New Brand: Stan Ray

There’s been all this fuss about workwear and military wear in fashion magazines, on Instagram and on blogs around the globe lately. Even cargo pants, the secret weapon of the archetype dad, are in high demand and can be seen on Paris runways frequently these days. Guess who’s not impressed – us.

At the risk of coming across as know-it-alls here, waving the »Told you so« index finger, but with the confidence that you, our dear HHV connaisseur, know what’s up: Workwear and miltary wear have been an inherent part of our wardrobe since the Golden Era of Hip Hop in the Nineties. Plus it has always been in our assortment. But enough of the attention-seeking, you’re here for Stan Ray.

If encyclopedias were still relevant, we could use this pretty sentence: When looking up the term American Workwear in an encyclopedia, you will find Stan Ray’s logo amongst big brands like Carhartt and Dickies. But if there was a category called American Workwear Made in USA, you’d read a lot less names. But Stan Ray would still be there.

Born in Texas, USA, the brand produces each and every piece of clothing in their own factory in Crockett, a small picturesque town surrounded by pine forests. In 1972, a man named Earl Beard quit his job, rented a building and a few sewing machines and voilà – Earl’s Apparel was founded. This paved the way for Stan Ray, a brand named after Earl Beard‘s youngest son, which specialized in rugged clothing of military grade cotton sateen garments, painter overalls and natural drill pants.

So far, it sounds like a classic American success story, but not very different from those of other American heritage brands. Everything seemed tranquil in Crockett, until Japan entered the game. Unlike Carhartt WIP or Dickies, the people behind Stan Ray had no interest or ambition to enter into the fashion business.

Towards the end of the Eighties, Stan Ray became a real insider workwear brand within the Americana-loving Japanese scene and cult shops like Beams, Journal Standard and Freak’s Store started selling the brand. This is commonly called the »Japan effect« – or maybe we just made that term up – and catapulted Stan Ray to the top of the workwear fashion brands foodchain. And if you think you know what happened next (expansion, increasing production volumes, global distribution, massive marketing strategies etc.) you’re wrong, my friend.

Instead of getting big investors to come on board or transfering production into low wage countries, the people of Stan Ray did what they do best: Stick to the traditions and basically change nothing. Until this very day, every item is produced in the family-owned factory in Crockett, Texas. This is how chill they are.

And even better, nowadays the brand is run by a group of friends who have worked for brands such as Levi’s Vintage, Patagonia and Manastash and bring all of their experience and appreciation for tradition and quality into every Stan Ray piece they help create, incorporating modern fits and style elements. By using dead-stock fabrics and re-purposed vintage garments, they even answer the »What about sustainability?« question.

It doesn’t get any better than this.

Check out our selection of Stan Ray SS19 at HHV: www.hhv.de/shop/en/stan-ray

Visual content: Stan Ray , SS19 editorial images: James Pearson-Howes