombay (now Mumbai) in India. The cloth was cheap and often poorly woven. As such, it was used by the poorer classes for clothing and by various navies as a sail cloth. Sailors often re-used old sails to make clothes. In time, the name of the cloth came to also mean an item of clothing made out of it.

I always thought dungaree was the same as chambray, but this cloth is different to chambray I have owned in the past.

Here's a definition of Chambray from thefreedictionary.com:

A fine lightweight fabric woven with white threads across a colored warp.

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[Alteration of French cambrai, cambric, after Cambrai, a city of northern France.]

So Chambray is closer to denim because it has the coloured warp and white weft. Except denim has a twill weave.


It's got a bit of the old printed typography on the inside (which I think is way overused in current fashions), but it's limited to the inside, so I didn't mind.


Here is the same shirt on Amazon! Seems like a good price, but I don't understand that size.

When it's really hot

I recently posted that it has been too hot for denim in Melbourne, but last week I decided to take the knife to my original Nudie RRDS.

Converted them to shorts.



I cut them to just below my knee, and then folded them up. Pretty happy with the result. They're very comfy and great for the hot days.

I was wearing these last Saturday. The day Melbourne had its hottest day on record.
46.9°C (117°F) was recorded at the nearby Melbourne University. I was in air-conditioned comfort working on the weekend, but I did step outside for five minutes to experience the hellish conditions. EVERYTHING was hot. The wind was like 500 hundred hairdryers blowing in your face. The sky looked weird as it mixed clouds and smoke.


On a very serious note, for that same day many people near Melbourne were not in air-conditioned comfort at all as many houses and people burned in the horrific weather.

some pictures
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/02/bushfires_in_victoria_australi.html

a scary story from a survivor

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/i-now-understand-the-word-firestorm-20090209-8288.html?page=-1

Michel Gondry x Levis

I guess I'm very late on this one. Incredible video that Michel Gondry made for Levis. It has a great feel, and really looks old.



Wikipedia:

According to the Guinness World Records 2004, Michel Gondry's Levi's 501 Jeans "Drugstore" spot holds the record for "Most awards won by a TV commercial".[2] The commercial was never aired in North America because of the suggestive content involving purchasing latex condoms.

Lightning No.62 The Denim Book

Lightning magazine are releasing another denim book this month.

I'll be visiting Japan next month, but I doubt I'll be doing much shopping. The Australian dollar has collapsed compared to the Japanese yen... I might be able to afford this book.