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A Quick Tour Through My Fall Wardrobe
Once upon a time, I found a rare made-in-Canada blanket-lined Carhartt denim jacket, which is one of my all-time favorites. So are my Ralph Lauren pants – very wide, very pleated, very corduroy.
And why not one more? It’s a knit jacket made from silk and baby alpaca on a tiny Irish island with a population of 184 people, most of whom I assume made this piece.
I also snagged a vintage, almost perfect suede jacket. I also want to talk about my first-ever sports coat – it’s a one-of-one made-in-London wool Bedford cloth horn-buttoned coat from my favorite brand that doesn’t fit me.
Lastly (for now), mere mortals is the first ever product from the Iron Snail knitting division, codenamed Billy Goat. There are actually going to be two different sweaters in five different colors, but they’re not all finished yet.
The Big News: We’re Moving!
And now, hello everyone, it’s Michael. Welcome to 24 of my favorite thrifted fall essentials. I am allergic to probably 23 of the thrifted fall essentials. This is going to be a 24-piece lightning round of an article.
But first, remember last time when I said “I’ll see you next week, a very big announcement is coming up.” It is not related to the Iron Snail, but it is related to my personal life.
A lot of you thought it was going to be that I’m proposing to my girlfriend, Taylor. There will be a 12-part series on suit jackets and the best wool to use for pants when that time comes.
In the meantime, we’re leaving New York. Taylor and I today – well, tomorrow, but this is my last day in New York. I love New York, so I don’t particularly know how I feel about it.
I thought it would be fun if you and I went on a walk on all my favorite trails and paths, the woods, and stuff like that that I will no longer be going to. Well, I guess if I go, you just picture me writing this in the woods the whole time. Deal? Sweet!
Either way, though, you’re probably wondering where the heck we are moving. We’re moving to Portland, Maine, home of L.L. Bean.
Let’s Talk About Vests (And My New Life in Maine)
When I first showed this first vest to Taylor, she thought I was joking. I’m not joking. I think I could make a shearling vest work, maybe if the rise of my pants was a little higher and I had a little lighter, nice gray sweatshirt or something. I got this for 20-30 bucks, and it’s a Field Master brand.
It’s suede with probably a polyester lining on the inside, so sadly, it’s not really shearling. I do need to get a real shearling piece. Maybe Taylor thought it was a costume because I showed it to her while I was wearing a Western shirt, and it was just in my underwear.
While we’re on the general subject of vests, I got a pretty sweet one from Norsewear, which is a company that still exists. It’s a New Zealand company, 100% Shetland wool.
Very rarely do I get a piece on eBay that exceeds my expectations, beyond my expectations. It doesn’t look like a huge brand, but Norsewear still exists, and they make a really cool quarter zip that I would love to buy.
The reason I’m into vests is because, you know, when you’re moving, you kind of remap your life. You’re like, “Oh, I’m going to become a marathon runner now that I live in Portland, Maine.”
I would like to buy a bike and bike around, and I picture myself riding a bike in Maine with a vest on. And then, you know, slowly, we’ll add the arms on but not make it a full sweater or something like that.
Some Really Cool Sweaters (And One That Doesn’t Fit)
I got a cardigan, and I thought the brand was Thunderbird, but it turns out the brand is Columbia – early Columbia. It is probably from the 1960s. It’s a little itchy but still beautiful.
The coolest part is that it’s Columbia – the Columbia now is so different. They started off as a hat company, then they made knitwear with cotton and wool, and now they literally have insulation from their company being used by NASA.
This next sweater is from a brand called Lido from California. I don’t believe they exist anymore. It’s a vintage ski sweater. The sweater is not the softest at all.
It’s actually a little rough. You’re probably going to want a base layer with it, but the yarns feel absolutely beautiful. If it was on the rack today, I would assume it would be $300 to $400, if not more, because of how nice it feels.
Then we get to our first bummer of the day: a beautiful Gap sweatshirt.
I really want a collared cardigan or collared sweater, but it’s very small. It kind of fits Taylor – she looks very cute in it, so that’s a bonus.
I was a little disappointed by this next piece, not because of its quality – the quality of it was beautiful – but because I didn’t know it was a spring-summer thing. I really like autumn, fall-winter things, you know, thicker beefier wool things, but it is from the most remote knitting brand in the world, according to Mr Porter.
