Founded in 1974, Crescent Down Works may just be Seattle's oldest continuously operating clothing manufacturer. Founded by insulation whizkid Anne Michelson, and currently lead by her daughter Annie, CDW was born from our city's deep history of down wear—Eddie Bauer, namely.
It's a shame, then, that so few people in our region are aware of this storied company despite their widespread international acclaim. Using their experienced and talented team of career sewers, Crescent Down Works has been able to help numerous brands and retailers make unique puffy creations of their own.
Beyond their creative capabilities, Crescent Down Works is one of the very last holdouts from Seattle's illustrious outdoor apparel manufacturing history. This city birthed countless outfitters for the Yukon Gold Rush, which lead to the creation of brands like Filson and Eddie Bauer, along with retailers like Nordstrom—imagine them selling tin cloth aprons instead of handbags. Times change!
But people didn't just move here to exploit the outdoors, and those interested in exploring it founded companies like the highly obscure Recreation Equipment, Inc. As "outdoor recreation" started entering the American lexicon you have firms like Outdoor Research, MSR, Jansport and Therm-a-Rest spreading their wings and becoming household names. 
As the 21st century dawned most of these companies were slowly picked off by faceless conglomerates and the pressures of globalization. That's not to say they're gone—many are still headquartered and employ people here. But Seattle's rich tapestry of outdoor apparel manufacturing is a shadow of what it once was.Many of Crescent Down Works's sewers, primarily Vietnamese women, have worked at several of these aforementioned firms in their time in the industry. CDW's small factory holds a collective history of this region's massive impact on not just this niche industry, but frankly apparel as we know it today. There's a lot more puffers than suits out there...
Pretty much everything Crescent Down Works sells is made by this small and highly-experienced team. Their attention to detail and precision can be felt every time you put one of their puffy parkas on. At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, it was truly an honor to make something with them. And we think it's definitely something.
We opted to use a deadstock 60/40 plaid fabric that reminded us equally of early 00s Burton catalogs and something made by Comme des Garçons Homme Plus around that same time. It's a little punk, a little cowboy, a little preppy. It also proved to be a bit of a bear to work with.
What we love about this fabric is its soft but stiff quality—the exact same thing that made it a pain to work with for the CDW team. Sam, their pattern maker, spent a considerable amount of time matching the plaid on the pockets to the rest of the jacket. Judging by a recent perusal of flannels at a local retailer, this is something most brands could care less about.
Our collaborative styles were filled with the same ethically sourced down as the rest of their products, pumped into the baffling with one of the brand's many vintage vacuums reserved just for the task. Both the tote and hoodie are lined with a seriously lux streakfree nylon and finished with top notch fastenings and zippers. Each button is backed by hand-pinched leather rings, and every drawstring is lovingly treaded through its corrsponding adjuster.
They might not be as technical or advanced—and they're certainly a little more expensive—than a lot of the rest of our offering, but this hoodie and tote represent a celebration of an industry that's so integral to the place we live. Without Seattle's geography and setting, these brands and history wouldn't exist. But without them, Seattle would look much different, too.
