Re-issue of Military 1965 Field Coat
Updated by hamansutra with all the secrets, details and transformations. The jacket feature detachable reflective cat’s eyes. Available in Denim Blue and Military Olive. Labels made of calf leather, denim from Italy and Cooper buttons from Paris. Our products are made by the best specialist manufacturers. Note that all my clothing comes with washing instructions. The denim was produced by an Italian textile weaver, transforming finest old cotton into new upcycled denim fabric. Made according to German military specifications.
Created Exclusively on Union Special Machines
Political Terms Story
In political terms, war clothing has no positive associations. Because the arms industry is awash with money, military clothing is made to be timeless and functional down to the last and tiniest detail. Clothing, not fashion. This M65 jacket actually won awards. Whatever. This is engineering work, the only type I like. Of course the US military pays out huge amounts for product placement to see the products worn by actors in movies. International marketing. “Taxi Driver”, “Rambo I” and “Terminator I”. The idea behind my stripped-back product modernization and styling is to restore positive associations to the “Originals – Updated”. But if you poke the bear you’ve got to be ready for its bite. The United States Armed Forces and M65 Jacket (1965) bears the responsibility for every murder in Vietnam because it was worn there. US soldiers were told to “shoot anything that moves”. “Body Count”. Rapper ICE-T formed the band “Body Count” in 1992 and whipped up a scandal with the track “Cop Killer”, which was banned immediately. By the US Government. Irony?
BUY
QUICKSHOP.NYC
Photography
Jan Frommel
© 100% hamansutra
Re-issue of Military 1965 Field Coat
Updated by hamansutra with all the secrets, details and transformations. The jacket feature detachable reflective cat’s eyes. Available in Denim Blue and Military Olive. Labels made of calf leather, denim from Italy and Cooper buttons from Paris. Our products are made by the best specialist manufacturers. Note that all my clothing comes with washing instructions. The denim was produced by an Italian textile weaver, transforming finest old cotton into new upcycled denim fabric. Made according to German military specifications.
Created Exclusively on Union Special Machines
Political Terms Story
In political terms, war clothing has no positive associations. Because the arms industry is awash with money, military clothing is made to be timeless and functional down to the last and tiniest detail. Clothing, not fashion. This M65 jacket actually won awards. Whatever. This is engineering work, the only type I like. Of course the US military pays out huge amounts for product placement to see the products worn by actors in movies. International marketing. “Taxi Driver”, “Rambo I” and “Terminator I”. The idea behind my stripped-back product modernization and styling is to restore positive associations to the “Originals – Updated”. But if you poke the bear you’ve got to be ready for its bite. The United States Armed Forces and M65 Jacket (1965) bears the responsibility for every murder in Vietnam because it was worn there. US soldiers were told to “shoot anything that moves”. “Body Count”. Rapper ICE-T formed the band “Body Count” in 1992 and whipped up a scandal with the track “Cop Killer”, which was banned immediately. By the US Government. Irony?
BUY
QUICKSHOP.NYC
Photography
Jan Frommel
© 100% hamansutra
German Military Forces
Two powerful forces meet up again, 20 years on: German Military Forces and Hamansutra. 20 years ago, when I was a student at Central St Martins College in London, I did an internship at the Munich-based Clothing Department of the German Military Forces as a tailor’s assistant, where I learnt to appreciate the value of timeless design.
Fast forward 20 years, and let’s take a peek at my 2022 project with the German Military Forces. It’s in line with the times we‘re living through. And that’s exactly why it came about. Back then, during production and preparation of the German army uniforms, the atmosphere in my bunker workshop was tense. Working in a strict code of silence, only breaking it to request assistance from an inspector. Under time pressure to get the uniforms finished, which is absolutely not the way I prefer to work. But I never forgot what all the military vintage clothing from my archive looked like; really rough and raw, put together at incredible speed on high-precision machines for the “mass market” of war. There’s no place there for the kind of painstaking, focused work I do in my own studio.
