AMERICAN TRENCH

Going Back to the Well

trench — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 04:14:59 +0000

They say that women shop and men stockpile. Or at least the NYT said that in its article, For Guys, A Great Find is Often Multiplied. My personal experience comes in trouser form. For the last 2 years or so, 90% of my trousers, both fall/winter and spring/summer, have come from Epaulet of NYC. For the style of made-in-USA men’s trousers, sportcoats, and suit separates that I like, I haven’t found anyone better. The following pictures show how I have been wearing Epaulet trousers for the last 3 months or so. It’s all cold weather gear, which is to say wool in its various forms. Some of the pictures were taken to highlight American Trench Herringbone socks, but Epaulet trousers are always there, flying wingman. So if you need trousers, and want to buy something high quality, made in the USA, in a variety of materials and colors, and priced reasonably, your search is over.

Epaulet prince of whales plaid in heavy flannel, Alden longwings, navy/silver socks by American Trench

Epaulet Super 120s medium grey, Alden chocolate suede short wings, cottons socks by American Trench

Epaulet Lambswool flannel trousers in medium grey, Alden longwings, Filson briefcase

Epaulet grey tweed trousers, Alden shortwings, red/navy herringbone socks by American Trench

Epaulet brown and blue houndtooth trousers, Alden for J.Crew snuff suede plain toe blucher

Epaulet navy window pane plaid trouser, Alden longwing, lilac/charcoal herringbone socks by American Trench

These speckled navy flannel trousers below were my favorite from Fall/Winter 12, the color is almost in between airforce blue and navy blue.

Epaulet Speckled Navy flannel, Alden Snuff Suede PTB

another look at the navy speckled flannel trousers by Epaulet

Ratio Clothing Dress Shirts

trench — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 03:05:36 +0000

One of our goals for this blog is to share with you some of the great USA made products that we have come across. We don’t intend to limit things to the fashion/menswear arena. We are excited about utilitarian items just as much as menswear or fashion, especially things that are really useful and you wouldn’t think are still made in the states (e.g. my fish spatula made in MA that I love).

For the premiere post, we’ll stick to what’s close to heart, menswear. It would be hard to talk about menswear without talking about dress shirts, especially ones that fit. A little more than a year ago I discovered Ratio Clothing, which founder Eric Powell started after searching in vain for shirts that fit his frame. I can fit off-the-rack shirts OK, but I’ve gotten more picky over the years and once you find something you like, boom, the cut gets changed and you’re back to square one. When you include Made in USA as a requirement, the list gets even smaller. When you want something for $100 – $150, it gets even smaller than that. Ratio meets all of those requirements and it has a made-to-measure component. Ratio shirts are cut and sewn in North Carolina to order and my past orders generally showed up in about 4 weeks. Also, it is worth noting that owner Eric Powell offers 1st class customer service. I’m not kidding. He has helped me a whole bunch with my orders.

My latest shirt from Ratio is red and navy gingham with a spread collar (a first for me from Ratio), monogram on the sleeve placket (another first), and pen pocket sewn into the breast pocket. This combo was $98 plus $10 for the monogram. Not bad at all. Also, one of my arms is slighter longer than the other (this is common), and they take care of that for me as part of the fit process. You can choose what kind of pleats you want on the back of the shirt, and a host of other options. The first time you get a shirt you might have to work with Eric to make adjustments to get things right, but once you get calibrated, it’s fire and forget after that.

Cheers,

Jacob

Here are some pictures:

red and navy gingham spread collar

monogram on sleeve placket

it looks like revenge of the nerds when I put a pen in there, but damn it, form over function.

Cashmere Fabric

trench — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 15:04:55 +0000

About two weeks ago, David and I had the chance to go up to NYC and visit some of the fabric stores in the garment district. We did not come away empty handed. We left with about a mortgage payment (not including taxes and escrows) worth of cashmere fabric. We want to make a crazy lux baseball cap, made from premium cashmere and wool/cashmere fabric lined in 100% cashmere. It it an alternative to the winter knit stocking cap but more polished and warmer than the normal wool baseball cap. Like all American Trench products, it will be manufactured in the USA. We are working with a cap maker in Washington St. who can make such a product and specializes in historic baseball team reproduction caps (non-major league). We’ll post some more pictures as development proceeds.

Cheers,

Jacob

swatching of various cashmere fabrics

David is checking out the goods

In the Trenches!

admin — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 03:03:50 +0000

After almost 3 years of work, the first batch of American Trenches have arrived. We picked up 62 trench coats from the factory on March 2nd and started shipping them out earlier this week. It’s been an incredible journey to get to this point, but it is only the beginning.

Amazingly, all the boxes fit into the back of a Subaru Forester.

If someone ever asks, did you start this business in your living rooms, the answer is YES.

The first shipment of coats are already off to Kickstarters. We spent a good amount of time finding the right packaging and think the presentation looks pretty good. We are using a high quality white card board box lined with red tissue paper (made in USA) and custom printed logo stickers (printed in USA).

The first 4 trench coats are ready to shipped out!