BARACUTA G9 - THE ICON FOR ICONS

If there is one thing which is constant in Manchester, England - it's the rain. In a city where it rains more often than it doesn't, Rainwear was big business in the early 20th centuary. Brothers, John and Isaac Miller ran the Baracuta factory, making rainwear for brands such as Burberry and Aquascutum. When they branched out into their own brand, Baracuta soon became synonymous with the finest Raincoats. 

By 1937, the Miller Brothers were looking for a new, functional design for a working man, and which would also keep them dry in the rain. They came up with what would eventually become the Baracuta G9. This shorter jacket meant the wearer would have the benefit of a shower proof coat while he was still able to move around, unhampered by a longer raincoat or mac. With the design including collar button fastening, elastic waistband and cuffs and button fasten pockets nearly finished, the Miller Brothers took their idea to Beaufort Castle, Scotland. In the presence of Lord Lovat, the head of the Fraser Clan, the Miller brothers requested that they be granted permission and licence to use the famous red Fraser tartan in the lining for the new Baracuta Jacket. With the agreement in place, the Miller Brother's began manufacturing the Baracuta Jacket in the classic G9 style, as well as other variations.

Over the years the Baracuta G9 built up a reputation. In the 1950's Baracuta G9 Jackets were being exported to the US as 'Sports Coats' for the early Mods looking for that Ivy League look. In 1958 Elvis Presley wore the Baracuta G9 in the flim, 'King Creole' propelling the jacket to the forefront of fashion. Other fifties and sixties icons picked the Baracuta G9 as thier jacket of choice - Frank Sinatra, Arnold Palmer, Gregory Peck, and perhaps most famously, The King of Cool - Steve McQueen, who made the Natural coloured Baracuta G9 an integral part of his 'look'.

The Baracuta G9 is back for Spring/Summer 13 ready for another generation of aesthetes to take it to their hearts.

EDDIE BAUER - AIN'T MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH

In 1963 Jim Whittaker, in partnership with Sherpa Nawang Gombu, became the first American to climb to the roof of the world and summit Mt. Everest. He did it outfitted in Eddie Bauer down. On that same American Mount Everest Expedition, Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld completed the first successful ascent of the challenging West Ridge route, which remains one of the greatest achievements in the history of mountaineering.

To celebrate of the 50th anniversary of these triumphs, Eddie Bauer returned to Mt. Everest in 2012 with two teams of world-class, high-altitude climbers, an entire line of award-winning, guide-built First Ascent gear, and a mission to retrace the steps of the historic American achievements on Mt. Everest. The mountain again revealed its power and proved that, five decades later, Everest still represents adventure in its grandest form. (Read the full story here)

Jerusalem Virtual Library: The Academic Database on Historic Jerusalem

Jerusalem Virtual Library: The Academic Database on Historic Jerusalem

The Jerusalem Library, initiated in 2001 by Prof. Sari Nusseibah, President of Al-Quds University and Prof. Ronnie Ellenblum of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is meant to be a comprehensive resource for the history of Jerusalem. The library, hosted together by the two universities, enables free access to digitized historical materials and primary sources about Jerusalem. The collections are based on the archives of the Jewish National Library, the Israel Antiquities Authority and the collections of al-Quds University.
To date, most of the historical sources are kept in national, religious, municipal and private archives and are not accessible to all. Physical and non-tangible barriers prevent potential readers, in Jerusalem and elsewhere from exploring the vast and complicated history of the city. The virtual library is meant to overcome these barriers
The Library makes use of innovative content-oriented IT tools and enables a more convenient, home-based search in the documents themselves. The biggest part of the collections are books, maps, photographs, engravings and inscriptions published for the first time before the beginning of the 20th century.
The material is scanned, OCR'd and thoroughly indexed. The indexing was carried out by a group of Palestinian and Israeli students who were supervised by specialists specializing in Classical Languages, Arabic and Islamic Studies, Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Geography History and Christianity,
The basic idea of the library is to enable the user to retrieve indexed extracts of various fields. Efforts were made to include topics such as gender, feelings, various stages in life, love, war, hatred, inter-community relations and other topics which are usually not included in traditional indexes. These features will enable the Library users to directly access historical data, thus eliminating the external narrator or historian as the interpreter of history.
Creating such an academic unbiased approach to the history of Jerusalem is a challenging task for while Jerusalem is the contested capital of two peoples, it is also a spiritual center for each of the world's three monotheistic religions and a universal symbol of hope and holiness. Through the Library, Jerusalem will be made accessible not only to its own residents and the countries that shoulder responsibility for its future, but to the entire world.

