Topic of the day 8/24/23 - Grails
In fashion, a grail is a specific piece that you obsess over owning, but it's very difficult to obtain, either to availability or price. What is your grail piece? Did you end up getting it, did it get away, or are you still just hesitating to get it? If you got your grail, did it live up to your expectations? Post a fit pic with your grail (if you have it), or where your grail would go (if you don't have it).
71 Replies
Would have to be my Kapital boro keel vest and Balenciaga raver jeans 🙂
The keel vest retailed for like $2300 or something sooo I kinda gave up. Then miraculously found it cheaper on grailed one day from a trustworthy buyer 🙂
Raver jeans I went ignorant and bought after I got promoted to senior engineer 😅
Saw someone wearing those jeans at a show on Sunday and wondered where they were from. Now I know.
This was my grail and I spent a couple of years with alerts on various sites assembling all the pieces. I got the vest new on sale, the jacket was sourced on grailed and the pants on yjp!. I think I wound up paying about 40% of what it retailed for. I wish I had occasion to wear it more.
Closest thing I have to a grail is my Falcon Garments A2. I was pining after a good leather jacket for about a decade, and after a personal achievement, I sprang for this one to celebrate (after a long debate between the A2 and the collared moto... in retrospect, I think I made the right choice). I really love the jacket, my biggest problem is that my local climate doesn't allow me to wear it for most of the year! I also need to figure out how to coalesce the jacket into the new direction my style is developing toward, but that's a problem for when the weather cools down more.
First thing that comes to mind is my A/W2000 “Haute Couture” Creased Suit.
Was the opening look to the runway and an extremely striking set from YY.
Exterior is a lightweight wool twill, interior is a boiled wool. The fabrics aren’t bonded together so you can shift and manipulate the exterior fabric slightly and the friction holds it in place…somewhat.
A pretty common grail in the vintage and militaria scene, true Vietnam era tiger stripe. Tiger camo was never a contracted uniform by the US which means all true examples were made by tailors in Vietnam or Japan. Originally used by ARVN Vietnamese advisors it was quickly adopted by US special forces. There are a bunch of varieties of tiger stripe with various subtle color and pattern differences and it is becoming increasingly more expensive and hard to find, especially in a large enough size to fit me. I have found a near period set of US made tiger camo using fabric made in Taiwan near the end of the war but never made it to circulation until after the war ended and was sold in bulk to US manufacturers. It just doesn’t hit the same as the real deal though
Andrew Driftwood Balmacaan coat; mud dyed silk fully lined with cotton. Been available at Hostem for a few years now, taunting me forever.
I don't have specific grail items at the moment. The two non-specific ones that come to mind for me are a nice navy blue coat and a nice brown leather jacket
Mister Freedom Campus Jacket: I obsessed for a long time over a leather jacket that wouldn't make me look like the typical middle aged man desperate to look like a badass. Love the style, the colour, the raw finish. I've sunbathed it in the desert in Utah, lovingly rubbed it down with conditioner till my fingers hurt, worn it in the pouring rain to break it in. I love it to bits but I struggle with how to build a fit around it and still don't think I've cracked it.
the one thing i have that i’d firmly hold onto would be my kapital boa fleece riding jacket.
Vintage Alpinestar Supervictory boots. They've been rereleased recently, but somehow the new ones don't seem to have the same air
My Haider Ackermann robe from Spring 2015. It was a piece I wanted but never thought I’d own. I’ve never seen another one come up since.
Saint Laurent Paris ss14 multi zip L17. My grail leather jacket. I saw it on display at Saint Laurent Paris Honolulu when I was in high school and swore one day I would have one. Still too broke.
I did manage to buy the D04s and get Dior Navigate boots for good price, maybe one day I’ll make something that surpasses my desire for this leather.
these are so hard. kadoya had a recent hammer model that was this boot on steroids. how did you size?
I haven't yet gotten it, the vintage ones are hard to come by in decent condition
I’ve been looking out for this JJVE AW21 jacket. Where I live, puffer jacket weather lasts for a long time, and Jan-Jan hasn’t put another one out like this since.
I guess it’s almost more of a liner than a puffer but you get the picture
The front of the varsity and the mixed materials always put me off.
(Same for the she brings the rain jacket)
2016 story mfg beau jacket
Also
The two right feet shoes which I was able to get for a steal from a friend
No wait
Uh
Yeah
I've had so many grails and I basically got all of them. The most intense one was this, the Adidas x Hender Scheme NMD R1, and it remains the only grail I've ever bought and have been unable to bring myself to wear / yet don't want to sell it. It makes me fully understand sneaker collection culture. I am breaking my own rule about selling stuff I don't wear just to keep looking at these in my closet.
