The Drawings
Only a small handful of people were involved in making this collection and I'm really grateful for their time and dedication. Obviously it all started with ideas, but the first real step towards actually making the jackets was the drawings. Started in earnest in 2011, the drawings were a collaborative effort between me and Bridget - a fashion designer and friend of mine who gave generously of her time. Later on after Mei came on board, she became more involved with the drafting process.
The Fabrics
After the first batch of drawings were complete we set about researching and sourcing the fabrics. I did this by myself in the beginning, spending my lunch breaks in the fabric stores in the Garment District to see what was available and what inspired me. I knew I wanted to use waxed cotton so I found the local sales rep. of the British Millerain Co. I knew I wanted the Varsity jacket to pay homage to my favorite pair of kicks, so I started researching materials that I'd be able to find in the right colors, and with the right properties and characteristics to make the jacket. As my collection of fabrics grew, the concepts for the jackets began to solidify.
Mei and I have spent countless hours shopping for fabrics and trims, mostly here in New York City, but we've even ranged as far as Milan in our quest to find the best possible fabrics for our jackets.
Shopping for fabrics in Milan
The Camo
I knew from the beginning that I wanted to have a proprietary camo that was kind of a signature of the brand. Concurrently with working on the drawings with Bridget, I worked on the camo design with a talented Graphic Designer named Salina Mack. She deserves a lot of credit, as the sole direction I gave her was that I wanted something cartoony, fun, and that incorporated the cannons from my logo. She gave me a rough draft that was halfway there, and then we spent an evening in front of her computer changing and resizing shapes, rearranging, and tweaking until we had a final version we were happy with. The hardest part was creating a repeat - the concept of a repeat being something I wasn't even familiar with until then (in the pattern world, a repeat is essentially a design where the right edge ties into the left, the top ties in to the bottom, etc. so that this square can be placed to the right of itself, to the left, on top, or below, and it would seamlessly transition, or repeat, infinitely)
First rendering of the Artillery Concern Loose Cannons camo
Not realizing that I had to use a professional grade fabric printing company, I Googled fabric printing and emailed my repeat off to the first company that came up. It turned out that the site was more for novelty and hobbyists, and the swatch they sent me was pretty low quality, both the fabric and the print. After that disappointing sample, Bridget and I played around with the colors to make something a little more pop-art inspired, brought it to a fabric printing house in the Garment District , and got our first batch of yardage. Later, when Mei and I were designing the black down vest, we created a "Night Camo" version.
The first swatch of the camo from the novelty/hobbyist site
The Labels
It can't be overstated the extent to which making these jackets is a grassroots process, and the labels are a great example. Another signature of our jackets is that the label is always made out of one of the materials used in the jacket. Whenever possible we use the primary shell fabric. We buy little plastic films that hold our logo in 3M reflective ink, and using an iron, we heat transfer these 3M logos on to the little square of fabric. Every label on every Artillery Concern jacket is made by hand.
The Jackets
Making the jackets themselves is an intimate and hands-on process, just like the camo and the labels. We bring the design drawings and techpacks, as well as all the materials and trims to our patternmaker, and she makes a pattern and muslin version of the jacket for fitting purposes. When that's done, we do a fitting to see if any adjustments are necessary, and then make a finished garment. Perfect fit is one of our guiding principles, so sometimes we go through several rounds of fittings before moving on from the muslin stage.
There were some mishaps and costly mistakes in the early stages - the Herringbone Wool Flight Jacket was initially made using 500 Denier Cordura as the main fabric. Cordura is normally used for luggage and ended up being a terrible fabric for a jacket, as it is urethane coated and not at all breathable. It's also a little too rigid and stiff, and has zero stretch. the Hooded Flight Jacket was one of three jackets that we made, and then re-made from scratch.
Hooded Flight Jacket - Cordura version
When Mei came on board the mishaps stopped and things ran a lot more smoothly. Part of her skill set from her job working in product development is having an encyclopedic knowledge of fabrics and their various applications. For the samples, Mei and I stuffed the down jackets ourselves by hand. This was one of the most time consuming and tedious parts of the project, but it was a good experience to have nonetheless.
We stuffed the Down Crewneck Pullovers with a cone made of construction paper and a curtain rod
The down is in weighed-out baggies because we wanted the amount in each panel to be uniform. Explosions were a frequent occurrence
The obvious benefit of having these jackets made here in NYC, is that it allows us to take a much bigger role in control of the quality of each jacket. When a jacket is being made, we can run over to the sample room at a moments notice. Any questions she might have can be answered right away and in person. We're not just sending a pattern over to a factory in China and getting back whatever we get back. We're there for every step of the process making sure that we're satisfied with every detail. Our jackets are made by perfectionists, for perfectionists.
Adjusting the raglan seam on the Varsity Jacket muslin
