It’s been a bit quiet on here recently, this is due to the fact that I’m moving house and cant presently get to any of my stuff. I’ve been living pretty much out of a bag with selection of 2 pairs of trainers, 1 pair of jeans, 2 shirts, a cardigan and a jacket.

I would love to say that I’ve come over all spiritual and realized that all the stuff I’ve amassed over the years is superfluous and holds no real value. But I can’t, I miss it all and am looking forward to getting it back.

More posts on their way in the next week or so.

Last week I was working on a project that required sourcing a lot of vintage clothing with most of the ‘filler’ coming from vintage shops like Rokit etc, in and around brick lane. Walking about I was thinking that I never find anything in these types of store and that 99% of it is shit.

Then, later that afternoon I had to pick up some bits that we had forgotten and immediately spotted these sitting under a rail of washed denim jackets.

Totally unworn, exactly my size (even down to the half) and £25.

I obviously spoke too soon.

My good friend Nick and his lovely girlfriend Emily recently moved across the globe to Australia, so, it was a very nice surprise to wake up to an email from Nick the other morning with some accounts of things he’s found whilst digging about on the other side of the world….

AUSTRALIAN ARMY ISSUE BOONIE HAT .

“On my second day since emigrating to Australia, I was walking through the city center, and stumbled upon an old army supply store. I was after a fisherman bucket style hat since before I left England to shade my fair complexion, but didn’t manage to find one I liked enough. This store was pretty terrible, and run people that lived up to every negative Australian stereotype you can think of. When I asked if there was a mirror as I was trying hats on one of them bellowed “We don’t have mirrors here this is a blokes shop!” and the rest followed suit in laughing at me. Most of the hats had huge brims that in my opinion, would look a bit ridiculous worn casually, but I found this one in the bargain bin for $8, around £5. Slightly too small for me, but I liked it enough to buy it anyway.

In order to make it fit I had to undo the back seam, and tacked the band around it down, all be it slightly crudely. Now it fits like a glove. My favourite purchase since arriving in Australia.”

LEVIS BIG ‘E’ DENIM JACKET.

“I don’t know much about this jacket. It was donated to me by my friend Duffy, from his youth, and was now too small and gathering dust at his mums house. If anyone knows any information about the date etc I’d be interested to know.

Not bad for free. I should probably buy Duffy a beer next time I see him.”

VERSACE UMBRELLA.

“I found this umbrella for £18 and decided it would be a nice present for the Mrs, still in the original box, with all the tags attached I thought it was quite a steal. Apparently from the 80′s but I’m not sure of an exact date. 

Unfortunately the metal Medusa head that was glued to the wooden handle has since fallen off, but doesn’t detract from the love given to this umbrella, both by Emily and everyone that asks her about it. Well worth £18 then some.” 

Great stuff form Nick here, and I’d like to thank him for taking the time to get in touch.

Here’s a wax cotton bucket hat that I found in a charity shop at the end of my road.

This didn’t seem too out of the ordinary until I put it on. But once I did, I realized that it’s MASSIVE, the strange thing is that I have really small head (I always have to wear baseball caps at the lowest size possible) and this is tight on me. So this isn’t just an all over a big hat, it’s deliberately oversized in proportion (hight and diameter) which I cant say I’ve ever really seen before.

I doubt I’ll ever wear it, but it was 50p and too bizarre to leave behind.

Over the past year or so I’ve started paying more attention to the book sections of 2nd hand and junk stores. Over that short period of time they have given up some pretty good stuff. The Oxfam dedicated book shops are particularly good.

I go in and out of regular reading and this has without doubt got me back in. The beauty in this is that most books are never more than a couple of quid (the Hirst book about was £12 but worth it) so I feel more inclined to take a chance on random bits. Sometimes I’ll get one because I like the look of the cover or the synopsis grabs my attention. So far this has worked out pretty well. Books on the more visual side of things are more obvious buys.

So far the best find has been ‘Steppenwolf’ by Hermann Hesse. I was not familiar with him or his work at all before I parted with 50p for it, but as it turns out, it is one of the best books I have ever read and I would recommend it to anyone.

Here is a  Pendleton Street Cruiser that came from the same 2nd hand store that yielded the LVC’s.

