A great thing about the internet fashion forums like Styleforum is that you can find people to share your interests and obsessions with. You discover, that you're not the only one digging Donegal tweed or tripping over some new South Korean streetwear collaboration. That's of course all good. But I get really excited, when I see it materialising every now and then, when people get together and buy a specialised product by some of the good makers as a group buy. It's democracy at its finest, especially when they vote over the details and create polls. Beautiful.
When I wrote about the Dehen 1920 varsity cardigan, I started thinking about the company Centralia Knitting Mills. They're a great company that makes great products. Their production is still specialized in making small batches of specialized products for sports teams for instance and nowadays they also cater to the picky Japanese market.
For some odd reason I've passed on two consecutive group buys of custom made varsity jackets on Styleforum. I really don't know why, but I keep my finger's crossed that it will happen again, and when it happens I'll be the first one to sign up for it.
Here are some of the options that were available for the Styleforum group buy. They were a bit limited compared to the options that Japanese retailers/brands have. But still it shows a great number of options and endless combinations.
Here are some examples that I've found browsing Japanese webshops mostly. I think it really shows, what they're able to do.
