Hardly a new title with eight biannual issues under their vintage leather belts, Inventory is somewhat of a bible for those who appreciate hand-crafted mountain boots that will last you forever or anything else that has written ‘authentic’ in capital letters all over it. Based in Vancouver and attached to a fashion store of the same name, it’s sometimes hard to establish whether Inventory is just an exceptionally good version of a retail catalogue, or whether the store is just the logical extension of the magazine – but maybe it actually doesn’t really matter, because the magazine as such is really beautifully and lovingly made, visually but also in terms of content.
For anyone who is tired of fashion magazines dealing mainly with style and forgetting somewhat about the actual product, Inventory is pretty much the exact opposite – they are obsessed with products, the way they are made, their story, the philosophy behind them. Which is kind of refreshing and ties in neatly with the current trend for tradition, even if the choices are at times a little predictable, with a heavy focus on traditional American work wear (or Japanese brands reproducing traditional American work wear almost better than their original counterparts). Having said this, their current issue features a beautiful in-depth interview with Mark Borthwick as well as a loving feature on Gottlund Verlag, which both fit in nicely, but are very worthwhile nonetheless.
