Istanbul, 1929. Alaska, sometime after. One jacket carrying both.
A gabardine jacket originally issued by the Kimevi Müdürlüğü — the Dormitory Directorate of Istanbul — inventory number 386, dated 1929. At some point, it crossed an ocean and found its way to an Alaska embroidery shop, where a craftsman stitched the full Alaska Last Frontier scene across the back — mountain goat charging through a spruce-lined alpine scene, ALASKA arcing above — and placed an enraged walrus crackling with lightning bolts on the chest. The embroidery bleeds through onto the quilted lining, so the whole scene lives on the inside too.
This is how mid-century military souvenir jackets were made. Soldiers and travelers would take government-issued or institutional garments to local embroiderers — often working out of small shops near military installations — and have custom scenes stitched in as a record of where they'd been. That this particular base garment originated in Istanbul in 1929 makes it among the most historically layered examples of the form. Two countries. A century of history. Nothing else like it.
Details:
- Vintage gabardine outer shell, quilted lining
- Turkish institutional issue — Kimevi Müdürlüğü, Istanbul, item no. 386, dated 1929
- Alaska Last Frontier embroidery — mountain goat and alpine scene on back, walrus on chest
- Embroidery visible through quilted interior lining
- Snap closure, point collar
- Size L — approx. 22.8" chest, 24.8" length
- Mid-century military souvenir jacket
- One of a kind — no restock
