Black Bear Brand is not a new label with an old look. It is a real Seattle company from the early 1900s, with a real factory and a real slogan, that Josh Sirlin spent a decade bringing back.
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Josh Sirlin rides a 1948 Panhead that has outlived almost everything built since. Here is what a 76-year-old chopper taught him about designing clothes worth keeping.
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One brand, two homes, and a bolt of Scottish wool in between. Josh Sirlin on why Black Bear Brand is designed in Seattle and built in Okayama.
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The best travel clothes work as hard as you do and look better the more you wear them. Josh Sirlin on the wardrobe that earns its place on the road.
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Tokyo may be the best-dressed city on earth. Josh Sirlin on what a decade of design trips taught him about Japanese style, from the Okayama mills to Tokyo backstreets.
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Women built the American jean, then spent sixty years borrowing it before anyone cut one for them. Josh Sirlin on women, denim, and the premium Okayama selvedge behind Black Bear Brand WOMAN.
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The pearl snap wasn't a style choice — it was a safety device. Josh Sirlin on the smartest fastener in menswear, and how to buy a snap shirt worth keeping.
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In a small corner of Japan, a handful of artisans keep vintage shuttle looms alive — machines the rest of the world scrapped. Inside the lost art that makes the finest denim on earth.
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Dragons, koi, and full-body suits born from woodblock prints — and an ocean-crossing love affair. The history of Japanese tattoo, and why America fell for the needle.
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The western shirt looks simple, but every line on it was solved by someone who needed the shirt to work. Josh Sirlin on the anatomy of the greatest shirt America ever made.
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Fashion is what's for sale this season; style is who you are in it. A field guide to building a personal style that lasts — and gets better with age.
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The matching top-and-bottom sweatsuit went from the track to the street to the sofa. Its history — and why a heavyweight terry set is the most luxurious thing you can live in.
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That subtle, hand-woven texture in a really good tee has a name: slub cotton. Once considered a defect, now the prize — here's what it is, how it's made, and why it has soul.
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Every pair of blue jeans owes its color to one of the oldest, most magical dyes in history. Understanding indigo is the key to understanding why great denim fades the way it does — and why we chase the best of it in Japan.
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Some of the most American clothing in the world is now made in Japan — and made better. The Ametora story, the mills of Okayama, and Black Bear Brand's decade-long love affair with the country that saved American style.
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One legendary Horween hide — first a motorcycle seat, then a jacket seen on Yellowstone — reborn as the softest rough-out chore coat, now in his and hers. A closer look.
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A faded bear still watches over 1st Avenue in Seattle. The true story of Black Bear Brand — a 1902 overall shop, a landmark daylight factory, and the ghost signs that outlived it all.
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Born on French rail lines and farms as the "bleu de travail," the chore coat is the most quietly perfect work jacket ever made. Its history — and why it never goes out of style.
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People ask why I ride an old machine when a new one would be easier. Ease was never the point. My 1948 Panhead gives me total presence — the world slows, the noise thins, and I'm here. A rider's history of the first-year Panhead.
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From ships' sails to the Klondike gold fields to Seattle's logging camps, waxed cotton is the toughest weatherproof cloth ever made — and it ages like nothing else.
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