The uniforms fall into three categories. The first is bespoke, tailor-made. The second is made on a modular “kit” basis, and the third is the “kit” uniform, but recycled and reused. I was assigned to the bespoke category, way back in 2003.
Uniforms are full of secrets. When squaddie Hans Meier (or Joe Bloggs, or John Doe) collected his sergeant’s uniform, he was already thinking about his next promotion. 18 months later… Preparing for production of a Military Police Corps uniform. Collar tabs preserved in baking parchment. Beautifully produced accessories and notions, great to work with. That moment when soldiers attach their nametapes. When I first started in military tailoring, I began to use nametapes like them as branding on my clothes. Made to German military specifications.
I noticed that for many of the civil servants there – because let’s face it, that’s what they were – art and craftsmanship in any form were supremely boring. It was all about mass manufacturing. Their spark had been stifled, and the only thing they looked forward to was getting their pension. Working alongside that lacklustre retiree mentality is usually hellish for designers. Those people can look back on a life of stability, but that life is a black hole that has sucked in any creativity, joy and inspiration they once had.
These days my work is project-based, so I can always step back and regain some pleasure from working in that atmosphere. But it’s rare that my energy can carry across the divide and infect others. As a freelancer, I’m like an A&E surgeon. No time to fuck about. Heart stopped beating? Grab that scalpel, slash open the torso and go right in with bare hands to massage it back to life. I learn, I document what I learn, and I meticulously apply it in my projects. That means many things end up having more in common with a scientific study than a piece of fashion. The process is more important than the result. And when I reach a result, it’s all my own work and I don’t need to start pulling it to pieces.
I constantly weave updates into my designs, but the pen pushers don’t want to know. Promotion is always beyond their reach, but the question is which is their biggest enemy – their head or their body? Is the body just a machine for transporting the head to the office? Or is it the other way round, and the head’s true enemy is actually the lethargic apathy of the body? If companies don’t come up with their own strategy for employing creative minds, I’ll use those companies for my own purposes and make sure they spit out the occasional interesting project. With my help, and with force if need be. People of the world unite, and set up workshops in your garages! They’ll serve as incubators, as laboratories for all the developments that will be so important later on.
© 100% hamansutra
Two powerful forces meet up again, 20 years on: German Military Forces and Hamansutra. 20 years ago, when I was a student at Central St Martins College in London, I did an internship at the Munich-based Clothing Department of the German Military Forces as a tailor’s assistant, where I learnt to appreciate the value of timeless design.
Fast forward 20 years, and let’s take a peek at my 2022 project with the German Military Forces. It’s in line with the times we‘re living through. And that’s exactly why it came about. Back then, during production and preparation of the German army uniforms, the atmosphere in my bunker workshop was tense. Working in a strict code of silence, only breaking it to request assistance from an inspector. Under time pressure to get the uniforms finished, which is absolutely not the way I prefer to work. But I never forgot what all the military vintage clothing from my archive looked like; really rough and raw, put together at incredible speed on high-precision machines for the “mass market” of war. There’s no place there for the kind of painstaking, focused work I do in my own studio.
The uniforms fall into three categories. The first is bespoke, tailor-made. The second is made on a modular “kit” basis, and the third is the “kit” uniform, but recycled and reused. I was assigned to the bespoke category, way back in 2003.
Uniforms are full of secrets. When squaddie Hans Meier (or Joe Bloggs, or John Doe) collected his sergeant’s uniform, he was already thinking about his next promotion. 18 months later… Preparing for production of a Military Police Corps uniform. Collar tabs preserved in baking parchment. Beautifully produced accessories and notions, great to work with. That moment when soldiers attach their nametapes. When I first started in military tailoring, I began to use nametapes like them as branding on my clothes. Made to German military specifications.