This item is remarkable in two ways; first, when I found it, it was totally unworn and the second is that it fit’s me. I’ve found tons and tons of these types of wool overshirt’s through out the years, and 99% of them are useless to anyone except maybe those with the physical proportions of Danny Devito; short, wide, vast necks and sleeves like clowns trousers.

It’s pretty obvious that the realistic shape of this one can be attributed to the fact that is an anniversary re-issue and only a few years old. The pattern was probably updated to make these wareable for the masses and not just rugged outdoorsmen with 17 layers underneath.

I was happy to part with £25 for this.

I’ve always been ‘into’ footwear.

Ever since I used to visit my grandparents in the U.S towards the end of the 80′s, I’ve noticed what’s on peoples feet and on the shelves. Those trips across the Atlantic yielded special treats (via my parents) from outlets and small stores that not only piqued my interest as a youngster, but started my way of thinking and fascination with the uncommon that remains with me today. One of the best parts of going on these visits was going back to school upon my return and sporting the spoils of the previous trip.

A major thing was the fact that these acquisitions were obtained for a fraction of the price that they were in the UK. I remember coming back with pair of Jordan 5′s one year, purchased from an outlet store, that [in the UK] cost over a hundred quid – these had been obtained for less than half that. I had something on my feet that was exactly the same as what was available and desired by my friends but had cost less than half the price.

This memory has stuck with me through the years and provided a measure of how I think about and how I go about getting hold of  things I like. And I guess in a way inspired me to start this blog.

Anyway, here is an original pair of Air Max Light from 1988. These found me totally by coincidence one day whilst helping a mate clear out his Dad’s garage. I opened up a box of stuff and there they were. These were in pretty good nick when I found them but over the years, away from the micro-climate of that garage, they have deteriorated pretty rapidly. I wore them quite a few times (they’re my size – just) when I first found them but that is out of the question these days as is plainly obvious.

I still think they’re great though. An interesting part of Nike history.

A few years back I was working in a pretty affluent and middle class area of West London, once or twice a week I would wander down to the main high street and check the 2nd hand shops for anything decent. There were 2 in particular that came up trumps, time and time again.

One afternoon, I was having a nose about and took a look at the jeans rail. Flicking through, there was the usual GAP, M&S etc, (I was barley looking) when my hand touched on something that felt quality, I looked down and saw these; 1955 (thanks Rob)) LVC 501′s in my size – £19…. It didn’t stop there either. Going further through the rail there must have been 3 or 4 pars of LVC all different cuts and styles, not only that there were 2 pairs of PRPS and a pair of Sugar Canes, all just sitting there, all just £19. I could not fucking believe it.

Unfortunately, they were all massive sizes, these were the only 32″ x 32″ in the whole bunch so I decided to leave the rest there. I told a few friends about what I’d found and the next day I heard that the prices and been put up to £49, and there were only a couple of pairs left in the particularly vast sizes.

I wondered how so much quality denim could end sitting in a 2nd hand shop for such a low price. I thought that maybe someone obscenely wealthy must have had a clear-out, but why were there such a range of sizes?

I guess I’ll never know, but it really made me think about how much good stuff must be sitting around in some little shop somewhere, waiting to be discovered.

JP from http://soft-water.blogspot.com got in touch to share this beautiful TNF Mountain Parka scored from Ebay for a paltry £19.

In his own words;

“Plenty of new versions of these knocking about over the last year or two from the likes of Sierra Designs, Rocky Mountain, Oi Polloi and numerous Japanese brands, this recent buy though is a mint North Face 60/40 mountain parka from way back , when they were still made in the good ol’ US of A.”

I’ve always had a lot of love for North Face gear, and I think you’ll have to agree that this is a stunning example.

Here we have an old lamp that I found in a junk shop down in Brighton. There’s no branding or any way of telling how old it is, but at a guess I would say it’s from the 60′s/70′s.

There’s nothing particularly special about this item, other that the fact that I really like it’s shape and sense of balance. It totally stood out to me among the Babycham ice buckets and 2nd hand Jeremy Clarkson books that occupied the rest of the shop. It works fine, but the wiring is a little bit erratic and will no-doubt zap me one day, leaving me with an ‘Easerhead’ hair-do and a minor case of the shakes.

They wanted £30 for this, which I though was a bit steep, so I knocked them down to £27 and insisted that I keep the light bulb.