You are probably familiar with the fact that we like to reimagine classic patterns around here, and play with interesting fabrics. So, when one material comes along, and ticks all the Mister Freedom® boxes (vintage vibe/natural fibers/provenance/cost/etc…), you know it’s making it to the cutting table!
The CALIFORNIAN Lot64 Jeans and CAMPUS Blouse are two staples of the Mister Freedom® USA-made roster, both original patterns released in a wide range of premium denims so far, some domestic New-Old-Stock, some milled/imported from Japan.
For this edition, we developped a very special grade of vintage-inspired 1940s all-cotton wide-wale corduroy (8 wale cord) in Japan, a perfect candidate for a fancy black cord cowboy tuxedo!
This fabric is reminiscent of traditional “Velour d’Amiens” (the famed sturdy wide-wale cotton corduroy material from France, for those familiar with French 1930s vintage hunting wear/workwear), discussed in this blogpost:
“Competing with the British Lancashire textile industry at the time, French mills established around the City of Amiens had been producing this workwear corduroy grade since the 18th Century. If some still refer to heavy corduroy fabric as Manchester in some parts of Europe, “Velour d’Amiens” is the term that is familiar to French old-timers.
Cosserat, a French mill founded around 1793, and one of the last velour côtelé manufacturer from Amiens, permanently closed its doors in 2012. With low-cost corduroy manufacturing coming out of China flooding the market, management of the long-standing Coserrat mill eventually gave up on restructuring attempts, and genuine “Velour d’Amiens” is sadly no longer manufactured.”
That fancy fabric initially made it into our mfsc catalog with the Mattock Jacket, in a camel brown version, followed by another special dye lot in “vintage” black for our Roamer Car Coat.
For the textile techie and traditional weaving enthusiast, this material falls under the “double cross” corduroy family — a process referred-to in Japan as “niju ori”, literally “double weave” —, a premium woven cord with special interlaced pile and ground yarns.
The semantic sound of a CALIFORNIAN “Santa Fe” edition may be a bit geographically puzzling, but the scoop is that the New Mexico moniker was initially chosen for our corduroy Campus Blouse, as a mere style nod to sport jackets produced by Janscraft in the 1930s-40s (and other period makers), featuring colorful Chimayo-style blankets combined with contrasting corduroy panels. The idea of a matching Californian came later in our design process, but the moniker stuck.
Whether you decide to go full-on Rio Grande, or mismatch the combo with traditional denim, vintage-style slacks, old-school leather jackets etc, both garments are versatile on their own, and easy to incorporate into classic wardrobes.
The Mister Freedom® CALIFORNIAN & CAMPUS BLOUSE “Santa Fe” edition, in black 14 Oz. wide wale “Double Cross” 100% cotton corduroy, are designed and produced in California USA, in collaboration with Sugar Cane Co, from premium fabric milled in Japan.
