Willy Chavarria, 48, the tattooed owner of Palmer Trading Company, at 137 Sullivan Street in Manhattan, set up shop in 2010. “When we started, it was all vintage,” Mr. Chavarria said.
Since then, he has brought in hardy American brands like Filson, Tellason and Dickies, while also producing his own clothes. “I am Mexican-American, from California, and I grew up in a small town around a lot of Mexican immigrants and gang members,” he said. “When I was a little boy, I would ask my mom to buy me address books, because I thought it was ‘a dress book.’ I always had a thing for clothes.”
What do you call what you sell? Work wear? Heritage?
Do not ever use the word “heritage.” Heritage is a word that has been used and abused to the point where it’s lost its meaning entirely. What we’re doing here is straightforward, well-made clothing.
What’s good for the late winter?
We have this CPO jacket from the originator of the woolen hunting shirt, Johnson Woolen Mills.
These shirts are labeled New York Willy.
I started doing a label under my own name for other stores. We use all British fabric, a good middleweight oxford cloth. They’re straight in the body and a little wider in the sleeve, like a vintage Brooks Brothers shirt. And we did a classic squirrel cover. That’s a panel in the front that prevents your shirt from separating where you tuck it in. Don’t you hate that?
You collect and make objects, too, not just clothes, right?
We do our own leather-goods collection. And then we mix that in with vintage stuff we love. We have a nice assortment of vintage coke spoons from the 1970s. Actually, we have only one of those left.
By JOHN ORTVED
Source New York Times
No comments:
Post a Comment