Hamilton 1883 - Blog » History

The Mast Brothers, Men’s Journal

Stephen — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:09:09 +0000

If you haven’t noticed, we here at Hamilton Shirts really appreciate craft and the attention to fine detail.

The fascinating chocolatiers - The Mast Brothers – represent the epitome of craft and detail, and we really like what they do. There seems to be a lot of similarity between the Masts and the Hamiltons…we both like great materials/ingredients, we both take the time to make things right, and both companies are run by a pair of siblings!

We were really excited by this credit that just appeared in the recent September issue of Men’s Journal. We like these brothers unique style, and are thrilled that Rick Mast is wearing a Hamilton 1883 shirt. They are just the kind of guy that we love to see in our clothes. So cool!

Thank you to Men’s Journal for thinking of us.

Check out this great video from Coolhunting about Mast Brothers Chocolate and how it gets made:

The credits from Men’s Journal:

Hamilton Shirts World Tour 2010

Stephen — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:21:30 +0000

Over the next few weekends Mr. David Hamilton will be spanning the globe! The next two weekends have David conducting Hamilton Shirts trunk shows at various stores around the country.

If you happen to live out in the Pacific Northwest you can stop by and visit with David at the Mario’s store in Portland on Friday (tomorrow 8/20) and at their Seattle store on Saturday (8/21).

The following weekend you’ll be able to meet up with David at Bauman’s in Little Rock, AR on Friday, Aug 27th, and again on Saturday, August 28th.

At these events you’ll be able to chat with David about the amazing heritage of the Hamilton’s unique forth generation family business – and experience first hand the process of getting a hand-crafted shirt made just for you. We have some great new fabrics for Fall/Winter 2010-11 and at these events you’ll be able to see all the brand new shirting options for Fall/Winter 2010-11 for yourself.

Stop by and see us! We’ll have additional dates with more stops coming soon.

Mario’s, 833 Southwest Broadway, Portland, OR 97205 ph. 503.227.3477 & 1513 6th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 ph. 206.223.1461

Baumans, 8201 Cantrell Road #150, Little Rock, AR 72227 ph. 501.227.8797

Robb Walsh’s Top 100

Stephen — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 18:00:51 +0000

Over on the Houston Press website, noted food writer/critic/historian Robb Walsh, has been slowly releasing his 100 favorite Houston dishes in Houston week by week. His final stand-out meals have added to the list and his slide-show countdown is now totally complete. The exemplary dishes that made the cut were included “because they are such quintessential Houston creations, others because of their cultural or historical significance, and others just because they are so damn tasty.”

In addition to reading through this valuable Houston Press master list, a clever guy by the name of Kyle Nielsen (“sometimes I get really bored at work“) has uploaded all these stats and Google mapped it all out for your dining convenience: Robb Walsh’s Top 100 Houston Dishes, Houston Press. Therefore, not only do you get to see all 100 items in one place – you can map out the directions, find out which restaurants are closest, and you can handily download the map into your smart-phone.

Just think…you’ll never have an excuse for a bad meal ever, ever, again.

View Robb Walsh’s Top 100 Houston Dishes, Houston Press in a larger map

Take Ivy….Please

Stephen — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:14:51 +0000

Take Ivy by T.Hayashida is back…yet again.

If you are a regular reader of all the various style blogs out there, there is no way you’ve overlooked the upcoming re-release of the Japanese style-bible Take Ivy. Even the New York Times has recently written an article about it. This new edition is sure to get all the fashion folks worked up – with its translated English text, brand new photo reproductions, and most of all…its super low price tag.

I’ve written about this cryptically named book before – vintage copies of the tome are very hard to find, and often sell at auction for thousands of dollars. As an owner of a vintage copy (bought back in the good old days when there was such things as expense accounts..what?) it will be interesting to see how the new edition affects the price of the rare vintage copies. Luckily I got my original copy for a song. Newly listed on Amazon, the book will sell for $14.97 when it gets released on August 31st.

The small photo book takes an outsiders look at life inside the private, wealthy world of the American Ivy League – photographs of students back in sixties when the prep styles of the men’s clothes were really only worn by the entitled, privileged classes. Fashion designers, editors, and stylists worship the book – it’s a rare snapshot into this unique period of time and has influenced many fashion magazine stories, and countless menswear collections.

American Masters – Merle Haggard

Stephen — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:52:42 +0000

If you find yourself at home tonight in front of the TV be sure and tune in to PBS. The fantastic series of American Masters documentaries profiles legendary singer, and songwriter, Merle Haggard.

The Galloping Gourmet

Stephen — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 08:43:16 +0000

Currently airing on cable’s Cooking Channel during the day, The Galloping Gourmet, is a vintage TV show that has to be seen to be believed. This instructional cooking program aired on American television during the late 1960′s, probably as a foil to Julia Childs french cuisine precision.

The globe trotting chef and host, Graham Kerr, selects a dish from his world travels that gets prepared step-by-step in front of a live audience. Famous for his loose and free style, his “hedonism in a hurry” cuisine highlighted a heavy use of eggs, butter, cream, and of course, deep frying. With audience participation, spilling, missing ingredients, dropping stuff on the floor, insanity prevails.

At the start of the show, the Galloping Gourmet comes running out from backstage with a large glass of wine and proceeds to scramble around the room, jumping on, around, and over the furniture on the set. His totally bizarre sense of humor, coupled with what seems to be his on air wasted-ness, has to be seen to be believed. Set your DVR, its awesome.

