Bandanas are for workers, motorcyclists, cowboys, revolutionaries, boy scouts, and anyone looking for a cool pocket square.

The classic paisley pattern was the inspiration for our bandana printed leather wallet collection, but here are some other designs that trace the history of this iconic American accessory.

(All images: Sunrays)

Mansi Shah is our website’s very own hand-drawn type artiste, and we just discovered that she has launched her own shop. Shah Editions takes Mansi’s exuberant digital pattern designs, and turns them into limited edition prints, clothing, and more. Here’s a taste of what she has in store. 

Some outtakes from our Friends & Family Sale photo shoot. The sale is on now through April 14th.

Shop Now with code: JSFF12

25% Off Everything - In Stores & Online

Ends April 14 at 11:59 PM PDT

Once upon a time, in a New York City not so dissimilar to this one, there was a special breed of shady character.

He wore a trenchcoat, and it was lined with everything from counterfeit watches to cigarettes without tax stamps. Whenever he wanted to open up shop, he just flashed the trench coat to whoever was passing by. It was a very mobile business model.

You saw him on Canal Street, in Times Square, and sometimes he’d pop up when you least expected it. This guy used to be all over New York. He was such a common character, he even made it onto Sesame Street. (And in the the video above!)

Today he’s as extinct as the guys who wash your windshield at stop lights, and men laying their jackets down in puddles.

Which is why this illustration in the new issue of NY Magazine caught our eye. Dustin Summers, one half of the Heads of State design house responsible, reminisces: “Seems like they’ve been replaced by the endless supply of knock offs on folding tables… I want to believe though, that the trenchcoat henchmen are behind both of these endeavors, maybe keeping the supply chain running, funneling fake rolexes from port to card table.”

They might be gone, but their legend lives on. And the trenchcoat is still the one of the most dapper ways to stay dry.

To celebrate the 2012 Armory Show, we partnered with featured artist Theaster Gates to create a limited edition Dipped Coal Bag. The A.N.N.A.P. Logo (2010) is drawn from the 2010 solo exhibition, To Speculate Darkly: Theaster Gates and Dave the Potter, in which Mr. Gates created a fully-realized narrative to explore the ways that race, traditional craftsmanship, and history overlap in America. The exhibition featured a full gospel choir performing Mr. Gates’ original compositions, “to fill the atrium of Milwaukee Art Museum with sound.”