pendleton blanket coat

Medicine Bow – a New Blanket and More

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River Inspiration

This beautiful new blanket was inspired by the Medicine Bow River in Wyoming.

Pendleton blanket: Medicine Bow

Medicine Bow

The Medicine Bow River rises deep in Wyoming’s Snowy Range to flow 167 miles on its way to the Medicine Bow Mountains. Native tribes traveled to the area to harvest mountain mahogany for especially fine bows. Stands of wood alternate with bands of arrows, meeting in the center to show the Medicine Bow River crossing, an important link between East and West.

Take a look at the beautiful Medicine Bow River!

The Medicine Bow River, photo by Colby Thomas
Photo by Colby Thomas on Unsplash

The river is a beauty, but it isn’t the only Medicine Bow in Wyoming. Far from it.

Medicine Bow Peak

The highest point of Snowy Range –and the highest point in southern Wyoming–is Medicine Bow Peak (12,018 ft). Intrepid (and hopefully experienced) hikers reach the mountain’s peak on a four-mile trail that features numerous switchbacks and plenty of loose rock. It’s part of the Medicine Bow Mountains, near Laramie, Wyoming.

Medicine Bow National Forest

The river, the peak, and the mountains are part of an enormous preserve called The Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests and Thunder Basin National Grassland (also known as the MBRTB). The MBRTB is composed of nearly 2.9 million acres in northern Colorado and eastern Wyoming. The entire complex of mountains ranges, grasslands, and vast unspoiled landscapes spans two states and over a dozen counties.

Medicine Bow, the Town

There’s also a tiny town in Carbon County, Wyoming that bears the Medicine Bow name. With a population of only 200 to 300 people, Medicine Bow has maintained a post office since 1869. It is home to the famed Virginian Hotel. In the past, the town hosted outlaws like Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch, who committed the Wilcox Train Robbery just a few miles away from Medicine Bow.

Medicine Bow is a beautiful place and a beautiful pattern that is showcased in this wool jacket.

A man wearing a Pendleton jacket

More information at pendleton-usa.com:

Blanket

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New Blankets for Spring 2021

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Pilot Rock

Spring is…nearly here, and with it come two new traditional wool blankets from Pendleton. They are beauties!

Pendleton Pilot Rock wool blanket

Pilot Rock – In Oregon’s Western Cascades, Pilot Rock rises thousands of feet above the Rogue and Shasta Valleys. The area’s original Native American inhabitants, the Takelma, called it Tan-ts’at-seniphtha, or “Stone Standing Up.” The Takelma lived in the rock’s shadow as they fished, hunted and foraged along the Rogue River. In this pattern, arrows represent salmon swimming into nets, and large baskets overflow with abundant acorns and camas.

See it here: Pilot Rock

We are using this beautiful pattern for clothing, towels, and accessories!

A woman faces away from the camera, she is wearing a jacket in the Pilot Rock pattern

Would you like to see it all? Click here: More Pilot Rock

Fossil Springs

Pendleton's Fossil Springs blanket

Fossil Springs – A pattern inspired by the powerful waters of Fossil Springs in Arizona’s Coconino National Forest. Every minute, 20,000 gallons of calcium-laden water pour from the base of a 1,600-ft deep canyon, laying down deposits of travertine limestone and creating fossils that inspire the area’s name. In the center of this pattern, the springs surge to the surface, flowing out to fuel the wild waters of Fossil Creek.

See it here: Fossil Springs

It’s a Pendleton party! Come Join us this Friday, 9/6/19!

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Seven Decades

Fall 2019 marks seven decades of style from Pendleton. And we are having a party!

The event details are here: Seven Decades of Style party

You can also register at Eventbrite: Pendleton party, Seven Decades of Style

08_2019_PAW_70th_Anniversary_V3.inddWe can’t wait to share the archive inspirations for this year – vintage clothes are encouraged, so put on your ’49er, bring a friend and have a blast.

 

See you there!

Pendleton Blanket Coats – From the Archives

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70 Years of Style

We’re looking forward to celebrating 70 Years of Style next week – a party that honors our womenswear line, providing classic American style to women for seven decades! We’ll be celebrating at the Pendleton store Portland, Oregon, on Friday, 9/6/19, with a party. And you’re invited. We’re breaking out some beautiful clothes from the Pendleton archives for the event, along with bites and sips, music, giveaways, prizes and more. Vintage clothes (especially Pendleton) are encouraged and will be rewarded!

The event details are here: Seven Decades of Style party

The Heritage Coat

Here’s one of the most exciting items in the line for Fall 2019 – the coat on the right.

two women wearing Pendleton blanket coats - to left, actress Anita Page, to right, brunette model wearing hat, jeans, Pendleton blanket coat

Yes, that’s right. The coat on the right is a modern revival of one of our most iconic pieces; the Harding blanket coat. Before there was an official women’s sportswear line, Pendleton produced coats sewn from wool fabric in several lengths and styles to meet the needs of snowshoers, skiiers, tobogganers, and movie stars like Anita Page, photographed in a similar coat in the 1930s.

Actress Anita Page in a Pendleton blanket coat circa 1920s

The photo is black and white, but it’s safe to say that this coat was sewn in the familiar Harding pattern coloration.

The Pendleton Archives

Our archives hold several blanket coats in the Harding pattern on our racks of vintage Pendleton garments, carefully cataloged and hung under white sheets to protect them from dust. Visitors wear white gloves when they handle these treasures, to protect fragile garments from the oils we all have on our hands.

The coat at the front of this “go-back” rack (waiting to be checked back in) is very similar to the coat worn by Anita Page. It’s a well-worn example, with mismatched buttons.archive-coat

Here’s another beautiful Harding pattern coat we call “the airplane coat.” 

The Pendleton "airplane" coat, a blanket coat in the Harding pattern in the Pendleton archives.

This label gave it its name–see the airplane in the lower left of the label?

This car coat was sewn for passengers to wear in open cockpit airplanes. This is also a Harding pattern. The strap-and-button details are charming.

Here’s the rack where both of these coats live in the archives. The “out” cards mark  the spots where other garments have been taken to our design area.

A group of vintage Pendleton blanket coats hanging together in the Pendleton archives. Yellow and pink pieces of paper calle d"out cards" are interspersed, showing where garments have been checked out of the archives for design inspiration.

See You At The Party!

We can’t wait to see what the designers come up with next–and we can’t wait to see you at the party! Come help us celebrate.

Reproduction of a postcard sent to invite people to the 70 Years of Style Celebration at Portland, Park Avenue West, on Firday, Spetember 6, 2019. Includes photos of Anita page in a Pendleton coat from the 1920s, and a modern shot of a model wearing the Heritage Coat from the 2019 Fall Pendleton line.