If we do a skinny fit jeans theme WAYWT I'll wear em @mewball
Holy shit LOL
I CANT BELIEVE U HAVE THESE that wraps around to being based
my realistic grails that I have not attained but will someday
in general I buy what I see and like instead of looking for something specific so I don't have many grails, but this rachel comey ss17 top was something i set up search alerts for, and I still would like the matching skirt someday but I've literally never seen it pop up
Wot are the shoes
trippen and rick
the trippen ones aren't even expensive lol
they show up on ebay for like $150 pretty often
Grail for me for a while was a perfectly faded black moleskine French chore jacket. Spent a long time trying to find one that looked right, fit, and was a good price. Ended up finally getting this 1940s-50s Le Mont St Michel jacket back in Feb.
Unattainable Grail is this 1 of 1 Nora jacket that was too much for me when it was for sale 😭
I didn't have to spend a grand on em either, got em for like $300 or $350 brand new from someone who presumably failed to flip them
the streets are screaming for you to post a fit
literally everything you share is a cool vintage piece or something awesome you made yourself
Ahhhh I'll do it
Its definitely somewhere on my to do list 😅
Yah Cas i’m aggressively peer pressuring you to post fit
i posted like once or twice a year on reddit si i guess its about time
I’ve seen new trippen in store for $99 Canadian dollars (not these ones though) so in person stockists may be the way to go
i have no idea where they are stocked irl but good looking out! I'll have to look it up
I never knew I had a competitor in this arms race
This is a masterpiece, I had no idea you had this
Flashback to when someone in Ehf had a wrinkled thing that they got dry cleaned and the cleaner pressed out the wrinkles
It might have been the spider web shirt? I can’t remember
Another reason to never take anything to the dry cleaner
That is heartbreaking. I feel like you have to really hunt for a dry cleaner who knows what they’re doing
Thanks! I don’t wear it nearly as often as I should
This thread has made me want things I never knew I wanted 😭
Oo another grail for me would be a vintage Summoning t shirt (collage of two that are sold out 🥲 )
was it plisse of some sort
Actually I think it was a crumpled suit too but in black
Was it mafleeted?
The only t shirt I would call a grail of mine would be the ERD Daft Punk Maxfield Ecstasy is Bad for You tee. I wish I was $3-400 on a T-shirt ignorant when they came out.
Items of this Haeckel series by Betabrand understandably are rare now and cost hundreds, and some I really jive with. Don't want to be a person with grails 🙈🙉 but there could well be some militaria too that I've memory holed
okay so I don’t have this and I probably won’t buy it cuz I can’t really find it in me to actually spend something like >$800 on a garment but I adore this craig green vibrating floral work jacket and I’ve had it in Grailed or eBay lists for years. and they’re almost always large, which might just fit, and this is either fate or temptation damnit.
seeing the kapital quilted sweater on bchan is the most i've ever wanted something, it unironically just gives off such a cozy vibes and none of my friends get why i'm so obsessed
very cozy
that's probably my choice for personal grail piece, now that i think about it
my grail is a velvet wizard robe and wizard hat i can wear in public without getting stopped by the cops (unironically)
a less silly answer would be a tweed balmacaan coat in the vein of sehkelly's
The world is full of possibility
day late but: One of my grails for the last decade has been a pair of Junya patchwork jeans. Lots of brands do patchwork - from UC Scab to Levi's Mainline and a million flavors in between. Junya just hits the right mark for me compared to the rest.
The fits and patchworks vary wildly through seasons. It's an impossible one to buy over the internet (for me, at least). Some fabrics used in the patchwork are wildly offensive (see: Native American Riffs). A lot of seasons have patchworks that just suck. The things cost an offensive $1k retail and have for a decade.
Finally snagged a pair at bluebutton while in Toronto last week for a song. Couldn't have been happier. In the pile of Bad Patchworks, they had one that hit and fit.
I have a few things but these are two that stand out to me: Alden color 4 LHS but probably my personal favorite (and one that I spent years hunting for) a pair of vintage shell florsheims that are weejun clones.
Current grail that I’ve obtained would be my De Bonne Facture Grandad Coat. Current grails I’ve yet to get my hands on would be a Kapital Kountry Quilted Bivark coat, a Clutch Golf Coat, and a Savas suede jacket.
That coat has such a cool and cozy vibe
Viberg Service boots
It’s such a gem
Buzz Rickson 'pattern recognition' bomber.
I love the story behind it, and while I could actually afford this, I can't justify it until my current bomber bites the dust.
Go back in time and sell it to me
I’m convinced Gibson infected me with his brand of obsessiveness in pattern recognition. It could have started sooner as he’s had variations in the sprawl and bridge trilogies. People obsessed to mental illness with objects or people, that he tends to go into vivid detail describing. Like that jacket, the curta, Silencio and his watches. It’s all his fault.
I got this and it is one of the best fitting "puffy" jackets I've got
I'm gonna get the Gibson L-2 once it's back in stock
nice!