Posts Tagged ‘Western shirt’
WHO ARE WE
Roger and Marcel Grivec, twin brothers and denim afficionados since a very long time. We spend most of our childhood in the jeans store of our parents in the southern part of the Netherlands. Growing up with the ‘shrink-to-fit’ culture we became true denim hunters eversince. Books, movies, records and music play also big role in our life. In this photo documentary, we will try to unify with these true loves of ours. Enjoy and come back any time. Greetz Roger & Marcel
March 21st, 2012
BERNARD LIECHSTENSTEIN
Bernard Liechtenstein, better known as Rodeo Ben, was a Polish immigrant who came to America with only some money and his portable sewing machine. In 1937 he made his first steps on american ground and decided that he will use the name Ben. In that time Philadelphia was the centre of the american textile industry. It was there that he opened his tailor shop. After he made his first denim western shirts for a rodeo roadshow, more clients came in and that brought him the recognition. In 1946 the Blue Bell company employed Bernard ( Rodeo Ben ) to develop a jeans line for cowboys, because ordinary jeans did not stand confrontation with the power of the animals. With cooperation of some famous rodeo stars as Jim Shoulders, Freckles Brown and Bill Linderman Ben made some jeans that were tested by cowboys. The thirteenth version was the perfect one. The 13MWZ (13th, Mans, Western zipper) as Wrangler named it in 1947, was also the first zippered, not button up jeans in the world. Rodeo Ben died in 1979 in his new homeland. He was a true star of western tailoring.
August 29th, 2011
JACK A.
Jack Arnold Weil ( March 28, 1901 – August 13, 2008) better known as Jack A. , or as Papa Jack was the founder of Rockmount Ranch Wear based in Denver, Colorado. Back in the 1940s, Jack A had realized that the cowboy shirt could be something more than a simple product. While visiting San Francisco, he saw a Chinese tailor making shirts with snaps instead of buttons. Jack knew enough about the technology of snaps to see that the Chinese tailor used the gloves snaps that wouldn’t hold up to the stresses that a cowboy shirt undergoes working at the Ranch, but the idea wouldn’t let him sleep at night. In 1946 he introduced the first western shirt with snaps and the famous saw-tooth pocket. The snaps fasteners have a break away function to let loose if the shirt got caught and hold more permanently than buttons. Rockmount shirts have been worn by countless celebrities and musicians like Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Ronald Reagan, Eric Clapton and Slash.
