Willis & Geiger Outfitters was founded in 1932.  Their most famous item was the “Bush Jacket” they made for  Abercrombie & Fitch.  When I joined Chipp in 1960 Mr. Willis had gone to his reward many years before. Howard Geiger was still runing the company.  The company was sold to Lands End in 1980 and was closed by Lands End 1999.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         In the summer of 2008 a customer asked me to suggest a “traveling” jacket for him.  He had purchased a company in California and wanted something with lots of pockets for the frequent flights he would now be taking.  He wanted comfort and did not want the formality of a classically constructed sports jacket.  I suggested we make a Bush Jacket out of silk - the whole nine yards with four bellows pockets, unconstructed, and with a belt. The jacket was hanging in our showroom. Customers saw it.  We have now made our version of The Willis & Geiger Bush Jackets for men and women using Shetland, loden, Harris Tweed, and John Hardy’s Thorn Proof. There are variations- some have eppaulettes, some have bellows pockets, some do not have bellows pockets.  What I will not do is make one out of poplin.  Tomorrow I will relate how we have come to add another Willis & Geiger classic- the field shirt - to our repertoire.

With the World Series having just ended, please note that I am not telling you how to get rid of a Louisville Slugger; I am writing about the flying bats that make ticking sounds.  On three occasions when we were living in Connecticut in a home surrounded by woods, my wife woke me in the middle of the night to say she heard a wooshing sound and ticking. The first time it happened we weren’t sure what caused what she heard. The 2nd and 3rd had no mystery. Let us return to the first time.  We turned on the light and there he /or she was- a bat flying around the bedroom.  Here is what you do.  Get all warm-blooded things out of the room - kids, dogs, cats and in my case my wife. Close the door/doors.  You then arm your self with a tennis racquet. I put on a Pith Helmet and a Thorn Proof jacket from the John Hardy collection.  This next part is very important- you have to keep the bat flying around. You keep swinging at the bat with the racquet. You don’t have to worry about the bat flying into you- their sonar is better than anything on the most advanced nuclear sub.  What does the bat “in” is the space between the strings of the racket. Before too long the bat’s sonar, by chance, goes through the space in the racket and he/she crashes into the racket, get stunned, and falls to the floor. A burial service followed the dispatchment.  This is not anecdotal- I did it three times.  After the first time my wife and 3 children called me “Batman” for two weeks. For those among you who feel a Thorn Proof jacket is too warm for summer “Batting”, may I suggest one of our silk bush jackets.

A few moons ago I wrote about the bush jackets we were making using cloth other than poplin.  (The classic bush jacket was made by Willis & Geiger using a brushed cotton which they called safari cloth.)  The silk variation we made came about because a customer who had purchased a West Coast  company wanted a comfortable  jacket with lots of pockets for his flights to and from Southern California and for the casual nature of his West Coast meetings.  Customers who saw the silk bush coat in the shop suggested other variations- Shetland, Harris, cashmere and loden.

A customer in Florida asked us to make him a Norfolk jacket ( Straps from the back waist over the shoulders to the front waist- belt- patch pockets)  out of tropical worsted. Through the years we have made Norfolk jackets using Shetland, Harris, and Donegal. We naver made one out of tropical worsted. The tropical Norfolk, upon completion, was truely handsome.

We enjoy being able to be part of our customers ideas.

I joined my father at Chipp in 1961. Back then I would learn things about the business every day. Some things were learned by observation, while other gems were delivered by little lectures. To this day, it is the rare week when I don’t get asked a question about the menswear business I can’t answer.

But it happens, and I continue to learn. More than a few times recently I have thought, “I must have the IQ of a cantaloupe to have been in the business this long and to not know that…”

My father was considered a fashion Innovator. He was really an adapter. Men have been wearing clothes since the age of the caveman, and there is very little that anyone does today that is truly new; Most is all variation and adaption. (The Chinese put fancy brocade linings in their plain garments long before Chipp put tie silk linings into suits and sports jackets.) Ralph Lauren, who has a brilliant sense of both style and color, has never done anything new. Rather, he has very skillfully updated and varied things from the past.

The Bush Jackets that Winston Tailors is now making in silk, Shetland, tropical worsteds, and Harris Tweed (all with optional suede bellows pockets) are obviously an adaption from the classic poplin Bush Jacket. The trick has always been to think trousers or a sports jacket when you see a great looking bed-spread or sofa.

We have always believed that if we can create things that are tastefully different, we will attract those with imagination.

One of the first lessons I learned from my father: very few Chipp customers (and now Winston Tailors and Chipp 2 customers) need anything we make. But if you show them something nice and unique, they will want them.