Vintage Pocket Yokes & The Art Of Western Pearl Snap Cowboy Shirts
Everyone loves a good yoke! Here are a few.





Everyone loves a good yoke! Here are a few.





Dated in pencil 1904, this miniature American stoneware jug is a turn of the century carnival prize & promotional souvenir. If you are curious to know what is “Red Top Rye”? Well, it’s good ol’ whiskey. 


After many years of picking vintage clothing for a living, I have fallen in love with the beauty of this 160 year old patented idea to fasten fabric together with a metal closure. Vintage zippers are fascinating mechanically and also give clues to a garments age & quality of construction. Some of my favorites include: Conmar, Talon, Talon 42, Serval, Zipp, Scovill, Robin, Gripper Zipper, Prentice, Conmatic, Crown & Ideal. My least favorite is the dreaded YKK. 













Here are a few of my “Bohemian Chic” finds over the years. Each item below does have a future/primitive look. There must be something barbarically sexy about incorporating animal skins and feathers and furs? Although nowhere near vegan, please remember that at least some love & respect can be attained from giving these vintage items a “better life” than being destroyed, as so often happens when these items are not picked and recycled.









It would be a shame to let these rabbit pelts go to waste. Give them life, let them live one more night out on the town! My dream hipster girl wears: rabbit fur jackets, neon leggings, and knee-hi Minnetonka Moccasins. She has a feather in her hair. In other words, a soft woman in a soft jacket makes perfect fashion sense. 




Here is an incredible $2 dollar thrift store find. Extremely rare 1942 Lee Cowboy “War Time” jeans. This model was produced for about 1 year. Beautiful in every way to the denim connoisseur. Some of the details are: crotch rivet, Lee center tag, single needle tailoring, “Lee Cowboy” donut top button w/ plain blank zinc following down the fly, lined inside back pockets, and half selvedge along outseam to cuff. The most iconic aspect is the use of the “Reverse Arcuate” on the back pockets. Basically a Levi’s arcuate flipped upside down. Recently reissued by Lee Japan. I estimate 30-40 original pairs exist around the world in private collections. This pair was sold in 2006 For $3000+. 



Here are a few classic 1950’s RailRoad “Sound Effect” Record covers from the XtimemachineX vinyl archive. These time capsules are filled with: dark, rainy, ambient, industrial machine sounds. Records as pictured below, were often part of libraries & radio station LP pools. I have never seen a “Railroad Sounds” LP picture cover that I didn’t like. In my opinion, the nostalgic cover Images are usually worth the asking price of these collectibles. The sounds and moods they set are priceless.




Here are a couple of WWII United States Navy N-1 Deck Jackets. Extremely well constructed and lined in Alpaca wool. These both date 1940-1944 and are fine examples of American garment design and manufacturing.







Here is a glimpse into the personal sketch book of underground psychedelic comic artist Frank Mell. His incredible work is similar to legendary R. Crumb Comics, but much less known. These photographs are from the personal archives of Frank and have never been seen by the public. Franks younger brother Ed Mell, a western landscape painter, is much more known and has paintings in multiple high end private collections as well as museums. This glimpse of Franks’ lost sketch book comics is in honor of a man that was the real deal, and was Ed’s mentor. It is an honor to hold a few of the original drawings and airbrush paintings. These few pieces I hold were bought at auction in Phoenix, Arizona in 2011 and were drawn during his times in Brooklyn & Phoenix.





Check out this interesting $20 thrift store find. This is a Pat Flanagan “Experimental Sensor II” from 1976. At first glance the bronze cast psychedelic fibonacci spiral & Egyptian hieroglyphics makes this strange piece of jewelry feel as though it is the key to time travel or eternal life. In fact Dr. Flanagan wrote the book on “Pyramid Power” and claimed these pendants have the ability to produce the same energetic effects as pyramids, but in a more compact form.

