Ho-ho-ho Y'all and Albert Thurston Braces Redux

LFG and I are firmly ensconced at my mom's and we've got almost zero options for internet access. That's a good thing! So here I sit for a moment-navigating a wobbly connection for the sole purpose of letting you know that lengthy posts are not an option till we get back home. But when we do roll back in, we gots a ton of good fodder for you. Including:

The discovery of my sister's 45's and the ensuing demonstration for LFG explaining what the hell these things are.

My Great Grandfather's mercantile operation at a rail stop known as "Seloc". This is a watercolour that my uncle had painted years ago.

LFG shooting her Daisy BB Gun in the same back yard where I shot mine.

Albert Thurston Braces: Gut Ends No More

“When asked for his reaction to the outbreak of war in 1939, actor Sir Ralph Richardson replied that he had gone straight to his tailor on Savile Row and purchased half a dozen pairs of Thurston braces in case they might be in short supply”. (Excerpted from the Thurston website)


You know how your eye gets trained to like something a certain way? Paradigms become strong. When anything outside of that visual pattern tries to enter, it is met with some degree of resistance. I know, I know…Some of you would say that after viewing a few of my sartorial concoctions, I have no “trained or refined eye”. I accept that. However, I like what I like.

I used to find the gut end Thurston braces at Britches of Georgetown 20 years ago. You could always get them from Flusser until Thurston discontinued them. I started wearing them so long ago that all others seem too obtuse, bulky, thick…slightly “not right”. I like the thinness of the gut cord. I like the obvious inconsistencies in the spacing of the hand stitching. I like how the gut gets a bit darker with age. I’m so visually locked into the immutable presence of white tabs that brown tabbed braces look muddy to me.

With the devolution of dressing in suits for work each day, my supply of gut-end Thurstons will last me for the long haul. There’s one pair hanging in that menagerie that I wore when I got married. Maybe I’ll wear them again on a special occasion….LFG’s graduation(s)…my last meeting with the Federal Parole authorities…

Here’s what Thurston says on their website about gut ends. I think it’s a nice answer, probably not untruthful per se but there seems to be a bit of “spin” here as well…

Why no catgut?

Firstly cats never came into it, but for those who recall the ‘Gut End’ braces of the past may be interested in a potted history. Prior to the 1970’s most ‘Gut End’ braces had the actual gut covered with white gloving leather, but due to the difficulty of obtaining hand stitchers this was gradually phased out.

The gut itself was obtained from specialist manufacturers whose main market was the long line fishing industry, but then along came nylon monofilament…so that was that, no more gut. We have found a modern alternative material which we are covering with white gloving leather, so effectively we have gone back to a product very similar to that which we made in the past. The button holes are still hand stitched and the quality remains unsurpassed