Hey friends, our little brand has got a subtly new look. Hopefully you can tell it’s still us.
We deliberately haven’t suddenly shaved off a beard that’s been on our chin all our entire adult life. To us it feels more like we’ve finally stopped cutting our own hair in a mirror – messing about with type and spacing and other fancy design things – and went to an actual salon.
We'll tell you more about this soon but in other news…
We’re launching new coloured tees today… plum and olive and chestnut and if it sounds like we’re describing an orchard, it’s because we just got lost in one in Somerset.
Unfortunately no-one told Somerset it was time to photograph our autumn-winter collection.
We were at a farm that held a quaint surprise every few steps. In the humid, summer air, you could catch the scent of olive trees, the sound of cicadas, and the odour of our sweaty suncream.
It was 30+ degrees centigrade and the humidity must have been close to 100%.
You could close your eyes and imagine you were on holiday in Italy. And you could open your eyes and imagine you were on holiday in Italy.
And into this little heatwave paradise, we brought a rail of hoodies and winter jackets...
The problem with working in fashion is you're always out of step with the season. In winter, you're sampling summer clothes and in summer you're shooting for winter. So our models, Tina and Isaac, were doing their best to pretend this summer heatwave was in fact a beautiful autumn day – like they were comfortable and not sweating buckets.
We weren’t making it easy.
To get the perfect autumn-winter shots, we were saying things like: “Can you layer a hoodie and a jacket?” and “Can you tuck that T-shirt in?” (for a cleaner shot and no airflow) and “For the next shot can you zip up the jacket… and can you do the top button up?”
“You guys are trying to kill me,” Tina said with the sort of straight face that made it impossible to tell whether she was joking. Tina’s humour is as effortlessly dry as the midday sun.
“There’s so many butterflies on this property,” Tina said, like this was becoming a problem.
“You say that like you’re annoyed,” said Isaac.
Completely deadpan, Tina looked at him. “I’m f***ing p**sed,” she said. And everyone cracked up.
Isaac is a different case. We have no idea how this man is so cheerful, even as we’re extracting every drop of sweat from his pores – or discovering a hornets nest.
When we found said nest by one of the shoot locations, Isaac looked at it like it was another member of the crew. “It's all good,” he said, “get as many shots as you need.”
Nothing, apparently, was going to ruin this man’s day.
At the end of the day, we apologetically asked Isaac to put on a hoodie and start running for one more in-motion shot. After we got the shot, the man kept running. As if he was happy to get even warmer after wearing winter clothes in a heatwave.
We have no explanation for Isaac, but he and Tina did an excellent job of showing off our new autumn-winter collection and we’re very grateful.
Go grab your new colours in our online orchard.
PICK YOUR OWN
P.S. “That’s got bottom-of-an-email written all over it.”
It was after a long day in the heat. And we were trying to reassure Freddie, our photographer, that he didn’t need to spend ages getting the perfect final shot here: We just needed to capture a rail displaying a few new products.
“To be honest Freddie,” said Hope, our designer. “These shots are just going to go at the bottom of an email.”
So Freddie took one shot. Hope saw the preview and said, “Yep. That’s got bottom-of-an-email written all over it.”
We hope you agree. Enjoy this final shot with a sneak preview of what's coming up this autumn/winter and go pick your colours.
A FLAMING HOT ORANGE BUTTON