The people at Schott NYC have something nice and new coming for Spring ’11 — a little off-shoot collection of outerwear called Perfecto Brand by Schott NYC. The new goods were designed by none other than Mr. Greg Chapman, who seems to have given up Britain for the New World (at least for the time being). And not to worry Greg, if you keep designing clothes as nice as these we’ll let you stay. The initial line includes several shapes and materials, everything from the pictured Cone Mills selvedge pea coat and duffel, a rip-stop nylon parka and a small selection of leathers (a nod the the Perfecto heritage no doubt). Prices range from $400 to $1000 — everything made at the Schott NYC factory in Elizabeth, New Jersey. We’re getting an early look at this stuff, so you will have to wait until next January before you can add any of these to your closet.

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If you aren’t totally clear on the brand structure, there’s Woolrich, then Woolrich Woolen Mills and finally Woolrich John, Rich & Bros. The first is the main U.S. brand, the later two are the product of the geniuses of Italy’s WP. If you aren’t familiar with WP, they are the Italian distributor for Barbour, the global distributor of Woolrich and the owner of various other brands including shirt maker B.D. Baggies.

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If you follow the ACL Twitter you would have known all about my little adventure this past Sunday. I decided to make the drive out to Hamburg, PA for a little shopping. What possible store could warrant a two hour drive to the Lehigh Valley? One word: Cabela’s. It has been a few years since I stepped foot in one of the Nebraska retailer’s massive stores, and to be honest, I was pretty disappointed with what I found. While I know I am not the target demo for such a store, I will say that I found the product mix to be fairly boring.

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If you haven’t been to the Barbour archives (don’t feel bad, I haven’t either) you might be unfamiliar with the Ursula Suit story. The Ursula suit is a coveted British WWII artifact made expressly for Lieutenant Commander George Phillips (pictured above c.1939) and the crew of the submarine HMS Ursula. Mr. Phillips was unhappy with water stopping ability of the issued Navy kit, so he took matters into his own hands and commissioned Barbour to make what would become the famous (and standard issue) Ursula Suit.

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First things first, lets be happy that it is still cold outside and we can take full advantage of wearing all of our favorite winter goods. This catalog from 1969 is the convergence of two of my favorite things: nostalgic ephemera and L.L. Bean. This booklet features some choice goods, along with a cover shot of a hunter about strike down Bambi. Safe to say that 2010 Bean is not going to be using cover art like this — but some of these goods are a bit less controversial and have been much more long lasting. That Flotation Jacket sure does look familiar.

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We all have our obsessions. Shoes, clothing, cameras, vintage issues of Playboy (for the articles of course). Nicolas, from the blog One-Upmanship, seems to have a slight infatuation with outerwear and has amassed quite the collection judging by one of his Flickr sets. His vintage mini-archive has a strong offering of throwback jackets from the golden age of foul-weather-design. Sierra Designs, Barbour and Peter Storm all make an appearance in these well styled pics. You’re welcome in advance for the newest additions to your eBay watch list and for the day-crushing new addition to your RSS reader. —SEAN SULLIVAN

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Part of my obsession with autumn is the fact that you need to own coats, sweaters and all sorts of other gear to protect you from the rain and chill. I’ve never lived anywhere but the Midwest and Northeast where coats are a necessity and a way of life. And for whatever reason, when I shop I tend to repeatedly aim my discretionary-income at two things, coats and bags. So when I first heard about Veilance — the sleek new collection from Vancouver based Arc’teryx that is hitting stores this week — it was clear that come fall I would be up to my old tricks and adding a Veilance jacket to my already stuffed coat closet. The debut range combines everything the folks at Arc’teryx have learned over the years about performance gear and combined that technical know-how with more stylish and classic shapes like the Long Coat and the M-65 inspired Field Jacket pictured below. I love the idea of pairing a Gore-Tex shell with a suit and not having to look like I just got off a ski lift. At the same time you know that you are going to be protected from the the elements and look stealthy doing it.

The Long Coat from Veilance

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