second pop-up in belfast next saturday

a sweater for every man

cardigans, shawl neck, crew neck...

sunday best

1960s slim fitting three-piece suit, dark green wool herringbone - Curlee Clothing Company, St. Louis

1950-60s medium brown leather ankle boots - The Taylor Made Shoe, E.E. Taylor, Freeport, Maine

brown circle pattern bow tie 

there, wearing this

Hope Orchards - Hope, Maine

Woolrich wool plaid lined jacket with woven buttons

in stock: charcoal

  

1960s open plaid 3-button wool jacket

wool stripe tie

wool camp blanket

1960s glen plaid wool button-up shirt

low heeled oxford with brogue flap

crop open front wool jacket

cloth wallet with leather pocket and rivet detail

1960s 3-button trim fit suit with brown stitching, ankle cuff pants

peter baldwin arts - brooks, maine

I feel very lucky to be partnering with Peter Baldwin for the installation of this weekend's pop-up shop in Belfast. Based in Brooks, Maine, Peter is a woodworker who produces beautifully-crafted orchard ladders. For my purposes, setting up shop in a space where the walls are to remain untouched and with the benefit of very high ceilings - these freestanding sturdy ladders are the perfect solution to pop-up fixtures. A variety of Peter's offerings - straight, pointed and tripods - will be seen. Sourced from across Maine, the wood used is bigtooth aspen for the side rails which contrasts nicely with ash for the rungs.

Peter has lived in Maine since 1971. When considering a potential product made of wood, he turned to his home state of New York where he grew up in an orchard and spent his childhood playing on tree ladders. His first year was 1984 and he built fifty ladders; the following year, one hundred. Currently he averages 1000-1200 ladders a year. His work is widely distributed and his largest markets are back in New York and in Michigan.

Everyone to whom I've mentioned Peter knows and highly regards him. I'm still new to the area, but I gather Baldwin Arts is an institution in these parts.  His generosity extended to allowing me to grab offcuts from the shop to route into hanging rods and plane into shelving. (Another byproduct will go to a friend's sawdust toilet.) The result is a flexible modular system that is high functioning and visually interesting. One more reason to visit the shop!

Pre-inventory:

belfast pop-up shop

Join County Seat Supplies for a two day pop-up shop this weekend in Belfast, Maine. As usual, expect a collection that is equal parts mens and womens, classic, wearable, one-of-a-kind secondhand clothing and accessories.

built on squares

Kaftan, tunic, serape... I like the simplicity of the construction of these garments - based on single squares and rectangles - and the resulting fit. Two contemporary artists/designers inspired by these restrained patterns come to mind.

Mexico City-based designer Carla Fernandez gains inspiration from the indigenous clothing of her country. Geometric patterns demonstrate an economy of materials as the dimensions are based on those of the backstrap loom on which the cloth is woven, and folding rather than cutting is used to manipulate cloth. Fernandez works directly with artisans through her fashion line and mobile laboratory, Taller Flores, to design and produce clothes that combine traditional and modern processes. 

According to fashion writer, Sass Brown, by "having a pedagogy for artisans to communicate through design, Fernandez's philosophy is that tradition is not static and fashion is not ephemeral." In her book, Taller Flora (download here), she describes how a fresh approach to indigenous clothes resulted from her studies in art history that included avant garde movements like Russian Constructivism that merged with design. 

The geometry of Constructivist uniforms are also what influenced pioneering artist, Andrea Zittel. Along with every other mode of living - homes, furniture, vehicles, food - her clothing experiments adhere to strict guidelines for prolonged periods of time. Her Personal Panel and A-Z uniform series not only reference the utopian ideals of these movements, but also a method of assembly that rejects the cutting of fabric, altering it from its orginal form. In her Smockshop project, she works with artists to produce income by reinterpreting her single panel garment into something original, working by her principle that 'rules make us more creative.'  She references the indigenous Huipil form as a basis for one iteration of the smock. 

Click here to see more of the latest uniforms produced at A-Z West, her Institute of Investigative Living, located in Joshua Tree.

Now from the County Seat Supplies collection:

silk stripe blouse, two square panels

knit serape, single square panel with added shawl collar

hand-knit bird tunic, two rectangular panels

cotton blend huilpil-form crop top, two panels each bisected at a diagonal 

barn jackets for spring

 Gempler's denim with corduroy collar

Pointer Brand striped denim with tab collar

Blue Bell lined denim with corduroy collar

there, using this

Yurt in midcoast Maine.
Well worn axe from Liberty Tool, Liberty, Maine.

women: for head and toes

black leather lace-up cap toe boots, plaid head scarf with chin loop closure, hand knit cap with chin button closure, brown leather oxfords with stitching

nomadics: unsettlement project

The on-again off-again nomadics theme on the blog has had some resonance over the past eight months or so. Now having been a season removed from this particular step along the way, I'd like to draw attention to a project initiated by an artist I met this summer. Entitled Unsettlement, Ashley Waldvogel Gaddy of the Savannah College of Art and Design spent her summer documenting the 'migratory inhabitants' of campground and RV parks up and down the eastern seaboard. 

They are an interesting lot, having lived within such a community for several months, and a fascinating demographic to focus upon. I was stationary - doing a live/work exchange having just taken a job in the area - but my neighbors shifted daily, weekly, ranging from bare bones tenters to McMansion types on wheels. Then there were a number of folks like me whose spots were secured by dedicating a portion of the week to gardening, cleaning and generally maintaining this unique oceanfront campground and family homestead that produces its own vegetables and wool, and invites artists and craftspeople for weekly residencies and workshops for visitors at the passive solar studio on its grounds. For four months, I occupied a lovely and roomy corner space surrounded by groves of tall pines that kept it cool at all times and filtered the sunlight in just perfectly. My indoor/outdoor compound consisted of a then newly purchased, extremely high-mileage three-ton cargo van (my personal and business storage unit), a picnic table (al fresco cooking and dining), and the very efficient little 4x6' pop-up A-frame lent to me by the campground which was just long enough to sleep in and tall enough to stand at its peak (bedroom and additional storage). That little baby was a major source of intrigue for passers-by, leading to my self-proclaimed status as 'campground famous.'

Ashley's photographs can be seen on the project's website and corresponding blog, including her very adorable children. Unsettlement will culminate in a traveling exhibition opening at the school in Savannah, and the publication of a catalog.