Notes from Lost Worlds, Inc.

Finally an e-catalog about devotion, quality and a commitment to excellence and performance, without compromise ...

LOST WORLDS Inc. is a clothing manufacturer in New York.

But unlike most so-called manufacturers, Lost Worlds actually designs and makes all their own clothes ... primarily classic leather motorcycle and flight jackets ... in their own on-premises factory, one at a time.

And their dedication to quality shines ... no, blazes through their catalog.

I had leather boots, gloves and a Harley-Davidson leather jacket back when I rode motorcycles and wore them religiously while riding ... even if the outside temperature was pegged in the 90's ... because leather is infinitely more durable, more burn and tear-resistant, and more easily replaced than toes, elbows and skin.

(Sliding belly-first down the asphalt at 60 mph, using your palms and knees for brakes, isn't the time to start thinking about how cool, comfortable and breezy you felt two seconds ago riding in your shirt sleeves and sneakers, before that SUV rudely swerved into your lane; nor is it the time to feel smart about the money you saved buying the flimsiest bargain-basement motorcycle jacket you could find.)

Amazingly enough, Lost Worlds has no showroom, prints no catalog, has no retail store or outlet, and does not open their factory to the public: their showroom is their web page.

It doesn't take long browsing through the product descriptions to realize Lost Worlds has a clear vision and doesn't mince words when it comes to describing what their products are all about, as well as what sets Lost Worlds worlds apart from BRAND X ... and every other company whose idea of "making clothes" means sewing a designer label onto collars mass-manufactured overseas.

Here's some excerpts; you can find many, many more (some even more outspoken) on the Lost Worlds web site:

WHY DO YOU CALL YOURSELF THE BEST?

Our absolute unflinching, uncompromising devotion to Authenticity, Quality and Service. Our honesty.

This is specialist, not mass market, clothing. For the few, not the herd.

Throughout the LOST WORLDS web site we try to introduce matters of history, materials, tradition and manufacturing (and the now dinosaur status of American masculinity, so rendered by political correctness) with which many may be unfamiliar. Family, education and our debased culture no longer teach offspring anything of value, it seems.

In clothing, quality, workmanship and attention to function and detail were infinitely more important in the past than now. The reasons, myriad and placed in current perspective, depressing. Briefly, from the Great Depression until the 1960s people were thankful for employment and self-motivated to do a good job. Employment was a rare privilege. Now it's a right -- and we have Homer Simpson at the Springfield Nuclear Plant -- D'oh!

First and second generation Americans of European extraction principally constituted the old garment work force, working for factory owners of similar cultural and religious backgrounds, so there were shared goals, experiences and assumptions. By necessity having often made and mended their own clothing, workers routinely applied this expertise, knowing no other way.

Fashion was the concern of a small rich elite almost fanatically followed in movies and newspapers.


Specialist apparel like leather motorcycle and rugged wear was clothing designed and made to do things in, to perform tasks in, not as the fashion and political statements of the various interests it later became. Original motorcycle and outdoor clothing was functional, overbuilt and necessary.

Compare, similarly, old and new Levis -- in the 1950s the concept of pre-washed, pre-broken in jeans would've been ludicrous. Jeans were still work clothing. But when people ceased to make and grow things and began service economy jobs, they adopted, as psychological compensation, jeans as the middle class uniform, as if unconsciously to assert they were still linked to the soil.

A kind of suicidal infantilism has mortally stricken America: now everything must be pre-chewed, pre-washed. In the same way, politically correct language is sanitized pre-thought. In a similar vein we recoil when we see someone on an expensive Harley or restored Indian in some pre-distressed, baby soft, logo-driven, Asian-made alleged motorcycle jacket. The image Harley-Davidson covets? Nope, the $$$.


In marked contrast LOST WORLDS jackets routinely protect riders from serious injury during accidents. Our testimonials are astonishing, and fill us with pride for a job well done. A flimsy and often not inexpensive import keep you in one piece? Right, call us from the ER, if your arms work, unless the sacred logo's protected you!

America today is sickeningly about image -- and the ability to afford an image, a label -- rather than substance. Life-As-Acting-Class -- a definition of current America. Carapace Culture.

We digress. The old jackets which LOST WORLDS recreates are majestically superior in design, materials and construction. Arising from a world where Attitude didn't rule, where men still walked the earth, their purposefulness, expressed in functional detail and faultless craft, jumps out at you. They're heavy, demand attention, a little breaking-in to show who's boss. They demand respect, but not kid gloves, quite the opposite. They express a truth, an honesty, not a fashion flavor choice for brain-dead, replicant masses which put on different egos according to their moods.

Inauthentic people have no value, if value is defined as contribution. And are the majority. Scary. Deadly. But true.

American marketing preaches sameness and uniformity as desirability -- the opposite of the LOST WORLDS philosophy. If everyone's the same, unoriginal, everyone wants the same crap. The imagination-killing myth of "equality." Who ever wanted to grow up to be a Xerox when he was a little kid? Most.

Equal is the most insidiously totalitarian word there is, substituting quantity for quality. It's so much easier to oppress and to slaughter people if they're just numbers ("You're one of us, not one of them").

Our products aren't "the same things." They're not for those who value quantity over quality. They arise from the heart, not calculator. They provoke reaction. They inspire devotion. They link to important moments.

At some point, if you're serious about dead authenticity and quality that even exceeds originals, you'll audition a LOST WORLDS jacket. We don't consider our jackets replicas, rather continuations.

Although our jackets cost more than some others we've never -- NEVER! -- heard from a customer that the difference wasn't worth it.

Hmm ... what would the American automobile industry be like today if GM had been owned by Lost Worlds?

It's just a thought, but something makes me doubt we'd ever see Lost Worlds joining The Hands-Out Herd lining up at Capitol Hill for a bail-out ...