Design

Dressing the Women in Blue

/ Sydney Parker / Leave a comment
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Officer Pat Johnson with her child, in Los Angeles 1971. Cal Montney/Getty Images

“On a Friday afternoon in a small suburb of western Cleveland, Sergeant Tanya Sirl was finishing her shift when she spotted a burglary suspect on the run. Wearing her standard police uniform, she pursued the suspect on foot, leaping over a chain link fence in the process. She succeeded in detaining him, but not before ripping open the seam of her pants. “My pants got caught on the fence because the crotch was so low,” said Sgt. Sirl. “It ripped them from appetite to asshole. Everyone got to see my hot pink thong.” She made her way back to the station holding her pants together with one hand, and writing up her report with the other.”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON RACKED 

Making the Perfect Seattle Rain Jacket

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Photo: Freeman

“On a quest to find the perfect Aloha shirt? Look no further than Hawaii. When you need a sturdy pair of cowboy boots, Texas is your one-stop shop. And if raindrops keep falling on your head, Seattle Freeman raincoats have got you covered.

Accustomed to a consistent drizzle, Seattle residents embrace the rain as part of what keeps the trees evergreen, the water shimmering, and the coffee-shop book-reading a preferred activity. Seattle had a record-breaking ten inches of rainfall this October, but that doesn’t mean we were any more inclined to carry umbrellas. They’re cumbersome! Raincoats though, well, that’s another story.

The tale of the perfect Seattle raincoat begins not with The Cat in the Hat, but with Brittany and Scott Freeman. The Freemans met at a party in Bellingham while attending Western Washington University. They fell in love and married, and certainly didn’t foresee that one day they would be in the raincoat-making business. Scott was a carpenter, deft at engineering cabinets and woodcarving. Brittany worked full-time in the corporate arena, sewing as a hobby on the side.”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON RACKED HERE

Meet the Woman Designing for the Stars of Outer Space

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Lindsey Aitchison. Photo: NASA

“Growing up in Norman, Oklahoma, headquarters of exciting attractions like the National Weather Center and Andy’s Alligator Fun Park, Lindsay Aitchison was destined for great things. On a road trip to Disney World one summer at the age of four, her family stopped off in Houston, Texas at the Johnson Space Center. One riveting IMAX film later, and her fate was sealed. She was going to work for NASA.

Today Aitchison is NASA’s Deputy Project Manager of the Advanced Spacesuit Project. Her work days are pretty typical. She wakes up around 6:30AM, takes her dogs out, eats breakfast, and then designs spacesuits for astronauts to wear on Mars. You know, the usual.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT ON RACKED!

Paul Hayden Kirk: Architect of the Northwest

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“Paul Hayden Kirk was one of the most well-known Pacific Northwest architects of his time. When he passed away at the age of 80 in May of 1995, his obituary credited him with shaping the Northwest style — ‘boxy shapes, unadorned designs, big windows to capture nature views and practical interiors,’ wrote The Seattle Times.

Kirk moved to Seattle from Salt Lake City, Utah when he was eight years old. He was stricken with polio as a child, affecting the use of his right arm and forcing him to use crutches throughout his life. After graduating from Roosevelt High School, he studied architecture at University of Washington. In 1939, just two years after graduating, he opened his own architecture firm in Seattle. That same year he married Helen Richardson. His brother served as best man at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral. Classic family man with a gift for architecture. Just look at the guy:”

Check out Kirk’s AMAZING homes. READ the full article here.

Paul Hayden Kirk. Seattle Architect.

Paul Kirk with architectural rendering, Seattle, 1968. Photo: MOHAI