What? You haven’t heard that song? Well, maybe because we haven’t recorded it yet. And the way we sing, we’re not likely to.

But it’s our way of saying, Pima cotton is pretty special. It has that distinctive yellow flower. (Blink and you’ll miss it, because it only lasts a few days.) And it’s the only American cotton classified as “extremely long staple” – an inch and 3/8 or longer. The longer the staple, the stronger, softer and silkier the finished cotton garment will be.

At Lands’ End^®, we go even one step further with Pima, and offer garments that are Supima^® (short for “superior Pima”), meaning they are 100% pure American Pima cotton, and not mixed with any lesser cottons. You’ll feel the difference from ordinary cotton when you button into one of our Supima Pinpoint oxfords, polo shirts or fine-gauge sweaters. You might say “Ooooo!” or “Ahhhh!” if you’re the emotional type. And from a purely practical point of view, you’ll find they’ll outlast your other cotton garments as well. Even colors are richer, truer in Supima cotton.

Pima didn’t just sprout up from the ground one fine day – it has a long and convoluted history. Don’t worry; we’ll give you the nutshell version.

Sherman, set the wayback machine for 1790. That’s when the first successful crop of Sea Island cotton was produced on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina – the first “extremely long staple” cotton we know of.

In 1825, this Sea Island was taken to Egypt and crossed with a cotton called jumel. That produced ashmouni, which eventually got fine enough to compete with Sea Island for supremacy.

In 1908, a cotton called Yuma was introduced in Arizona – a hybrid of ashmouni and Sea Island. It got a boost in development during World War I, when it was used for tire cords and airplane fuselage. When a marauding army of nasty boll weevils wiped out Sea Island cotton in 1920, Yuma became America’s premier cotton. Eventually, it evolved into Pima, named for the Native American Pimas who helped raise it.

We’ve met our share of cottons over the years, and our share of cotton people. But we’ve never run across any cotton like Supima. It’s amazing.

The fact is, Supima is the finest 3% of all cotton grown in America. That’s a pretty select club, but not a snooty one. Anybody can join – especially if you shop Lands’ End, where it’s affordable.

Check out a brief video starring Supima, and see what soft looks like…

Have a story or photos you’d like to share?
Email it to us at MyStory@landsend.com
(Please keep any images under 12 Mb.)

The post The Yellow Bloom of Pima appeared first on The Lands' End Blog.

When he was 10.

Three years ago when my wife and I moved here the first thing we did was introduce ourselves to the neighbors – so they could get to know us, and so we could pick their brains. Standard operating procedure for us since we’ve moved around a bit – plus it’s just good manners.

What are the best restaurants? Who’s the most reliable car mechanic? What the heck is a cheese curd? Where’s the best shopping? What’s winter like up here? Is there a good tailor in town?

We soon discovered that Wisconsinites (or Sconnies as I was told) are world-class chitchatters. I’d go as far as honoring them with the rank of “Black Belt in the Verbal Arts.”

During these lengthy Q&A sessions we received wide-ranging endorsements and recommendations. But one answer was consistent. If you need anything altered (from a wedding gown to an old Oxford shirt), you go see Gino at Monetti’s Tailoring.

Turns out I needed a suit altered for a wedding. So I visited Gino. While he measured and chalked, I practiced my chitchat skills, sharing with him that my first job was working weekends as an alterations boy at a men’s clothier. He smiled and said everything would be ready in a week.

The next Saturday I stopped by his shop to grab my suit and see if his skills lived up to the hype.
Gino had transformed my off-the-rack suit into something that fit like it was custom made on Savile Road. I became a believer.

Recently, I contacted Gino to see if he’d be interested in helping Lands’ End compare our Men’s No-Iron Pinpoint Oxford Shirt to a well-known competitor’s version. He was happy to help.

Prior to the video shoot, Gino and I sat down and chitchatted.

Randy: You definitely don’t have a Wisconsin accent. Where are you from and how did you end up in Madison?

Gino: I was born and raised in Italy – a little south of Naples. In 1986, I moved to New Jersey and worked in a few tailor shops before I opened my own. Then almost 11 years ago we moved to Madison. My wife is from here and we wanted to raise our kids in Madison. I’m very happy in Wisconsin but it’s quite a bit colder than southern Italy. I love the atmosphere, the people, making friends with my customers. . .

Randy: When did you start working in a tailor shop?

Gino: Oh, maybe when I was around 10. I don’t want to say my parents forced me to work but they didn’t want me hanging out on the streets with friends after school getting in trouble. So they got me a job at a tailor shop.  There were about 7 other kids in the shop helping out. Doing mostly hand sewing and taking seams apart. Basically getting to know garments inside and out. After finishing high school I started working full time in a few tailor shops to learn different skills – from making bridal gowns to custom shirts.

Randy: When did you recognize your talent for tailoring garments?

Gino: In my late teens – maybe 17 or 18.
I realized I could take a garment that was totally unfitted and alter it so the person would say, “Wow, this looks incredible.” That’s also when I started exploring different areas – working on leather and fur and wedding gowns to get the full experience.
But I prefer working on menswear and custom shirts and suits.

Randy: You’ve been a tailor for almost 40 years. Any interesting stories?

Gino: (Laughing) There’s some I can talk about and some I can’t. Working in a small town in Italy we had some “very formal customers” who were quite picky about what they wanted and how they wanted it. We made them some of the finest custom suits. . .suits that are probably still around today.

Randy: Mr. Monetti, I can’t thank you enough for taking time to talk with me. Feel like looking at a few shirts we brought with us?

