In the orbit of artisanal craft, especially in the realms of high-ranking leather goods, there is usually a long history attached to the firm. The complexities in reaching the veneration from the aptitude of turning various types of leather into state-of-art pieces is usually matured through generations. Think about all of the famous well-heeled shoemakers and bag companies from around the world; nearly all have developed the techniques over many years. When one appears with goods adhering to the same level of process and quality, it is impossible not to take note; especially when it is one man who has single-handedly turned his love and experience of vintage leather jackets into a burgeoning company of bespoke and ready-to-wear jackets that delineate all of the originality that leather jackets of the 1920s and 1930s had. Made as new to function mechanically for the modern gentleman in mind, we're extremely excited to welcome Himel Bros onto The Rake’s e-commerce platform.
Based in Toronto the gentleman behind the firm is David Himel. A vintage leather jacket dealer in Canada’s most populous city for over a decade, he has handled over two hundred thousand pre-1970s jackets and collected around two thousand during this time. With reference to his rarest jacket - a 1920s King O Fur Goatskin Grizzly jacket, he decided to make a version of it as he hadn’t seen anyone make a pre-1940s Grizzly jacket. Before David assigned himself to the construction, his objective was to spare no limitations in quality. It meant spending two years doing preliminary research and then another two years doing research on materials. He had to track down the most common and durable leather used in jackets before the 1960s and he found that horsehide was only made in two tanneries across the world, in Japan and Chicago.
