A letter arrives…

In 2022, a letter arrived at our corporate offices from a Mr. Tyler Brinker. It contained two Pendleton labels and two wool shirt swatches (actually cuttings from shirttails).

On a sticky note, Mr. Brinker wrote, Purchased in Durango, Colorado in 1924 by lawyer Reese McCloskey. My grandfather always bought “the best". I am his grandson & 93 years old now. I am wearing his shirt & it’s still in great condition! I am too! –TB

Mr. Brinker also sent tags and a swatch from a shirt that he, himself purchased in 1991, also in Durango, Colorado, with this letter:

Dear Bishops,

Enclosed are 2 pieces of my shirts I own, one 98 years old & the other 31 years old. My grandfather & my dad & I have always purchased Pendletons. I would like to purchase 8 shirts for gifts if you still make them? I can’t find any & perhaps you can tell me where I could get them. Thanks for helping me.

T Brinker

We got right on the phone with Mr. Brinker to help him with his wool shirts, and we made plans to accession his correspondence into our company archives. But before we sent the letter to the archives, it made the rounds. With the hundred year anniversary of Pendleton shirt making coming up, the team was very excited to examine one of our original shirt fabrics.

This fabric came from one of the very first shirts produced by Pendleton in 1924. Back then, Pendleton was just another woolen mill, one of hundreds across the USA. We had no archives back then, because we’d only been in business for thirteen years. One hundred years later, we knew we held something special in our hands. This small swatch held both history and potential. What better way to commemorate 100 years of shirtmaking, than with a modern remake of this very vintage fabric?

A Weaving Analysis

Our Mill Technical Design team analyzed the swatch, and determined that it was a precursor to our modern-day Umatilla Wool fabric, and definitely part of that fabric classification. This swatch uses a herringbone weave, and the interplay of yarns creates the pattern of—well, it depends on who you ask–small commas or boomerangs that are woven together.

For Pendleton’s Centennial Shirt, the Mill Technical Design team evolved the original weave in two ways. They decided to keep in it the Umatilla family with our modern weaver’s recipe. The pattern was slightly enlarged, keeping the yarn interplay that creates that interesting little pattern.

The team also developed a block plaid that uses the original pattern in the ground. Both the original pattern and the block plaid were ombred for that signature Pendleton plaid look. Both versions of the fabric were executed in what we call a “Fancy Weave Umatilla" to keep that interplay of yarns needed for the comma pattern.

The Shirts!

We’ve used the fabrics together in our Men’s and Women’s line for special Centennial wool shirts that celebrate a century of shirtmaking by Pendleton.

This style pieces both patterns, with special reverse detailing at the cuffs, which you can…almost see here:

See it here: Centennial Plaid Shirt for Men

Here are the women’s shirts, in a fun, relaxed style with a longer back tail:

See it here: Pendleton Women’s Centennial Plaid Shirt

And here is the shirt dress, with its own take on the pieced look, and a super sweet banded collar.

It’s a perfect length to wear alone or over pants, whatever suits your mood. The back has snaps to let you adjust the fit at the waist:

See the dress: Pendleton Women’s Centennial Shirt Dress

These are the plaid Centennial shirts, and there’s another style that’s just as thoughtfully designed and carefully made – the Harding Centennial shirt. We will talk about that soon.

We want to extend a heartfelt thank-you to Mr. Brinker, and to all the customers who have been wearing our shirts for the last hundred years. We couldn’t have done it without you.