Gino: My pleasure. Let’s see what we’ve got…

The post Stitching A Career Path From Italy To Madison appeared first on The Lands' End Blog.

Lucky for us, we were riding the “preppy wave” too. Lisa Birnbaum’s tongue-in-cheek classic “The Preppy Handbook” had come out in 1980, celebrating chinos, Oxfords and such – exactly the kind of clothing we offered.

But therein lay a problem: everybody started offering chinos and Oxfords. We were in grave danger of getting lost in the shuffle. So Gary Comer (thinking like the former ad agency copywriter that he was) had an idea…

An ad campaign unlike anything any catalog company had ever done. It would be an ad campaign whose main objective was not to solicit catalog requests – the way other catalog companies measured the success of their ads – but to tell a gripping story of Land’s End quality.

Gary called on two buddies from his Young and Rubicam days, art director Sam Fink and writer Karl Vollmer. The original odd couple.

Sam was a passionate workaholic, an eternal optimist, a man who could barely get one idea down on paper before a dozen more burst into his head. He would vociferously advocate for his ideas, occasionally with a wagging finger under your nose. He paced around our offices like a caged tiger.

Karl moved in a slow shuffle, with a bemused smile on his face. He could dash off a brilliant ad or even a short story in an afternoon, allowing time for a leisurely dinner or better, a visit to a gambling establishment. His acerbic sense of humor kept us in stitches, but at times clashed with Sam’s sunnier disposition.

Yet they were a dream team, when it came to the work. They created a campaign that was right up Gary’s alley – treating each Lands’ End product as a hero, stressing how much effort we put into our products, how we made them genuinely better than our competitors. Before either of them put pencil to paper, they subjected each particular Lands’ End merchant to an affable but rigorous “interrogation,” ferreting out unsung details of the products, like the split back yoke of an Oxford shirt or the deeper-than-ordinary pockets on a pair of flannel trousers, talking about those details in a way that reflected an unusual dedication to quality.

Even in the 1980’s, these magazine ads had an old-fashioned, even fuddy duddy look. No photos, just simple illustrations done by Chicago artist Mark McMahon. And copy, lots of it. “Who’s gonna read all this?” groused one skeptical member of the management team. But the ads stood apart, and got noticed.

Karl’s headlines were irresistible:

Why this New York ad man leaves his $300 attache case in the closet and carries our $39.50 Square Rigger.

Why this New York ad man leaves

After a slight detour to the University of Chicago, it’s here: the near-perfect Lands’ End Rugby Shirt.

The near-perfect Lands’ End Rugby

Quality in the apparel business, we learned early in our life, is an ephemeral thing.

Quality in the apparel business

With those messages and Sam’s simple visuals, the ads had an honest, forthright feel that made a powerful impression on readers, created what we might now call “a buzz,” and began to build a nationwide reputation for Lands’ End. It was a reputation we reinforced with every order we shipped out of Dodgeville.

In recent years, our Lands’ End advertising has become more colorful and contemporary. But we hope the message of quality is still as powerful as ever. We think about Sam and Karl, every time we dream up a new ad.

The post “Who’s Gonna Read All This?” The Original Lands’ End Ad Campaign appeared first on The Lands' End Blog.

The Caterpillar brand lends itself to playing in the dirt, but that’s not what you see here. It’s crumbled Oreo cookies. They’re easier to size and shape, though tougher not to eat. The buttons are pea gravel scooped up from the photographer’s driveway. The CAT logo is a swatch created by our in-house embroidery team.

Our stylist shopped for seeds at a local feed mill using a criteria they seemed unfamiliar with: seed size and beauty. She created a clay base, and while the clay was moist, placed every seed you see here by hand. The stripes on the shirt are sunflower seeds. The burlap background is a piece of one of the seed bags.

These French Bulldogs – Bella and Boo – belong to a Lands’ End Creative Director. The dogs were photographed separately, so they’d look at the camera instead of each other, and the two shots were merged digitally. The polos were fetched from Lands’ End Kids.

This American Veterinary Medical Association cover began with a wet clay base. The stylist shopped for the bones at a local pet shop, size and color being her criteria. Each dog bone was pressed into a wet clay base. The shirt buttons? Cat treats.

The post QUESTION: What does it take to create a great catalog cover? ANSWER: Seeds. Dogs. Bones. Gravel. appeared first on The Lands' End Blog.

Dissidents have dared to proclaim that no one reads catalogs any more.

Yet this company was founded by a writer. And one Lands’ End writer has declared, “Our clothing has a story – and if people won’t read it, I will read it to them…”

That man is Bob.

Bob discusses angel hair and meatballs and how it relates to Pima cotton (seriously).

Bob ponders the difference between Chinos and Khakis.

Bob opens up about what guys want.

Bob provides free advice on Hemingway.
(Editors note- that can’t be right?)

Bob clarifies what Pinpoint Oxfords are actually made from due to their misleading name.

Bob digs deep on the origins of linen.

Bob goes coastal talking about board shorts.

Bob is really into Madras. We’re not sure what Madras thinks of Bob.

Bob starts strong talking about Durable Goods. . .

Bob knows the origins of the word Supima – but that’s about it.

Bob divulges what happens in our secret lab.

Bob introduces our newest employee whose name is Squall.

Bob presents a hollow description of fleece.

Bob’s monogramming advice and how to name your child.

Bob explains the diet of a Merino wool producing sheep.
Yup. You read that right.

Bob sings a suit song. Our apologies.

The post The Copywriters’ Revolt appeared first on The Lands' End Blog.