It will only get better

This time of year when you're quite tired after a long, cold winter it's very nice to be outside. So I had a cup of coffee in the sun outside of Unionville the other day and took a couple of pictures of one of my absolute favorite garments, my Lee Rider's denim shirt 1955 reproduction. I got it as a Christmas gift from my brother six years ago and since then I've been using it at least once a week. And if I'm not using it, I generally bring it with me in a bag. You never know when you need your favorite shirt. Through the years it has been used as a blanket as well as a pillow.

On the pictures below you can see how it looks besides a brand new one. As you can see, time has surely put its mark on it and the colour has been worn off in a very neat way.

For the first year I didn't wash it a single time, but when the smell became unbearable I shoved it into the washing machine. Since then it's been washed continuously in different temperatures.

During the six years of usage, me and my shirt has been through quite a lot. For example, you can see traces of the colour that we used to paint the store last fall on it. I think it's such details that makes garments like these so special - the fact that you can see how the owner has been living, which in turn effects the wearing of the garment. 

The jacket has been torn on both elbow parts and I've been repairing them by hand. I used a thick raw denim quality to fix the first one and the other one was mended with a Chambre from the 20's. Both of the mendings has broken since, so I guess that the time has come to repair those too. For some reason I've never enjoyed wearing the garment as much as I do now and I look forward of wearing it for several more years. I've got a feeling that it'll only get better and better. It sure is something special with garments that one has worn and loved for a very long time.

//Douglas

Written 2011-04-11 at 00:08

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