In a unrelated fashion observation – the big shirt collars on Johnny Carson and Graham Kerr look really great. Don’t they?

How To Hang a Cy Twombly

Stephen — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:24:00 +0000

Recently Vanity Fair magazine conducted a not so scientific survey of Architecture’s Modern Marvels by asking 52 experts to list the five most important works of architecture created since 1980. After they compiled all the results, they put together a list of over 132 different structures. The magazine then published the top 21 results in a fascinating online slideshow. The best part of these results?

The Menil Collection designed by Renzo Piano ranked as the second most important new building in the world. How cool is that?

If you are a regular reader of the Hamilton Shirts 1883 blog, you know that I am a big fan of the museum and I try to pay them a visit any chance I can get. I love the Rothko Chapel, the Dan Flavin Installation at Richmond Hall, the Cy Twombly Gallery, and of course, the special and permanent collections inside the main building.

Have you ever wandered around the museum (especially in the beautiful Twombly Gallery) and wonder how some of these gigantic works of art were installed? How did they ever get them inside? Was the building built around the work? How did the painting ever fit through the door?

Questions, answered:

Cy Twombly installation at the Menil Collection from The Menil Collection on Vimeo.

Thank You, Willis Carrier

Stephen — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 09:24:22 +0000

Now here’s a very important guy that should be much more famous. His memory should be praised by all..each and every day.

Back in Buffalo, New York on July 17, 1902, Willis Carrier submitted drawings for what would later become today’s modern AIR CONDITIONING. Granted the U.S. Patent for his indispensable invention on January 2nd, 1906…what would we have done without this guy?

All hail..Willis Carrier, from a photograph dated 1915

Collecting Flags

Stephen — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 08:45:56 +0000

Maybe its my lingering 4th of July holiday spirit, or maybe it was the great post on 1st dibs about the history of our grand old flag..but I’ve recently become interested in collecting antique American flags. While many antique styles can run into the thousands of dollars, you can still pick up interesting varieties for much less at flea markets and swap meets.

Jeff Bridgman of Jeff Bridgman American Antiques put together 10 interesting facts about the history of the American Flag for the website 1st dibs…and its worth checking out. From the celebration (or non-celebration) of Flag Day on June 14th, the fact that Francis Hopkison of New Jersey designed the flag and not Betsy Ross, to the fact that the flag had no official shape until 1912 – it could be square, elongated, anything.

Francis Hopkinson

Jeff Bridgman is based in York, Pennsylvania and is considered one of the countries leading authorities on antique American Flags. His antique store specializes in early Americana, and they often bring their wares to Houston, the shop participated in the Theta Antiques Show last November.

Following are some examples of the American Flags currently available at Jeff Bridgman Antiques:

CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION FLAG WITH 10-POINTED STARS THAT SPELL “1776 – 1876”, ONE OF THE MOST GRAPHIC OF ALL EARLY EXAMPLES

48 STARS IN A RARE AND INTERESTING STEP-DOWN ROW DESIGN, ENTIRELY MADE BY TATTING

13 STARS, 1876-98, A VERY RARE PRINTED EXAMPLE, UNUSUALLY LARGE, PROBABLY MADE IN CANADA

Dan Flavin at Richmond Hall

Stephen — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:13:57 +0000

Created inside a structure that had been originally built in the 1930′s to house a Weingarten’s Grocery Store, the site specific installation by artist Dan Flavin at Richmond Hall is one of the Menil Collections greatest hidden treasures. The building itself has lived a very interesting life…after first being the home to the supermarket, it was then used as a various different bars and saloons – including finally Van Stampede’s Country Western Dance Hall. Its not very often when you see an entire building saved and preserved to become transformed into a permanent giant glowing work of art.

Weingarten’s Grocery Store- circa 1930

Commissioned by Dominique DeMenil over 20 years ago back in 1990, the building with its close proximity to the Menil Museum, proved to be the ideal location for the artist Dan Flavin to create these large scale light works made just for this big empty space. Without altering the buildings structure, Flavin created three special art works for the museum – first the green fluorescent lights that run the top length of the exterior of the building on its east and west sides – second, the 4 white diagonal lights when you first enter the museum – and third is the most incredible and spectacular. Inside the central largest room, vertical light tubes forming a color spectrum, run from front to back of the space with a dark purple band of tubes bisecting the room into a top half and bottom half. The effect is totally theatrical, completely beautiful, and totally mesmerizing.

With the museums glossy poured concrete floors, the different color lights seem to reflect into endless directions. Its quite a powerful moment when you walk in. When I last visited the space, David Hamilton and I were lucky enough to be the only visitors (other than the crabby security guard) to Richmond Hall. Having the entire museum to ourselves, the empty interior makes the experience even more strange and effecting.

The Menil also uses Richmond Hall for many different purposes..they use it to hold benefit events for the museum, music and concerts, and all different types of live performances. Check the museums calendar and facebook page for upcoming events. It’s also totally fantastic to visit Richmond Hall on a very hot day, the cold surfaces and glowing lights combined with the buildings chilly air conditioning, makes for a haunting and surreal break from the regular outside world.

Dan Flavin Installation at Richmond Hall, 1500 Richmond Ave. Houston, Texas ph. 713.520.8512 Open Weds- Sun from 11-7pm.