Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
-
My first experience with bespoke Harris Tweed
Being an academic it should come as no surprise that I love tweed. My first experience with tweed was a stereotypical brown Herringbone sport coat with suede patches on the elbows. I think I got it at a chain store that no longer exists at the local mall. At the time I’m sure I thought […]
-
The Earthrise Kilt
My maternal family is Welsh and English, and I happened to ask myself about the Welsh heritage. I learned that in the past (and possibly even today) Welsh clans would wear kilts in the same manner as the Scots. Like the Scots the Welsh clans also have tartans. I became intrigued with the idea of […]
-
The first pair of Aldens
I’ve been into nice looking footwear since at least high school. I remember begging my parents for a pair of Nike’s because they were what the popular kids were wearing. I’m pretty sure I wore something like these from high school through college. Of course in college I occasionally found that I needed to wear something […]
-
My first real hat
I don’t know about you but I have always loved hats. I love all kinds of hats: ball caps, flat caps, Panama hats, etc. However, my true passion is for the felt hats reminiscent of the 30s – early 60s. You know the ones. The ones you’d see on Bogart, Sinatra, Grant, and other fashionable […]
-
My rarest pair of jeans: the story of Lawless Denim
In my last post I talked about things getting heated in the Gustin discussion forum. The impetus for the unrest was Lawless Denim. Lawless Denim was a startup denim wear manufacturer in Phoenix, AZ that had done a campaign on Kickstarter. There were several members on the Gustin forum that kept talking up Lawless and […]
-
My first pair of selvedge jeans: the road to becoming a denim head
If you are like me, you may not have been aware of selvedge denim and raw denim jeans before 2010. At some point between the 60s and 2000s raw selvedge denim jeans for all practical purposes disappeared from the awareness of most guys. Most guys born between 1970 and 2000 probably never owned a pair. […]
-
Finding a watch: How I came to own an Omega Speedmaster
I’m a technologist and as a technologist a lot of people expect me to be into smart watches like the Apple watch. The thing is, I see mechanical watches as more of a technological achievement than smart watches. The amount of skill required to create something like a perpetual calendar watch using only gears and […]
-
Time to de-clutter: the making of a capsule collection or lean wardrobe
I’ve been thinking for a few months that my closet has gotten out of control. The beginning of a new year seems like an appropriate time to embark on a new project to reduce the number of items in my closet. I obviously have the staples oxford-cloth button downs (white (two), blue (one), gray (one)) […]
-
Leather moto jackets: vintage and new
Many years ago my father-in-law gave me the leather moto jacket pictured here. It had belonged to his father and is most likely from the 40s or early 50s. It had been in a closet for many years because it was too small for my father-in-law. When I received the jacket the leather was dry and I was not able […]
-
The beginning
Why did I start this site? Well, I think that every item in a person’s closet has a story. It may be a story about how you came to acquire a particular item, it may be a story about things that have happened while being worn, or it may be a story about how the […]
Got any book recommendations?