FIRST DAYS OF SNOW, BE PREPARED

The first day of snow bringing my LL Bean duck boots out of the closet. These boots have along history, as an outdoorsman first and businessman second, L.L. Bean had returned from too many hunting trips with cold, wet, chafed feet. He wanted a comfortable boot that would stand up to the elements. As he would find out, he wasn’t alone. When he got a bright idea. “I was quite interested in getting the right kind of footwear for deer hunting,” he would write decades later in his autobiography, My Story: The Autobiography of a Down-East Merchant. “I took a pair of shoe rubbers from the stock on the shelves and had a shoe maker cut out a pair of 7 1/2 inch tops. The local cobbler stitched the whole thing together.” Thus, the Maine Hunting Shoe was born. 

HISTORY LESSON - ARROW SHIRTS

With a heritage dating back to 1851, Cluett, Peabody & Co., Inc. is celebrating its 160th anniversary of selling superior quality apparel. In 1820, Mrs. Hannah Montague created the first detachable shirt collar in her home in Troy, NY as a way of cleaning her husband’s collar without laundering the entire shirt. In 1851, Ebenezer Brown recognized the possibilities in the detachable collar industry and began manufacturing collars in the back of his general store in Troy and the predecessor to the original Cluett, Peabody & Co., Inc. was born. This modest beginning would eventually lead to the introduction of the ARROW brand in 1885 as a pioneer in men’s fashion. From that point forward, the history of ARROW and its products closely followed the shifts and trends in American culture. As times changed, ARROW adapted accordingly, offering the product, fabric and fit that its consumers demanded. After WWI, detachable collars were abandoned in favor of soft attached collars like those soldiers had become so accustomed to on their uniforms. Conventional white shirts ruled in the 50’s and flamboyant colors and patterns reflected the turbulence of the 60’s and 70’s. Fashion marched onward, and ARROW delivered a redesigned product, appealing to the renewed conservatism of the young, urban professional in the 1970’s and 1980’s. I keep you posted how to become an Arrow Collar Man.

New Open Access Journal: Journal of Research on History of Medicine

Journal of Research on History of Medicine
ISSN: 2251-886X

The Journal of Research on History of Medicine encourages researchers in the field of history of medicine to submit historical articles in the whole fields of medical sciences from ancient to Contemporaneous periods, all round the world. Its domains includes development of medical sciences, biography of medical scientists, evidence based researches on historical aspects of medicine, archeological researches and roots of traditional approaches on medical sciences. 

2012

Vol 1, No 3 August (2012)

Vol 1, No 2 May (2012)

Vol 1, No 1 February (2012)

 Alphabetical List of Open Access Journals in Middle Eastern Studies

HISTORY LESSON BY LYLE & SCOTT

The name ‘Madras’ is taken from the Indian city of Madras (now known as Chennai) where the style was invented. Historians claim that Madras cloth originates from 1200s and was made of yarn that had been spun from the tip-skin of ancient trees. This evolved in to a more refined cotton that was very light weight and airy making it perfect for sweltering Indian summers. Traditionally Madras check shirts were coloured using vegetable dyes and woven into stripes and checks. The story goes that the check designs were inspired by the tartan plaids of the Scottish regiments that occupied southern India in the 1800s.

The dyes used in the past were not colourfast, which meant that the colours would bleed when washed and create new effects with each laundering. When these shirts were first introduced to the American market, around the 1930s, there was huge dismay that the fabrics ran meaning there were a lot of returns and quality complaints from customers. It took some careful re-marketing, but eventually the bleeding effect became a highly prized feature. A little like wearing in good denim, the evolution of a well-worn Madras to a muted, sun-soaked palette is now viewed as a charming distinguishing feature of the style.

Madras began to be enshrined in the “preppy” look in the 1960s when Madras shirts, shorts and blazers or jackets became popular on the campuses of Ivy League schools in the States. Particularly popular were the cut and sew shorts which were traditionally from 3cm squared swatches of different Madras checked material and sown together for a patchwork effect.

 So preppies now you know what you'll be wearing this summer. (Story thanks to Lyle & Scott)

GUARANTEED TO LAST

Today, it was my lucky day I received my ordered copy of "Guaranteed to Last", the complete history of LL Bean. This book is packed with rarely seen pictures of 100 years LL Bean. The cover of the book is like an LL Bean Tote bag in white canvas with a green trim and the LL Bean label.  In the book the story of Leon L. Bean, how an unknown hunter invented a new kind of shoe and remade the outdoor industry. See the time line here or buy the book yourself for only Usd 20,-- here.