The Perfect x OST: The Nantucket Craft Collection

Our curation of handmade artisanal pieces from our favorite island for Old Stone Trade!

Photographed by Lee Cooke for Old Stone Trade, styled by Melissa Ventosa Martin

Hi, Everyone! This is a special letter about an exciting new project. We have collaborated with Old Stone Trade, one of our favorite resources for the very best in handmade clothing and accessories from artisans around the world. OST was founded by our friend, the fashion stylist and editor Melissa Ventosa Martin, who has worked everywhere from T: The New York Times Style Magazine to Travel & Leisure and Departures. This week she introduced The East Coast Edition VI, a new collection of beautiful pieces made by American craftspeople in the Northeast. Melissa graciously asked us to be part of it and we brainstormed a curation of handmade goods by long-standing local makers from Nantucket Island, the spot where we spent our childhood summers.

Our Nantucket Craft Collection is a selection of vintage, accessories and made-to-order clothing that represents not only the true spirit of Nantucket—every maker we’ve included has been on the island since at least the early 1990s—but our own personal style. Before internet shopping or Instagram or the chain boutiques that now pop-up in Nantucket’s historic town, we were teenagers roaming its cobble stone streets discovering local shops and artists, taking their wares and making them our own. We mixed Nantucket reds with Indian block print shirts, Rainbow flip flops and men’s golf sweaters. We paired wool tweed shirt jackets from Nantucket Looms with vintage Levi’s and Birkenstocks and threw our Carmex and Parliament Lights into our mothers’ (or grandmother’s) Nantucket lightship baskets worn with Janet Russo floral dresses for parties. In short: the pieces included in our collection for Old Stone Trade are not only things we think you’ll love, but items that represent the foundations of our own style, which we continue to be inspired by—and wear—to this day.

We’ve also highlighted some of our favorite things from the entire OST New England Edition, including an absolutely fantastic cotton fisherman sweater (cotton!); netted fisherman's bags hand-knitted in Maine; best-in-class white jeans; the ultimate beach bag made from recycled sails in Newport, RI; the anorak to end all anoraks; and a Fall River, Massachusetts-made Oxford cloth button-down that is true yankee chic.

If you missed our write-up in the T: The New York Times Style Magazine earlier this week, please have a read here. And if you’d like to upgrade to a paid subscription today, we’re offering a special The Perfect x OST offer.

We hope you love everything below as much as we do. Long live East Coast style and things that are built to last (and love)!

Nantucket Looms CPO Jacket

Nantucket Looms is a weaving studio and shop that’s been hand-making textiles on Nantucket since 1968. Their wool tweed CPO Jacket is hand-sewed and lined with your choice of cotton Liberty London floral fabric and is inspired by the shirts worn by chief petty officers in the US Navy.

Each jacket is made to order, is unisex, and comes with a lifetime guarantee. Old Stone Trade also has a selection of ready-to-wear versions in an assortment of sizes in their studio on NYC’s Upper East Side.

Antique Nantucket Lightship Baskets

Originally crafted by lonely keepers who tended the floating lightships that marked the shoal-lined waters around Nantucket starting in the 1890s, Nantucket Lightship Baskets are woven from rattan with cane staves, a solid wood base and swing handles. They often feature a close top adorned with scrimshawed fossilized wooly mammoth, but our selection of rare antique baskets represents a more rustic style, possessing a beautiful, darkened patina, swing handles and an open top. Our last available basket is a special oval open-topped oval design from the 1950s made and signed by one of Nantucket’s most legendary lightship basket makers, the late José Formoso Reyes, who created only around 5,000 of his coveted pieces on-Island between 1947 and 1978. It is unusually petit, the perfect carrier for a phone a lipstick, measuring 6-3/4" by 5-1/2" and 4" high.

Craftsmasters of Nantucket Brass Belt Buckles

Craftmasters of Nantucket has been an island institution since 1976, offering artisanal pieces including their one-of-a-kind brass belt buckles, inspired by ocean life on Nantucket and created by artisans in Maine exclusively for Craftsmasters. The Perfect’s selection includes brass buckles handmade in the shape of an Oyster, Lobster Claw, Fish Hook and Beetle Cat dinghy, a small wooden sailboat originally designed in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1920 that has become a beloved symbol of Nantucket Island.

Murray’s Toggery Vintage

A Nantucket institution since 1843, Murray’s Toggery was founded by R.H. Macy, a Nantucket native and whaler who later went on to open Macy’s department store in Manhattan. In 1960, the outfitter introduced their now iconic Nantucket Red canvas cloth pants, inspired by the red sails of boats in Brittany, France. The Perfect has curated a selection of well-worn, sun-faded Murray’s pieces from the 1970s and ‘80s, including high-waisted Nantucket Red and embroidered whale shorts and pants, sourced from Nantucket and around the world.

Susan Lister Locke Scallop Signet Ring

Jewelry designer Susan Lister Locke has been living on Nantucket since 1991. Born in Boston and raised on the coast of Rhode Island, Locke studied metalsmithing at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine and at the Rhode Island School of Design before opening her gallery on Easy Street in Nantucket town. This Lapis Lazuli Signet Ring is set in 18 karat gold and features a hand-carved engraving of a scallop, inspired by the Nantucket Bay Scallop, which is harvested in Nantucket waters in the fall and is prized for its petite size and sweet flavor.

THINGS TO LOVE FROM OST’S NEW ENGLAND EDITION VI:

White Canvas Boat Shoes handmade-to-order from Quoddy of Maine.

The new boat tote! A limited-edition large tote from John Zürner of Zürner Oceanic crafted from heavy-duty #6 cotton duck canvas sailcloth and finished with vintage and reclaimed yachting materials. Each tote is one-of-a-kind and individually numbered (only 10 were made!)

This Cropped Cotton Fisherman Sweater by Maggie Koluch is knitted with 100% organic cotton from Sally Fox. It also comes in a full-length version

The Oxford Cloth Button Down, designed exclusively by OST with the New England Shirt Company in Fall River, M.A., one of the country’s oldest shirt making workshops.

The Fisherman Bag is hand netted by Stephanie Crossman on Vinalhaven Island, Maine. Each nylon twine bag is hand-knotted, hand-dyed and built to last.

The Anorak is cut in waxed cotton and made entirely by hand, crafted-to-order by master tailor Richard Masciantonio—head pattern maker for the legendary American tailor Martin Greenfield—from pattern to final stitch.

Handmade-to-order by master denim tailor Glenn Liburd, formerly lead denim tailor at Levi’s, this is an extra-special White Jean. Cut from dead stock organic white denim with a soft, lightweight feel, they have a mid-rise and a straight, easy leg.

All photographs by Jon Ervin and Lee Cooke for Old Stone Trade and styled by Melissa Ventosa Martin.

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