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Shooting Jackets - Just Do It
I once had a boss that I despised. The man was awful and that's not an opinion, it's a fact. Yet, when I had my one and only shot to make his life a little less pleasant, I didn't take it. It occurred one afternoon when a colleague made a mistake on materials that went out to a client. My boss uttered the following words, “I'm going to hunt that b****rd down” and immediately, I knew that I had my opportunity to strike. Bad language was perfectly acceptable in the workplace, but the “hunting down” part, if...
The Tie That Unites The Ties That Separate
Ties... Some of us choose to wear them. Some of us are required to wear them. Most of us don't wear them at all. Some of us love them. Some of us hate them. Most of us don't care about them. Interestingly, for a word that suggests universality, “ties,” people's opinions of them are anything but universal. Furthermore, ties are an everyday part of some people's lives but don't play any role in others' lives. One could even go so far as to say that the ties more often untie than tie. But even though ties aren't universal, there is...
Waterbury Buttons: A Storied Past
Philly has its cheesesteaks; Chicago has its deep dish pizza; and Waterbury, Connecticut has its buttons. Yup, buttons. And while they are not as tasty as cheesesteaks or deep dish pizza (in fact, to be clear, we DO NOT recommend eating buttons), the Waterbury Button, and the Waterbury Button Company as a whole, is pretty darn special. The Waterbury Button Company is the oldest metal button manufacturer in the United States. The Company was founded in 1812 when the United States went to war with Britain, the U.S.'s exclusive supplier of buttons prior to war. As a result of...
Fashion is War
On October 25, 1854, a Russian army attacked the port city of Balaclava on the Black Sea, in hopes of lifting the siege of the nearby Russian port of Sevastopol, which had been under attack by a combined British, French and Turkish force for over a month. This battle was part of the Crimean War, and while fascinating in its own right (especially with the recent tension in the region), it’s also a way to attempt to date two fashion innovations. The British forces were commanded by Field Marshal FitzRoy Somerset, the 1stRaglan, an accomplished British soldier and an...