The brand is Inis Meáin, which is a small Irish island with a population of like 186 people or something like that. I don’t know the current population; someone may have died. And they make some of the most beautiful, incredibly expensive knitwear that I’ve ever seen in my life.
So, I’ll probably never wear this piece. I’ll probably sell it and put it on eBay. It’s too slouchy, and it makes me feel very old when I wear it, like an old, tired man.
So if any of you are old, tired men of small size, let me know – I’ll send this to you.
The Billy Goat: My First Knitwear Project
Finally, the pièce de résistance – my own knitwear piece, the first ever piece from the Iron Snail knitting division. Let me introduce you formally to the Billy Goat.
Well, there will be two Billy Goats this year – this is the only one that’s finished right now.
The main thinking behind the construction of the Billy Goat was to maximize durability while keeping softness. There is a certain level where most people don’t need something to be even softer because if it is even softer, it’s more delicate. And we now have very, very soft wools – Merino is an incredible example.
But what if you had something that was imperceptibly coarser than Merino that would last you longer, hold its shape better, and be a little springier?
So, the Billy Goat is made from 100% Targhee sheep’s wool. You’re probably asking, “What is Targhee sheep?” In the 1930s in Idaho, the Targhee sheep were developed to be a dual-purpose breed, so you could eat it or use its wool. But what’s very cool about the Targhee sheep is that it’s kind of the greatest hits of all of the sheep. So it has Rambouillet in its blood, which is why it has very soft fine wool, but it also has Lincoln and Corriedale.
So all that is to say is that the wool fiber is longer and thicker than Merino, and longer and thicker means it is more durable. But also, since it has that Rambouillet in there, it’s very soft, it’s very springy, and you can wear it next to your skin.
When I was talking to the spinners that I’m working with, also in Wyoming, they said that they have to size the sweaters they make differently if they’re using Merino versus what they’re using Rambouillet because of the stretch factor that Merino has when Rambouillet just doesn’t – it snaps back to shape much easier.
The Ones That Got Away: S.E.H Kelly Edition
Now it’s time to pour some out for the homies – two pieces that, sadly, I really wanted to add to the collection, but they are totally gone forever. First is an amazing S.E.H Kelly Balmacaan.
I wanted that so bad. I found it for a good price online, and the seller’s being really nice, but he keeps updating me being like, “Hey man, looks like USPS hasn’t updated this in 20 days,” and I’m like, “It’s gone dude, it’s gone.”
I love their stuff. S.E.H Kelly is unbelievable, which is also why I tried to snag this beautiful wool Bedford cord S.E.H Kelly one-of-one. I think they call it the SB jacket, but it is a sports coat. It’s coming from Germany, so maybe, maybe, it will come.
Let’s Get Into Some Pants and Jackets
I got this next guy from eBay. It’s unbranded and was listed as being from the 1940s-1950s – I think it’s a 1950s-1960s field coat, which is unbelievable.
Although the fit’s a little weird, it’s a little too wide but not long enough in the arm, so it has this kind of like splayed-out thing. They were clearly very worried that the jacket collar was going to be too stiff with the layer of canvas and corduroy, so they used a very light layer of canvas, but it’s too light.
Speaking of old canvas, we have some pants in the lineup, which all you little trendy boys and girls are going to love because they’re pleated and super wide. I love them – Ralph Lauren Andrew pants, double pleated. I watched a documentary on Ralph Lauren a few nights ago.
I actually fell asleep in the middle of it, not because it was bad – I was just a little sleep-deprived. But these pants are awesome. Admittedly, I did think I was buying khakis – those are clearly gray pants, and the description does say gray, so it’s totally my fault.
The Great Sweatshirt Discussion
Brut is a really great brand. I talked about them in the last article, and the sweatshirt that I talked about is what I’m talking about now. It’s just a really great color.
Taylor and I watch ’90s TV shows basically every night before we go to bed. It makes me feel like I’m living in the ’90s, like a comfy, cozy kind of loud color that’s still nice.
But the real sweatshirt killer brand, which we will probably do in part two of sweatshirts, is, of course, Lady White. I bought one of their sweatshirts for the last article, but I didn’t include it because of time, and it didn’t make the list and everything like that, which you all voted for; by the way – you talk to me like I didn’t include your favorite sweatshirt, you didn’t vote enough!
