Barking Irons
Barking Irons is a design company based on the Bowery in New York City, specializing in casual-contemporary apparel inspired by American folklore and storytelling. The company was started in mid-2003 by brothers Daniel and Michael Casarella and has won several awards including 2006 Sportswear International Fashion Award, and was featured in New York Times Magazine article, "The Brand Underground." In 2015, the brand, with creative partners Elliott Phear and Casey McGrath, launched an applejack spirit made from 100% NY apples, prompting the Wall Street Journal to ask, "Is Applejack The New Bourbon?." History and Meaning. The name  Barking Irons comes from a 19th-century slang term for pistols. The term was created by gangs of youths that haunted New York's infamous Bowery. The Bowery, a theatre district for much of the century, was a critical proving ground for indigenous American culture in the 19th century. Uniquely American art forms such as tap-dancing, concert saloons, freak shows and vaudeville all gained popularity in the Bowery theatres of the time. Historically Themed Collections. Barking Irons has been noted for the extensive historical research and chronicling that is weaved into its products. Past Barking Irons collections have drawn  inspiration from characters such as P.T. Barnum and his fire-tormented American Museum, as well as the notorious reign of Boss Tweed and his Tammany Hall, New York's brawling fire companies, the devilish dens of the Bowery, such as Blind Tiger and Satan's Circus. Other collections have focused on the literary sons of early New York and America such as the poet Walt Whitman and writers like, Herman Melville, Stephen Crane, and musicians such as, Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, and Stephen Foster. The history in Barking Irons essentially utilizes the strange mystique, stories, and legends of the Bowery  as a critical stage for the telling of American folklore through a modern lens.