I recently picked up this L.L. Bean Baxter State Parka. It's a proper vintage effort although I'm not exactly sure how far it dates back. The jacket was made in America and so would have been produced in the early 1990's at the latest as following this the brand opted against continued domestic manufacture and instead shifted production over to the Far East.
L.L. Bean was established in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean (hence the L.L.) and has had a notable reputation for producing some of the best outdoors apparel ever since. The company is still headquartered in Freeport, Maine just down the road from the original store.
This parka comes with four pockets, providing plenty of room to keep all your essentials in and meaning you're unlikely to require lugging a bag around with you. Other nice features are embossed buttons and a lovely navy blue lining on the inside of the jacket. This is absolutely ace!
I have owned two of these, one purchased ca.1970, the other ca.1990, which i still wear practically every day all winter (i live in a warm climate)
ReplyDeleteThe 1970s parka was made of a fabric LLBean called "60-40", i believe 60% synthetic and 40% cotton (or vice-versa) and had (still has) a sheen to it. That parka gradually fell apart at the seams (the fabric was very strong) and i had to re-stitch it.
The one in the photo looks like my 1990 model.