I’m thinking of offering a line of improved, versatile clothing items.
Martha already goes to the best thrift stores in the Midwest on her wool-sweather mission for her LazyGal.com fabric art biz. I’d just have her add a few items to the list of things she’s looking for. She already shops for me and the kids, as it is.
What we’d want to do is start finding two each of various wool blazers, shirts and vests, and summer blazers seersucker shirts. Then, using material from one I’d have Martha add pockets and sneaky options to the other.
The goal would be to offer vests and shirts, for both warm and cold weather, that have: 4 sizeable pockets in front, with flaps, and maybe also a couple rear-quarter pouches and/or an inside pocket. And to offer blazers (warm and cold) with pivoting shoulders — that is, gussets for the arms and back that let you reach forward or swing your arms without restraint and without causing the sleeves to bind across your back or scootch up your arms. They’d also each have a stout button and hole up at the collar so you could snug up your blazer on a chilly night — few blazers have this simple but oh-so-helpful feature nowadays.
Basically, they’d all still look good and not be overly thick or bulky in the wrong places. The vests would certainly not look like a trout-fishing vest festooned with pocketry.
I like the idea of being able to ride a bike wearing a blazer. Or to be able to carry a few more handy items on me than I normally can. I want chest pockets that don’t spill glasses when you bend over (a flap prevents that). As regards shirts and vests, I’d like lower front pockets that you could put a sandwich in (a blazer often has them already). And maybe even rear-quarter pouches that you could stash beer or water bottles in, or hat and gloves. Maybe there’d even be a rear game-pouch option that’s flat’n’trim when not in use, but there if needed.
Filson has some of these features on their superthick field jackets and such. I want to bring them down into streetwear and lighter attire.
These would be just more tools in the fashion arsenal, in addition to things like large, medium and small shoulderbags and big’n’little rucksacks and fannypacks.
And they wouldn’t cost as much as Filson and other customwear which easily clicks into two bills. They might cost a bit, though. $50 for a vest, $100 for a blazer, say.
