THE FIELD HOUSE ON GQ.COM
From GQ.com's The GQ Eye blog:
Where the Wild Things Buy
Seattle’s Blackbird isn't your run-of-the-mill men's store (case in point: the on-site "Candy Shoppe" that owner Nicole Miller recently opened for business)—in fact, it's the personality of the place, combined with its clued-in, smartly curated selection of clothes, that make it one of our favorites. So we were curious when we heard about another new Blackbird venture, this one right behind the original store: The Field House, a one-stop shop for outdoorsy workwear—think RRL, Woolrich Woolen Mills, Red Wing boots—plus cool campground gear and goods (thermoses from historic American brand Stanley, flasks by Concord, even locally sourced beef jerky and canned tuna). Plans are in the works to offer classes on topics like butter-churning and spit-shining your shoes—taught by a local ex-Marine—and Miller’s on the hunt for a convection oven to turn out fresh-baked biscuits for customers.
“Someone asked me, where’d you get this idea?” says Miller. “It’s not much of an idea, it’s just how I grew up.” That was in rural Washington State, about an hour outside of Seattle, where Miller spent a lot of time with her grandmother Mable (a woman who often flew with her Marine-pilot husband to Alaska), worked in canneries, and raised her own sheep. Blackbird’s Field House is modeled on the field house of Mable’s youth, a sort of local community center where she took classes in arts and crafts. “We lived most of the time at Grandma’s house, so I grew up shearing lambs and carding wool and spinning and doing all this stuff,” Miller continues. “A lot of people are doing this 'American heritage' thing. But this is really personal for me. When I look at the pictures around, it’s like, there’s Grandpa. Growing up, I had a buckskin dress. I was really good at throwing tomahawks.”
Grandma Mable will be 90 next spring, not that she’s slowing down much. “She could probably still kick your ass,” Miller laughs, “especially now that she’s got a new knee.”
Blackbird: 5410 22nd Avenue NW, Seattle, WA; 206-547-2524. The Field House: 5465 Leary Avenue NW, Seattle, WA. Blackbirdballard.com
