February Signals

Welcome back for the latest installment of Signals. Signals is our bi-monthly round-up of anything that has caught my eye recently, repeated here in an unedited stream of conscience. It really doesn’t have to relate to menswear or fashion or anything — it’s a true grab-bag in that sense.

Please also consider liking, commenting, or sharing — your engagement really goes a long way! Either way, I hope you enjoy.

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Alex Colville

What does the title painting mean to you?

The austere scene, the mysterious woman facing away from the viewer, stretching the scene and standing tall like electrical pole in the background, whose wires connect the man’s head to the woman…

A missed connection? A turn to the unknown?

The painting is by Canadian artist Alex Colville. Colville has an incredibly unique art style, in that many of his paintings have this uncanny, poorly-rendered Playstation 2 feel to them…

This in itself isn’t necessarily anything to write home about, but when he made these paintings is. These are all from the 1960s and 70s:

This is crazy, right? His body of work seems like it drifted through a rift in time. I’ll call your attention to the first painting in this quartet, To Prince Edward Island (1965): The woman’s left arm appears to be subtly clipping through the back of the bench on which she’s sitting. This could be a still ripped directly from one of the early Sims franchises.

This style of painting is called Magic Realism, and Colville is an exemplar of the genre. The vague/impossible light sources and complete lack of shadow interaction between objects creates this uncanny, flat remoteness that draws one into the paintings.

His most famous, and perhaps most poignant work is Pacific (1967).

This painting is teeming with emotionality. An entire feature-length film condensed into a frame of the last scene.

Michael Mann famously references Pacific in his cat-and-mouse thriller Heat (1995):

There was a painting that inspired me about this moment, and that painting probably kept me interested in making the motion picture of Heat longer than anything else. And it was a painting of a table with a .45 on it, and a rear shot of a man standing against a background, and contained within it, somebody who was involved in some life of aggression and action. And yet the contrast was in the mental state, because here was a moment of inner loneliness. And it didn’t dictate something. Instead, it posed a question. It didn’t inform with a statement, it posed a question: What is this man thinking? What is he imagining? And it said something about his circumstances and his condition, which was a condition of loneliness.”

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We are tapping in on this beautiful Sunday after my third consecutive 70+ hour night-shift week, featuring me trying to blindly troubleshoot some complex engineering issues on the other side of the world.

That is to say, I’m holding onto my sanity by a thread. I have a lot to talk about, so please excuse an extra talkative stream of consciousness through this letter. Okay let’s jump in:

Deadstock MiUSA chore jacket

I’ve been on the hunt for a cool chore jacket for a pretty long time. I had an old one from J. Crew’s Wallace & Barnes line that, despite being a beautiful jacket, was just way too slim-cut (especially in the arms) and rigid to be functional in any meaningful way.

A chore jacket wasn’t a big need of mine in my wardrobe by any means, but I’ve been playing around with woodworking as a hobby, and thought it’d be nice to have something to, well, do chores in without getting my normal clothes covered in sawdust. So, the hunt began again.

The two biggest online suggestions for chore jackets are Le Labourer (perpetually sold out) and Le Mont St. Michel (hella expensive and also frequently sold out). eBay was sadly not very promising either, as jackets that looked more similar to rags were being hocked for $100+, often without measurements.

Finally I remembered that Etsy exists, and came across this brand called Rawson studios, which seems to source vintage deadstock workwear clothes. It’s mostly styled for women, but a lot of the items appear to be deadstock men’s military apparel.

I came across this jacket for $65, and it’s honestly such a crazy piece. It’s US military deadstock despite that awesome “bleu de travail“ coloring. It has snaps that connect the bottom hem all the way to the sleeve, so you could theoretically rip the jacket in half if you wanted to (great for working in the Summer), a covered placket to keep stuff from getting on your normal clothes, and, most important of all, it has literal wizard sleeves. The sleeves on this thing are fucking HUGE — way bigger than sleeves need to be. Still, it creates an interesting silhouette and looks pretty cool with them rolled up a bit.

Anyway, I’m pumped as this is exactly what I’ve been looking for hoping to put it through the ringer once the outdoors thaw enough for me to resume working on my deck.

Stussy is Back in NYC

Not particularly of interest to me, but there’s a lot of buzz in the noosphere about Stussy re-opening its store in NYC.

Is it just me, or does this look like the lobby of a Hilton Garden Inn? 😬

Gramicci OCBD

This one is more of me asking you guys for some input…

Is this a new product from Gramicci? I don’t really follow their offerings beyond the G pants and that really great collab they recently did with And Wander. Looks like this one has some really cool features: A drop shoulder, underarm gusset, pocket flap, and a pretty long collar with a decent roll based on some of the other pictures.

Has this been around? Anyone have experience with it? My only issue is the weather-resistant treatment, even though that makes sense for an outdoors/climbing brand like ‘Micci.

Montbell JPY Carry Trade

I was watching the above video wherein the host mentions the Montbell Plasma 1000 Alpine Parka. I was reminded that Montbell had a huge come up during the original rise of GORPcore in ~late 2022, and decided to check it out again.

The jacket that our host references in the video is a 1000-fill (fill being basically a measurement of how lofty the down feathers are. Higher fill power = more warmth per oz.) down jacket, which is pretty unique in itself. For the most part, brands don’t really seem to go over 800 fill — I imagine it prevents the jackets from looking a little overstuffed.

That said, Montbell has a USA site and a Japan site. With the Japanese Yen in the shitter, you can actually go to their Japan site and still buy US sizes, and save a little in the process. Worth checking out! Just make sure you get the “Western“ size and NOT the Asian size, or you’ll get something way smaller than expected.

White Mountaineering x Umbro GAT things

Speaking of cool Japanese products, White Mountaineering (an AWESOME Japan-based outdoors brand) and Umbro have teamed up for a take on Umbro’s “First Jogger“.

Honestly they nailed it, these things look incredible. I especially dig the “black“ pair (above right). If you’re looking for a niche minimal white sneaker for this Summer and happen to have $280 laying around, I’d give these ones a check.

New Balance 1906L “Rich Oak“

This is the third release of the New Balance snoafers. Fuck my idiot chungus life.

Real talk I actually really wanted these ones. Sold out instantly.

American Chestnut is BACK

Speaking of elegant woods…

It looks like some dude on X the Everything App has evidence of a blight-resistant strain of the American Chestnut tree. This is pretty incredible news!!