vintage workwear: Made in the USA

Jan 20, 2011

Vintage RRL Work Caps circa Mid 1990's, Made in the USA

Picked these RRL Work caps up at ROSS (Dress for Less) across the street from The Original Farmers Market in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles back around 1995. I remember it well, went there for dirt cheap Airwalks & Quicksilver snowboarding gear and stumbled onto a trove of RRL at prices that were as they say, UNBELIEVABLE!

RRL Truck Label Duck Canvas, possibly my favorite work cap of all time

Loomed RRL Truck Label

Aged leather strap with patina & verdigris. I've worn this cap almost daily for years

Never worn deadstock RRL work cap from 1995 give or take

Embroidered Truck logo

Compare this strap to the one pictured above

I seriously went home with more than a few dozen pieces including button fly & zipper jeans, dark denim carpenter jeans, blue duck button fly work pants, Carhartt style distressed canvas work pants, cotton button fly work pants, fine stripe button fly work pants, lined & unlined buckle back denim jackets, buckle back duck jacket, various caps, a bunch of Truck Logo tees & a bunch more. Most all of it was Made in the USA back then. I used to head over the hill to LaBrea & The Stussy Store back when they were killing it, then hit ROSS to see if they had anything. On one trip I picked up 6 pair of Air Jordan 2 reissues for like $25 a pair that I hung onto for about 10 years....sold them a few years ago. Got lots of pictures to share at some point. I have always been quick to give big props to Shawn Stussy, starting with those crazy print surf shirts of the 80's and leading into Stussy Service & Workwear. Like a lot of clothing I get attached to, I saved almost every piece of Stussy & RRL purchased over the years, most of it during the late 80's thru mid 90's.
Anyone who attended Inspiration 2010 most likely noticed Shawn Stussy, hard to miss him sporting such classic style, he pulls off a pair of Vans better than just about anyone out there. Stussy, RRL.... Shawn Stussy at the RRL afterparty... two Icons who truly inspire! All is right in the universe. I'll be posting lots of this stuff from the vault as time allows.

I'm sure that the 2 embroidered caps pictured were picked up with the lot above. I swear I took half of what they had that day and came back for more a day later. I even returned a white Lee Westerner style RRL trucker jacket because I had way too much stuff... like there even is such a thing, right?