Put This On

This weekend, our photographer Noe Montes and I visited the annual vintage menswear show Inspiration LA. Held in the Spruce Goose Dome, a huge, futuristic building on the water in Long Beach, it’s an extravaganza of Americana. The whole operation is run by Rin Tanaka, the king of Japanese fans of American vintage, and the editor of a whole series of books called My Freedamn!.

There were motorcycle guys, surf dudes, hot rodders, workwear nuts, old-school mid-century lifestylers, outdoorsy types and everything in between. There was tons of vintage at premium prices (the t-shirt I wanted was $65), plus tons of vintage recreationists, both Japanese and American.The show is held on a Saturday, the day before Japanese vintage dealers descend on the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena, filling huge green canvas Army duffels with clothes to take back over the Pacific.

We couldn’t afford to buy much (though I did buy a sweatshirt from the Japanese repro brand Real McCoy’s), but we did have a grand time. We ran into a number of Put This On fans, and even a few subjects - our friend Mike Hodis from Rising Sun was there, along with our pal Raul Ojeda from Don Ville Shoes. We finally met Kiya, the owner of Self Edge, and a guy named Mustache Mike who owns a vintage shop slash barbershop in Minneapolis. Everyone with a great outfit got shot.

This week, we’ll share selections with you every day here at Put This On.

(All photos by Noe Montes)

Our friends at Rising Sun, who we featured in our very first episode, are having a very cool-looking party on Saturday night in Los Angeles. It runs from six to nine at 2246 Fair Park Avenue in Eagle Rock. If my past experience with Mike Hodis & Co is any guide, there will be a ton of vintage hot rods and motorbikes, and both men and women in overalls, old leather and applejack caps. Should be a great time.

I just stopped by to visit our old friend Mike Hodis at his new Rising Sun store in Eagle Rock, here in Northeast Los Angeles. They’re having a sample sale today, and I grabbed some of his beautiful jeans for my wife, along with some Christmas gifts for the family. Mike and company will be there until five, and by appointment thereafter, so drop them a line. Their number is 323-982-9798.

Here’s a lovely new product. Our friends at Rising Sun Denim, who we profiled in our first episode, have placed this beautiful outdoor vest in the store of our pals at Archival Clothing. It’s expensive - $225 - but as you saw in our first episode, it’s made by hand, so there’s a reason for the price. It’s also an interesting fabric - indigo-dyed canvas duck. I’m a big fan of canvas duck, a heavy canvas used for work clothes, and so’s Mike Hodis, the empresario of Rising Sun. A beautiful, (sorta) practical piece.

Our launch party was a blast.  Between Rising Sun owner Mike Hodis’ brother John climbing in the rafters to run power cables into the vacant store next door and heroes like Huell Howser and Xeni Jardin showing up, it was full of surprises.  And that’s without even mentioning Mike’s vintage hot rod and motorcycle buddies.  Prodigious quantities of gin punch, Miller High Life and Mexican Coke were consumed.

Dustin Roe was shooting photos.  You can check out a bigger gallery here.