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8-Ply Cashmere Carrol & Co. Cardigan

Carrol & Co. is the lone high-end traditional men’s clothing store in Los Angeles.  I tried on a cashmere sweater they made at Jake the other day, and the quality was phenomenal.  I own a suit that bears their store brand, and it was made by Chester Barrie, one of the finest ready-to-wear manufacturers in the world.  The cut of the sweater I tried on was very traditional, but this sweater’s an XXL, so you’d hardly be hoping for a slim cut.

Starts at $9.99, ends Monday

Jazz drummer, Los Angeles, photographed by Ansel Adams

via Ansel Adams’ Lost LA

Yesterday, I posted, tongue-in-cheek, some WWII-era fashion propaganda.  I’m feeling guilty now for not pointing out the darker side of the anti-excess-fabric movement.

In the 1930s and 40s, young Mexican-Americans, particularly in Southern California, created a unique sartorial statement: the zoot suit.  It was a suit defined by excess: pants weren’t pants, they were “drapes,” with huge legs and pegged ankles.  Coats stretched down to the knees.  It was a conspicuous display of excess and identification with “pachuco” culture - and it was a display of excess that didn’t sit well during the war years with one of Los Angeles’ other big youth populations: servicemembers.

Chicanos were already the target (then as now) of racial discrimination in California, particularly as the nation was just coming out of the depression, which had led many to blame immigrants for their own difficulties.  The fact that their vibrant culture was thumbing its nose at fabric rationing was enough to set off a racial powderkeg.

Sailors on shore leave from the Port of LA and young Mexican-American pachucos began to clash violently, and the Mexican-American community found the media, police and politicians consistently blaming a culture of juvenile delinquency - in other words, pachucos.  Isolated incidents led to organized groups of police, then sailors heading to Chicano neighborhoods to beat any and all zooters they could find.  June of 1943 found literally thousands of servicemen roaming the streets of the barrio, beating any and every young Latino they saw.  Mobs went into movie theaters, pulled out Chicanos and beat them.  Police intervened - to arrest the Chicanos on charges of vagrancy and delinquency.  Sailors beat young people on the streets with impunity, often tearing off their zoot suits burning them in piles on the ground.

As riots raged, the Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance banning zoot suits on the grounds that they were a symbol of hooliganism.  Violence spilled out into African-American neighborhoods, where blacks in zoot suits were targeted.  Eleanor Roosevelt had the temerity to describe the violence as race rioting, and the Los Angeles Times published an editorial accusing her of communist sympathies.

The Zoot Suit Riots were well-documented in an episode of The American Experience that you can probably grab from your local library, and in fiction in Luis Valdez’ brilliant play and film Zoot Suit starring Edward James Olmos.  Check them out if you have any doubts of the cultural power of style.

So: there’s the dark side of calling excess fabric “unpatriotic.”

(PS: I’ve been wanting a forum to say this for ten years plus: SERIOUSLY, CHERRY-POPPIN DADDIES?  ZOOT SUIT RIOT?  REALLY, BUNCH OF WHITE GUYS?  IS YOUR NEXT ALBUM “RODNEY KING RIOTS” WITH THE LEAD SINGLE “WOUNDED KNEE MASSACRE PARTY?”  GO FUCK YOURSELVES.)

Store Visit - Everything’s Jake Vintage, Los Angeles

On my way back from the tailor this afternoon (2” cuffs?  yes, please!) I stopped into Everything’s Jake Vintage.  It’s situated on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, and I’d never been, despite the fact that it’s across the street from one of my most frequent haunts, the Los Feliz branch of Goodwill.  In fact, I hadn’t realized it was there until I stumbled across it searching for something completely different on the internet.

I was greeted warmly by owner Jonathan Kanarek, who was dressed to the nines in the pants and waistcoat of a vintage suit, a striped shirt and paisley necktie.  He was surprised I was wearing a suit - I explained that my wife was sworn into the California bar today, and we made small talk about his previous career as a paralegal. Jonathan was generous with his conversation, and from what I’ve read is more than happy to offer guidance to men who need a bit of information with their purchases.

The store isn’t huge, but the quality is consistently high.  It’s rare to find a vintage store dedicated to men, and while Jake couldn’t quite match my all-time fave, Bobby From Boston, it really is a wonderful place.  Meeting Jonathan would have been enough reason to visit, but I also walked out with a reasonably-priced burgundy grenadine tie from Carrol & Co. to replace my Sulka, which is starting to fray.