Pendleton - Authentic American Apparel

When searching for vintage, one brand I will pick up without a second thought is Pendleton.  Maybe it has something to do with my Midwestern upbringing, but I fall in love with almost everything I find by them, mostly because it involves plaid.

The history of Pendleton Woolen Mills spans over one hundred years, but is deeply rooted in one thing: the production of high quality wool garments.  The Pendleton name comes with a highly trained and meticulous attention to detail that spans from an intimate knowledge of wool fibers and production and every garment is "Warrented to be a Pendleton."

Pendleton actually started as wool blanket manufacterer in 1909, specializing in Indian tribe blankets of vivid colors and patterns.  In both World Wars, they would be used as a manufacterer for military blankets due to the quality and durrability of their products.

Nearly twenty years later, the company decided to expand their horizons with the production of clothing. After a period of trial and error with wool fibers and fabrics, the Umatilla shirting fabric was produced and turned into men's woolen shirts of different colors and patterns. With the success of the shirts, Pendleton began expanding into a full line of menswear in the late twenties that would only grow in popularity during the 50s when the "American Look" would take full reign and bring the country back to a feeling of the good life.

Womenswear would eventually be introduced with the classic look of the 49'er jacket, named after the year it was produced, and the reversible woolen skirt. Much like the menswear, the colorful dyes and interesting patterns, as well as the natural, easy-care of the wool, made the articles very popular.

The signature look of bright colors and designs of a Pendleton has also made it a part of pop culture. The Beach Boys were originally called The Pendletones and were often seen wearing the shirts at shows or on their album covers The shirts have always been popular amongst surfers, and many other sports, such as skateboarders and snowboarders, appeciate the look, as well. Levis, Adidas, Vans, and many others have collaborated with the company to produce different lines, further adding to its appeal amongst sport enthusiasts. As always, though, people just appreciate the look, comfort, and warmth of a Pendleton piece, making it accessible to all audiences.

Throughout the years, though, what really has made Pendleton a lasting name is due to their ability to change and expand with the growing needs of American fashion. From the first shirts they produced in the 1920s to the clothing they are still producing today, Pendleton has taken innovative steps to give people comfort and warmth in every season. When World War II broke out, they help production of most items to focus on producing blankets and uniforms for soldiers. When women began joining the workforce, they created a line of career clothing. They've created washable wool for easier care and expanded into lines of year-round, non-wool clothing to fit everyone's needs for every season. Like a chameleon, Pendleton has been able to warp, change, and grow with the needs of society and bring a well-crafted product to the table. For this reason, Pendleton has been able to span the decades and has celebrated over one hundred years of quality.

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The Renovations

When I moved into the space that is now, "The Shop," it was an apartment on the top floor of a building build in the late 1800s.  Living and working in Downtown Savannah, I didn't think of this as much of a big deal because it's what you expect when you're downtown in our historic area.

However, I didn't realize how much work would end up going into the space.

The walls were a horrible color, so that needed to go.  A lavender in the front room, a dark blue in the center room, and country-kitchen yellow in the hallway.  I wanted everything to be bright and airy in the rooms, so I kept with light colors.  A vintage aqua color for the main rooms and grey for my office and the hallways.  Bright white for all the trim (which ended up being the biggest bane of my existence, taking about four gallons of paint just to repaint all the trim, doors, and windows).

The closets had shelves built into them.  All I could think of was that line in Pride and Prejudice (the Colin Firth version), where Mr Collins shows Lizzy the closet with shelves and she says, "Shelves in the closet, happy thought, indeed."  What a mess!  Ripping out the shelves then ripped out half the walls (the walls are all composed of horsehair plaster without the proper studs buildings are built with today).  Lots of spackle later, the holes were covered.

The floors were covered in paint.  The beautiful, dark hardwood floors were covered in specks and globs of paint from whoever had painted them before.  At first, I was just going to leave them, but when you've put hours and hours and hours of work into everything else, what's a couple more days of work to get them cleaned again?  When I need a knee replacement later in life, I will look back at this moment of cleaning the floors with a steel-wool sponge and floor cleaner while on my hands and knees for the better part of a week to get them looking lovely.

Then came the lights.  And bless my poor group of guy friends who volunteered to give up their Thursday in the middle of JULY in Savannah to instal the light fixtures.  Should I mention we didn't have ceiling lights at this point?  Poor Garry crawled into the attic, which was probably about 115 degrees, to splice lines and connect things and do a lot of stuff I will never be able to understand, in order to give me chandeliers.  Then, he had to go back in about three different times in order to connect the lights to a circuit since half the wires in the attic were either dead or not useable.  It's great being my friend, isn't it?  And all it cost me was some Zunzi's, beer, and a lot of grief for the rest of my life over it.

That was just the main obstacles that had to be overcome.  Little things happened, like half the wall being pulled out from a hanging rack I installed (the old stud broke and snapped through the wall...), the paint peeling off the closet wall because someone before had painted over wallpaper and not primed it, and so on and so on.

All I can say is, I'm glad I'm a carpenter's daughter and that my dad had two girls instead of two boys because I would have been lost and very broke without the Bob Villa knowledge I obtained as a kid.
Overall, however, I am very happy and pleased with the result.  I love my shop.  I love coming to work each day.  And though it's a work in progress, as it always will be, I'm happy to call it all mine.

Being in Business

I decided to restart the blog as a documentation of me starting up my physical store.  Well, almost a year later, and this is the second post I've written.  C'est le vie?

In hindsight, it probably would have been great to have that documentation, and it would have been pretty hilarious, too.  If anyone is familiar with renovating a building built in the late 1800s, you'd feel my pain and know my frustration.

So here I am, a 4-month business owner.  It's been pretty interesting, to say the least.  Very stressful, as well.  Anyone who gives up their day job to become completely self-supporting knows how much of a risk it is.  I kept putting off putting my leave in until finally, my boss, a very good friend of mine who helped so much with getting the shop together, just told me he was going to stop scheduling me.  Which was the push I needed.

August 14th, 2012, was the day Ollie Otson officially opened.  I was incredibly nervous, but excited, and many of my friends came, visited, and shopped.  As the days went on, more people, people I didn't know, started trickling, through, and I realized how self-fulfilling this was going to be.

It's one thing to sell a dress on Etsy to a person and mail it out, but it's a completely different situation when you're there to see them pick it out, try it on, and get incredibly excited over it.  I've had people come in to buy items for dates, for birthday presents, and just to feel better about themselves, and the experience becomes so much more personal.  When you buy the garment, clean it, steam it, tag it, hang it, then sell it, and are there to see the whole process and the happiness of the customer, it makes you happy.  It's a certain high that's hard to explain.

I've decided to keep myself more dedicated to this blog writing.  I want to, if anything, document the journey for myself and, hopefully, inspire those who'd like to take those steps into opening a shop of their own.