Fur Coat, No Knickers

(drunk or hungover in Munich a few years ago…)

Back in the dark old days of this blog, I wrote about my Hudson’s Bay Point Blanket Coat that I picked up for a few quid at some charity shop. After today’s events (more on which to come), I figured I’d reprise the post. Although I can’t find the original, so it’s less a reprise, more a whole new one.

Hudson’s Bay Point Blankets have a long and fairly interesting history. I was going to attempt to tell you, but let’s face it, I’d just be copying and pasting and rewording from another website so let’s cut out the middle man – you can read the whole stripy story here on the official website.

Done? So basically Hudson’s Bay is an integral piece of Canada’s fashion history (is there more? You tell me) and it’s quite hard to get hold of the originals these days. They’re worth a little bit too — although not to the shop in Sheffield where I got mine, evidently.

I didn’t realise the value (or the history) until I’d owned it for a year or two and was bored one afternoon temping. My jacket was hung on the back of the door and I suddenly noticed how intricate the label was. I decided to Google it and the rest is a happy stripy history. After learning the Hudson’s story, I aged it through this fan site (no really)… all evidence points to mine being from somewhere between 1934 and 1940 – just like the one above. Neat!

That wasn’t the historical post I had planned. I bailed, I admit it.

Anyway… Today a Canadian woman chased me through the market, eyes wild. ‘IS THAT A HUDSON’S BAY?????’ she asked (with that many question marks in her voice). I guessed what was coming and I was kinda in a hurry, but I humoured her and told her that yes, indeed it was. I told her I knew they were special but she still wanted to chat. I’m pretty bad mannered but I stuck it out while she told me what a treat it was to see one. She was pretty excited by the news it cost me a tenner and told me how pricey they were (if you can find them) back home. $500 she said, although I think that may have been a lie. Or was it an offer?

Thanks, lady! I’m glad I made your day, although I was pretty mad at the time that you held me up.

All images thanks to the Hudson’s Bay Company Heritage Site. I love you and I love my coat.

Chino Moreno from the Deftones is as famous for his stripy tube socks as he is for his tummy and facial hair. And music. My boyfriend is probably more in love with Chino than he is with me so it’s pretty much a given that CHINO SOX (no, really, click away) are going straight to the top of his Christmas present list. From what I gather, they’re basically $18 tube socks that say ‘Chino’ on them, but who cares, it’s Christmas.

Pic: Monitorpop

In between packing/unpacking/running up and down the stairs ten billion times this weekend, I surprisingly had time to read the Guardian’s excellent preview of the new Bernard Marck book, Women Aviators. I have to admit that prior to reading the piece I only knew about Amelia Earhart, but I don’t think I’d be alone in that. Am I? Who knows, anyway, the piece was tops, the book looks great and I’m gonna get it.

Without wanting to sound like Erin Wasson finding fashion inspiration in homeless people, all of the women featured are amazingly stylish. I know, I know, that when you’re a pilot (particularly a pilot in a primitive plane in the 20s) you wear what a pilot needs to wear, but humour me. I am inspired and moved by their genius, daring and pioneering ways too, of course…

There are 100 women profiled in the book, but here are the ones that the Guardian mentioned.

Amelia Earhart.
Everyone knows about her, but here she is. The first woman to fly the Atlantic and subject of the new film, Amelia. Seeing as she’s more famous than the rest, I’ll leave it at that for now.

Marie Marvingt (aka ‘The Fiancee of Danger’)
This woman is insane. As well as flying a plane in the nice fur you see above, she was qualified to drive a train and pilot a steamboat. She canoed from Paris to Germany, was the fifth best mountain climber on the planet, spoke five languages, could dance like a showgirl and wrote poetry. In 1911 she won the women’s flying contest, the Femina cup. She asked to pilot fighter planes in the First World War but was turned down. Instead she dressed up as a guy and served in the trenches ’til her false moustache fell off. The moustache bit didn’t happen.

Elise Deroche (aka ‘The Flying Baroness’)
The first licenced female pilot in the world. Good hat collection. Apologies, I’m basically copying directly from the Guardian feature and that’s just about all there is on her. When I get the book I might come back to this.

Harriet Quimby
What a babe. Harriet was a talented journalist and screenwriter as well as a skilled pilot. The first woman to earn a pilot’s licence by the Aero Club of America, first to fly at night and first to cross the Channel.

Hélène Dutrieu (aka ‘Woman Sparrowhawk’)
Belgian Hélène started out as a cycling champion and was the women’s world cycling champion in 1897 and 1898. It kinda blows my mind that there were women’s cycling championships then, for some reason. She then took up stunt biking with motorcycles where she became famous for the ‘jump of death’. When that got outlawed, she moved on to flying, winning the inaugural Femina Cup and causing minor scandal for admitting to not wearing a corset when flying.

Bessie Coleman (aka ‘Queen Bess’)
One of 13 children, Bessie trained as a manicurist before the fairly life-changing decision to get into flying, inspired by returning WWI pilots. Despite backing from influential businessmen, she wasn’t allowed to train as a pilot owing to being a) a woman and b) black. She moved to France where it was allowed and managed to become the first African-American woman to hold a pilot’s licence. She became most famous in the US as an epic stunt flier. I wonder how the ex-pro manicurist’s nails held up after all that loop the looping?

Amy Johnson
The first British woman to obtain an aeroplane mechanic’s licence and also the first to fly to Australia — after only 85 hours of flying practise…?! Next up she broke the light aircraft speed record for flying between London and Tokyo.

I really recommend you read the Guardian article, although I pretty much just copied and pasted that. What I suggest you also do is buy the book, obv.

Women Aviators, by Bernard Marck, £27.50