Ethan Newton’s column.
I had a revelation a few years ago, so original that I don’t know why it never came to me before. Every year and every season we create clothing history – this is our responsibility as product designers, and a great opportunity.
There are periods of clothing design that capture my mind in a dream, with which I will use all the information I can find – myth and legend, catalogs, advertisements, all historical events that paint layer upon layer to create movement.
That this movement was adopted in industries like the one we find ourselves in today, makes me realize how useful it can be in the history of design.
My father once told me that I was named after a character in the Western film ‘The Searchers’ – John Wayne’s civil war general Ethan Edwards – and I remember it being mixed with many other early memories.
My dad singing Frankie Laine’s opening song ‘Wanted Man’ in a play that I still rehearse to this day. Western movies on Sunday afternoons where boots and holsters and chairs mingle with the sound of mother’s sewing machine whirring in the background. Roy Rogers and Gene Autry rub shoulders with the Sgt Pepper-era Beatles in my personal zeitgeist. Western utilitarianism and home flowers of the 1960s.
You realize over time how much these things shape your design philosophy, whether you realize it or not. These influences were so ingrained in me that I did not become aware of them until many years after the clothes that inspired them had already crumbled and faded.
Nathan Turk
You can start that story by talking about Nathan Turk (above). Turk was a Hungarian-Jewish immigrant who, in his shop in North Hollywood in the 1930s, brought the influences of his Eastern European Jewish heritage, Norwegian Rosemaling design and Swedish Kurbitz to the American West.
With the Cornely Chainstitch machine, he gave the strictness of western clothing a distinct Eastern European flavor, which came to represent the Hollywood image of the American cowboy. When the Stones of the Pioneers sing ‘Cool Water’, or early cowboy Gene Autry takes the stage, their Americanism is heavily influenced by Nathan Turk’s Eastern European roots.
Nathan Turk walked so Nudie Cohn could run – just like Tex Williams walked so Elvis Presley could run.
Nudie Cohn (above, left) pushed the boy-singer aesthetic a step or three further. European chain stitch was translated into rhinestones and sequins, flowers seen at Tex Williams a few decades ago into embroidered cannabis leaves and nude ladies in Gram Parsons’ iconic white Nudie suit (above, right).
Elvis’ ornate jumpsuits were equally influenced by singer Spade Cooley’s clothing, in the same way that Elton John’s presence was influenced by Elvis.
Manuel Cuevas and more
Manuel Cuevas continued the chain. As a master Mexican seamstress working under Nudie, she took these traditional Eastern European influences and gave them an authentic Mexican look.
The traditional hand embroidery of Charro’s suits and mariachi uniforms influenced the next generation of stage performers – traditional flowers combined with religious images, roses and crosses found on metal thread.
The size of the cowboy suit of the 40s came from the influence of heavily tailored charro suits and Campesino clothing that became a very elegant and architectural design, with Bob Dylan, Marty Stuart (above, right) and Dwight Yoakam incorporating his work into their style.
When singer Orville Peck uses fringe and mask to create his unique Western persona, or designer Alessandro Michele brings Gucci glamor to life, they have Nathan Turk to thank, whether they know it or not (and I suspect they do).
From Eastern Europe to North Hollywood to the back streets of Harajuku (where our Bryceland store is today) these influences and cultures have mixed and merged, and in the end it’s me – an Australian with a father who dreamed of a cowboy life, and a mother who can still stitch and embroider with far more finesse than I can.
As designers we have a hand in creating the design zeitgeist of each era in which we live. In every symbolic moment in clothes, there was a designer or an artist who realized his own vision, shaping the world around them for the next generation. Even though none of us has a wheel on him, we all know how to steer the field a little in our direction.
Lazy design, driven by heavy and new branding, tries to get us off track. It is our responsibility to be diligent in design, and make this time worthy of reference for years and generations to come.
