Don't mess with Mrs. Straw

Mrs. Straw is wearing Dries Van Noten grey and plum pinstripe wool suit with Number (N)ine. Martin Margiela hat was a generous gift from a client.



The very cool blue sofa that Mrs. Straw is lounging on is also for sale. Deja Neu furniture just brought in some amazing new pieces, check out their blog. www.dejaneufurniture.blogspot.com

Warmth from the edge of the world

Inis Meain Knitting Company has been creating high quality knitwear in luxury fibres for the best stores around the world since 1976.

Inis Meain Knitting Co.
-Aran Islands, Galway Bay Ireland.

Inis Main is one of the Aran Islands lying 15 miles off the west coast of Ireland. It is just 3 miles across and supports 200 inhabitants. This is the island where all of the knitwear that bears the Inis Meain name, and symbol of the upturned currach is made.

The currach is the islanders' fishing boat which the fishermen must carry up from the shore after every voyage. For centuries, the fishermen's garments have been knitted by the women of the island. This is the tradition that inspires the knitwear designed and made in Inis Meain. The Aran Islands are renowned not only for their unique history of knitting but also for their natural style and way of life. Old traditions in farming, fishing, sport and music are sustained and celebrated.

Taking inspiration from island life, Inis Meain Knitting Company creates clothing with a new twist on the elegant and stylish Irish country look, in luxurious materials. Colours, inspired by land and sea, relfect the seasons. Donegal yarns, tweeds, plaids and stitch details such as herringbone, fairisle and moss all reflect Inis Meain's authentic original Irish style.

Being the least visited of the Aran Islands, Inis Meain offers the most peaceful and genuine experience of this unique cultural landscape. There is just one pub on the island where locals and visitors gather. This tranquility and simple way of living are what make Inis Meain Knitting Company provides a means for the sustainability and development of the unique island traditions and way of life by providing employment for islanders in their own environment, and by designing clothing reflecting the natural style of Inis Meain.

MAY YOU LIVE LONG TO WEAR IT

John is in New York this week buying women's for Spring 2010! If you're one of the scads of wives or girlfriends or daughters that have been after him to do it, now's a good time to get excited. The reports have been very good.

We never really followed through on those promised travel stories, and there's no guarantee there will be any this time, and we're sorry. Hopefully the clothes that keep coming in are incentive enough to visit us. (It feels a little anti-climactic now, but John really did save a woman's life in Paris. She was visibly struggling, the passers-by ignored her, and when John took the time to call an ambulance the medics determined that she'd been having a heart attack!)

The last few shipments of fall are trickling in, and this week we got a few more pieces of Issey Miyake. 

It's edgy

and vibrant

and interesting, always.

Issey Miyake is a Hiroshima survivor! See this article for his recollections. 

 

Dries and thank you.

This is Dries Van Noten.

Dries, as we chummily call him, is a Belgian fashion designer, and has been designing since the mid-eighties. He is also a member of the Antwerp Six, a group of Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts-educated designers that blitzed London in 1988 and have been well-regarded and very influential since. (Another member of the group, and a big presence in our store this fall, is Ann DeMeulemeester.)

On September 9, Dries will be awarded the 2009 Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion, a big honor with an awkward name. He told WWD, an industry trade magazine, that he's, "...very happy with this award, because it is for artistry in fashion, which for me is one of the most important things. It's the skills, the craftsmanship, the colors and the fabrics I create." 

You can see what he's talking about: 

His collections are notable for their sophisticated, typically rather sedate, colors -- but who can forget that leopard print from a few years ago? Or the gold? Or those scarves? 

He's also known for tracking down artisanal craftsmen -- the Dries network is world-wide (Italy! India! Hungary!). He's careful and responsible about his sourcing, something everyone's become more conscious of, and it shows in each hand-crafted piece. As the tag on one of his scarves says, "This piece is handmade by artisans. All pieces are therefore unique and can slightly vary in tone, size, and finish. Some imperfections can show, inherent to artisan production process." These aren't McClothes, in other words. Each piece is special.

See?

Congratulations, Dries!

In memory of Les Paul.

We are a pretty rock n' roll music lovin' bunch at Jack Straw.

When I came home from working at Jack Straw today, I had not heard the news that the legendary Les Paul had passed away. The tale below is a true account of my husband's recollection of an evening with Jimmy Page and Les Paul. I dug up the photo album from our very musty basement the moment he told me the story below.

"I took Jimmy Page to see Les Paul play in NYC in the early eighties. I had been traveling with him for a few weeks, working as a promoter's rep on a Firm tour. Page wanted to meet Les Paul and possibly jam with him. So I took Jimmy and his guitar (his Les Paul, of course) to the club where Les and his group played every week. We were unannounced guests. Of course heads were turning and Les Paul seemed to think it was pretty cool Jimmy was there. They had never met before.

After a while, Les invited Jimmy up to the tiny stage to jam, and the handful of people in the audience were treated to an incredible hour or so of Jimmy Page playing jazz with the Les Paul Trio. I shit you not, he had jazz chops that were close to as good as his rock n roll chops. Les Paul had incredible skill and a really unique, cool sound of his own. Both of them seemed to have a great time meeting each other and playing together and were all hugs and smiles at the end of the night.

After the jam, as Page was an extremely shy guy, he wanted me to get Les to sign his guitar. I pulled out the Sharpie which I always carried when in the company of guys like this. Page said, "no, use this," and handed me his pocketknife. I had Les Paul carve his signature into the finish on the back of Jimmy Page's guitar.

True story. I think I even have a picture taken that night stashed away somewhere, though I'd be hard pressed to come up with it. In those days I hung out with and met a lot of pretty big time rock types, but that night was up there in the top few coolest moments."

Road show.

Last week, Maresa took a field trip to the Seabold vintage market with some of our furniture. Click here to learn more.

When the cat's away...

John's back from his month in Europe. He got back last week, and he has some stories to tell. More on that later, though. 

See, we had some fun while he was away.

We climbed on the furniture.

We tried on the new Number (N)ine. 

We snuggled up to the new Yves Andrieux pillows.

It was like the Cat in the Hat in here!

Number (N)ine is a collection designed by Takahiro Miyashita, who's a real character. According to this article he draws a lot of inspiration from music, and a lot from place. The collection that you see a smidge of above was, in fact, inspired by the Pacific Northwest, and it is a great blend of Seattle and Japan. It incorporates flannel, corduroy, thermals, plaid, and skinny pants, and does it with unusual detail and perfect fit, which makes it special. 

This is also Number (N)ine's last collection. With our shipment, we received a pin that said, "Goodbye." 

That pillow is from Yves Andrieux, and it's made out of vintage French army fabric. It smells like sex. There are bags too, made out of the same stuff. They smell like sex, too. I mean it.

Stay tuned for those stories. Teaser: on his way to a showroom, in Paris, John saved an old woman's life!