Lady White’s 1944 sweatshirt – unbelievable. Honestly, I think if Lady White had their way, they would leave a little mint on your pillow after you bought something from them. The Taylor Stitch Division shirt in Birch. It has burnt corozo nut buttons, which is why it’s a little darker brown on the outside. The beautiful texture goes with, uh, this outfit that I wore out recently with Taylor to an improv comedy show, UCB.
A Quick Detour Into Filson Territory
We actually have two pieces from Filson. Filson has been undergoing a lot of changes recently – go on the Filson subreddit if you’d like to read about it more. I have Filson’s Wool Work jacket and their Shortline Tin Cloth Cruiser. They’re both amazing pieces of absolutely outstanding quality.
The tough part about Filson, though, is the way that they’re doing business now – they crank prices up a lot so that way they can put them on sale, and you’re like, “Oh my gosh!” Which I did – I bought a duffel bag the first time they did a sale because I couldn’t believe that the sale was so good. They got me!
But what makes it harder to recommend Filson is that their sale price should be around where they should be selling their pieces at, not the retail price. So you have to get them on sale, but even then, they’re kind of expensive. So if you really like Filson, they have an amazing history, and their stuff still is very high quality, but the whole like “is it a deal” thing – they’re not the strongest in that suit.
The Denim Section: My Current Favorites
We’re going to hit the denim world for a second if you don’t mind. Levi 501s made in the USA, vintage ’90s – I kind of got these as a holdover pair, a light wash pair.
I, of course, have my own jeans, but I had to send all of mine to the manufacturer so they could use them as a sample for production, which should be coming out very, very soon, by the way – to everybody that bought one, thank you.
Ralph Lauren denim jacket – I talked about this last year, but one of the best cold-weather denim jackets ever. Awesome fit, has a cool corduroy collar, and cool lining.
I have really liked Ralph Lauren lately.
The Prolog jacket is getting a friend this coming year, or maybe even two. I have been feverishly looking on vintage sites, vintage Instagrams, and everything to find interesting denim jackets and see what people are doing that is really spicy.
Upon doing that, I found Tough Nut, which is a really, really cool jacket, clearly modified type two, which is very cool. No hand warmer pockets, cotton threads that are kind of busting out, it has holes everywhere. The construction on the back is totally weird. I would never reference that construction, I think it looks very bad.
On the topic of overshirts, we have a total miss and then a total win. The total miss is vintage Boy Scouts red overshirt, 85% wool, 15% nylon, classic. The Real McCoy’s does one that’s absolutely stunning, but it’s like $350 or something. I paid 40 bucks for this.
In the win category, though, Imogene + Willie is making a sawtooth – they may have done this before, but a sawtooth denim shirt, the best overshirt that I’ve ever worn in my entire life. And then they came out with the red and green flannels in the same cut – I would buy those too if I wasn’t spending a trillion dollars on this move.
This might be my second or third favorite Storm Rider denim jacket. I have a Lee Storm Rider, which I guess technically made the list ’cause I just mentioned it, but it’s a little too long.
I don’t really like the fit of it – I need to get another one that fits me a little bit better.
I also have this made-in-Canada Carhartt denim jacket with unbranded buttons. I thought it was fake; I don’t know what year it’s from. Carhartt licensed their name out apparently during the Great Depression, and it took them a long time to get all of those licenses back.
Either way, this jacket is just – it’s a little too short, it’s 21 inches long, so you have to wear it with really high-waisted pants if you’re going to wear it, but something about it is just really perfect.
Watch This Review
The Final Piece and Goodbye
What’s the final piece, Mikey boy? The final piece is this suede jacket I got from Grailed. Nice and old, made by Mountain Goat company in Canada.
I had a few other suede pieces over the years that were made in Canada, and everything that’s coming out of there that’s lined with something has been really exceptional.
But either way, that’s it. That’s the end of New York and New Jersey, as we all know it, because I’m leaving.
Great. Goodbye, old apartment.
This article was adapted from Michael Kristy’s video on The Iron Snail, with edits from Fashion’s Digest, and was reviewed by Michael to ensure the integrity of his original content. Watch the full video here.
The Iron Snail is a men’s fashion vlog (and now article series!) starring a young man named Michael and featuring a snail no bigger than a quarter. The two are set on taking over the world of fashion by creating a clothing line to end all clothing lines. Until then, we’re here to tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about the best clothing out there, from the highest quality raw denim jeans to the warmest jackets to the sturdiest boots…the Iron Snail has got you covered.