Buster + Bloomies

My 1966 Buster Keaton poster and Linda's recently acquired 70's Bloomingdales bag hanging out on our studio door.









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LA-San Fran or bust

Tape-ography and hitchhiking tips, Oui Magazine, 1975

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The Jeaning of America (1974)

1974 Oui magazine spread of all things blue jean. Basically everything looks terrible except the Levi's bags, which,  if you didn't buy one at the time, luckily you can now visit our shop to pick up the San Francisco-made bike bag:

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Channel Thirteen Totebags

The symbol of artistic and cultural charity: PBS in New York City's Channel 13 tote bags. Yours with a donation of $50 or more during pledge drives, the Herb Lubalin-logotyped bags were a ubiquitous in Fairfield County during the 70's and 80's, but now nearly extinct- except in our closet, where they're falling off the shelf.

(and now they're in our shop.)

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Owen' More

Such a pretty shopping bag, such a terrible shopping name.

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bike ride

new favorite photo.
 from The Family of Woman, 1979

related, from the Family of Amphibians:

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Cut-outs and folded: Bloomingdales Matisse shopping bag, 1982

From a lot of old graphic Bloomingdales bags I found at an estate sale in Connecticut a few years ago.
Now to figure out how to unglue it for framing...

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Bean's Oversize Shopping (shells, shoes, canned foods) Bag

The perfect tote bag, and they don't make it anymore.
May be time to take the sewing machine to our log carriers.

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Decorator's Showhouse tote bag, 1981

Courtesy of my mom the decorator, and keeper of old tote bags. (where I learned it)

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1882 Camille Poirier Duluth Pack Sack A1 backpack

The (supposed) Holy Grail! (of the backpack world.)  French-Canadian Camille Poirier arrived in Duluth, Minnesota in 1870, set up a leather working shop, and soon after designed this Poirier Pack Sack. Featuring new-fangled strap designs, leather-based supports, and a "tumpline" strap, which goes around your forehead in order to lessen the weight on your back. Poirier patented his design in 1882, and riveted a little brass plaque on each pack. Basically, the Poirier Pack Sack is the great-great-grandpappy of all modern backpacks.
In 1911 Poirier sold his company to the Duluth Tent & Awning Co., after which the bags were called Duluth Packs.
Incredibly rare and desirable (?), some may know the Poirier from its infamous $45,000 Ebay auction.

This particular pack above is from an estate in New Hampshire. Slightly different (totally better) compared with the ebay pack, the tumpline seems to be more in keeping with the pack's design, and it's stamped Poirier Duluth Pack Sack, A1.

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Best punching bags ever, and best punching bags photo ever.

By Patricia Ellisor Gaines, from her book
Soft: an Irresistible Collection of Pillows,toys Bags, Objects to Sit On, Ornaments for the Body, and Various Malleable Oddities...and How to Make Them (1977)

(and best book title ever)

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Dad's Style

The Wary Meyers Shop Father's day Gift Guide is up and it's fantastic man!

Thoughtfully stocked from one dad for another dad, there's a little of everything for all types:

Here's a sampling:

For the designer: 

For the workwearer:

For the mariner:

For the architect:

For the writer:

For the jogger:

For the beachbum:

and much more...

Everything ships in time for Father's Day!
(Also we added a lot of other great things in all the categories!)

See it all here:

The Wary Meyers Shop

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recent fåvorites.

Top: Hershey's Syrup clay pot with cactus. The woman said she bought it (without the cactus) 25 years ago from some Amish kids on the side of the road near Hersheypark. This is the kind of thing I wish I'd thought of.
Gunnar Cyren teak peppermill with Peugeot grinder, for Dansk. Usually you see just the Jens Quistgaard peppermills, so this was a rare find.
Giant canvas and leather bank bag from the old Porteous department Store here in Portland. It was bought out years ago by an unscrupulous new owner who heaved all the great old history into the dumpster. The woman we bought it from said she had to climb into the dumpster to retrieve years' worth of all their old hand-drawn advertisements, which are now in the historical society. Also she lugged out her old desk, which the Scrooge-like new owner made her pay $100 to keep.
Lastly, Richard Scarry's Engelsk Ordbok (Storybook Dictionary) in Swedish/English, making the decision of what second language to teach our son an easy one, albeit impractical and likely confusing. But you never know!

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Fiorucci Fioruscha

Late 70's Fiorucci shopping bag. Above, from The Official Preppy Handbook; and top, on our kitchen wall by way of Ebay, years ago (this is the actual auction photo- 17 dollars,framed under glass!)

Fiorucci put out some amazing graphics during their heyday but this is my favorite. Equal parts Ed Ruscha and the actual gas station down the road from where I used to live in Italy, which I'd either ride my bike by or hitchhike by just about every day.

Standard Station, Ed Ruscha 1966

Total Station, S.S. 222 from Greti to Greve in Chianti

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Valley Guy

Living Treasure of California ceramicist Stan Bitters making a cameo in his friends' Joyce Aiken and Jean Ray Laury's 1977 classic, "The Total Tote Bag Book", which, along with their "Handmade Rugs from Practically Anything", and "Creating Body Coverings", complete the must-have holy trinity of 70's craft books (with Alexandra Jacopetti's "Native Funk & Flash" and Peter Beagle's "American Denim" coming in close behind.

* Google mapping that address adds a healthy dose of 70's California Valley provenance.

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The weekend's bags

Unneeded, as usual, but...

From 3 different yard sales: above, an Invicta-striped Regent Belt Co. bag, an old Swiss leather and canvas creel, and yet another old L.L. Bean duffle, this time with the old cursive label and a nice patina to the webbing (that was how I tried to explain the purchase to Linda). Top, a vintage Jansport internal frame pack with its lower outside rack sawn off. This makes it a Kanken-like super sturdy backpack. Below that is a pair of vintage Bean hunting boots in children's size, which they don't make anymore, and never too soon to shop for back-to-school 2016.

Total for everything was 7 dollars, which is hard to resist.

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Boat Basins and Swap Meets

Sun-bleached lobster claw, sun-bleached old Cape Cod t-shirt, typewriter case stuffed with paints, and more old LL Bean bags.

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Vintage Gregory Backpack

25 cents at a church sale. 

Nice removable fannypack (not allowed- Linda)/ bike bag. 

Made in San Diego, 1978

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