With a Little Help from my Friends : We've Moved.

After much ado, SECRET FORTS has a new address. We've re-built the fort, bigger and better, but tried to keep it the same old Secret Forts you've come to know and love. This site will remain as an archive but new posts from here on out will be made from the new HQ.
Make sure to update your bookmarks and links and check out the new site often as we're working on new features as well as continuing the old ones.
A huge thanks to good friends Sandy and Emil Corsillo for all their help and to you for following along here for the past three years. See you over at the new fort.

Transit Issue : Apolis + Sierra Designs, Oakland, CA.

My good friends over at Apolis have just today released the latest additions to their Transit Issue collection, the stand out being(though very stoked to see the re-stock of the tough-as-nails waxed canvas USMC jacket and the release of the reversible anorak) the classic Oakland,CA-made Sierra Designs 60/40 Mountain Parka.

Thirty Minutes or Less : Warhol's BMW M1.

BMW's art car project. Started by French race car driver Hervé Poulain in 1975, Warhol spent all of 23 minutes painting the M1 in 1977.

Articles & Effects : Hemingway's Bean Boots.

Photo x Jonathan Becker for Town&Country

Summer Blues : Oak Street Navy Suede Trail Oxford.

A while back, I introduced you to Oak Street Bootmakers and have since been wearing the heck out of their Trail Oxfords. Just today, available in limited numbers, a navy Horween suede Trail Oxford with a handsome red brick camp sole(both Oak Street firsts) goes up on their site.

Summer Listening : Dirty Gold's 'California Sunrise'.

Thanks to GT, haven't stopped listening to this jam in weeks.

Kerouac in Shorts : Miki "Da Cat" Dora.

“Real secrets will get you dead. I always forget to remember anything. I am a waterlogged, sun-baked old surf bum and that act always ends the inquisition. I wanted to be left alone. So I left alone. Now I don’t want anything.” -The Black Knight of Malibu. Badass. Legend. Miki Dora. Respect.

It's Back : The Rig Out, #IV.

Hot off the presses, the fine fellows of the Rig Out(them being Glenn Kitson, Andy Bird and Antony Crook) have done it yet again and as usual, in a big way.

Studio Visit : Stanley & Sons, BK/NY.

The other day I paid a long overdue visit to Stanley & Sons. Just down the street from my apartment in Brooklyn, each bag and apron is handmade, start to finish, in a 350 sg/ft studio space on Grand street a stones throw from the East River. Having long admired the nearly bomb-proof construction and straight forward utilitarian aesthetic of S&S goods, I thought it was about time I stop in and see where it all comes from.

Pictures of Pictures of : Steve McQueen.

All photos of Steve McQueen, the undisputed 'King of Cool'(as they say), by William Claxton. Published by Taschen Books. Thanks Junior.

Coming Attractions : Baldwin Men's Shop, KC.

My buddy Matt & co. just putting the finishing touches on things. Get ready, KC.

Epic Road Trip : Hamilton Dry Goods, Sparta, TN.

While Sandy was back in Brooklyn, handling the daily operations of both The Hill-Side and Hickoree's, Emil and I made a trip down south to Nashville to do some sight seeing, some honky-tonking and so Emil could do some fabric hunting for the Hill-Side.