I noticed that for many of the civil servants there – because let’s face it, that’s what they were – art and craftsmanship in any form were supremely boring. It was all about mass manufacturing. Their spark had been stifled, and the only thing they looked forward to was getting their pension. Working alongside that lacklustre retiree mentality is usually hellish for designers. Those people can look back on a life of stability, but that life is a black hole that has sucked in any creativity, joy and inspiration they once had.
These days my work is project-based, so I can always step back and regain some pleasure from working in that atmosphere. But it’s rare that my energy can carry across the divide and infect others. As a freelancer, I’m like an A&E surgeon. No time to fuck about. Heart stopped beating? Grab that scalpel, slash open the torso and go right in with bare hands to massage it back to life. I learn, I document what I learn, and I meticulously apply it in my projects. That means many things end up having more in common with a scientific study than a piece of fashion. The process is more important than the result. And when I reach a result, it’s all my own work and I don’t need to start pulling it to pieces.
I constantly weave updates into my designs, but the pen pushers don’t want to know. Promotion is always beyond their reach, but the question is which is their biggest enemy – their head or their body? Is the body just a machine for transporting the head to the office? Or is it the other way round, and the head’s true enemy is actually the lethargic apathy of the body? If companies don’t come up with their own strategy for employing creative minds, I’ll use those companies for my own purposes and make sure they spit out the occasional interesting project. With my help, and with force if need be. People of the world unite, and set up workshops in your garages! They’ll serve as incubators, as laboratories for all the developments that will be so important later on.
© 100% hamansutra
RIP BROTHER . VIRGIL ABLOH
I think what shocked us all so much about Virgil Abloh’s untimely death was that he had kept so quiet about his aggressive and incurable cancer; only people very close to him were aware of what he was going through. Such devastating news, and the way he left us was incredibly unreal. The pain goes deep. When Virgil had a stroke in 2019, the cause was explained as stress from his phenomenal workload – Louis Vuitton and his own label Off White alongside 300 other projects with companies including furniture and automotive brands, his work with Nike, book publications, art exhibitions, public speaking, and of course his global DJ gigs and productions. Every day was packed with meetings in different countries. So that was his everyday life. But there was a dark side to his continual acceptance of more and more projects: knowing he didn’t have long to live, he poured all his strength into achieving everything before facing the final curtain. In autumn 2021 he suddenly sold Off White to the LVMH Group, which now owns over 60% of the label. He did that although everyone knew he’d wanted his own label to stay independent, with nobody interfering with his visions or frowning over the figures. The proceeds from the sale naturally went to his family, so they never need to worry about money again – not that they would have had to anyway. Virgil Abloh knew his time was short, but he announced the news of the sale to distract us from noticing it. Until now. He died on November 28, 2021, just three days before his last collection in Miami was due to show. He never saw it. It’s absolutely heartbreaking. Releasing a new collection into the world is the most emotional experience ever for an artist, and then not even to see it happen after putting your heart and soul into it? It’s left me deeply, deeply shocked and completely numb. Brother, we worked on a few projects together and it was a joy to create the Off White Football Helmet and present Virgil Abloh’s Alphabet at Louis Vuitton. I normally play the role of the phantom in the shadows, but who knows, there may be more projects with your label. I well remember when Virgil Abloh became Artistic Director at Louis Vuitton. I was at the LV headquarters when it happened and the people there asked me what I thought of him. They were baffled by all the hate comments, but also sceptical of the new Artistic Director; they begrudged him the job. Under enormous pressure, he sometimes borrowed Duchamp’s philosophy of ‘ironic detachment’ to adapting styles from other designers, which earned him plenty of criticism. At a company as traditional as Louis Vuitton, there was disbelief that streetwear would be fashion’s new ne plus ultra and dismissal of its importance in attracting the millennial generation as new customers. I would never have thought I would end up writing a letter like this. Rest in Beats, Rest in Paradise, Love Dreams and Hip Hop Virgil Abloh.
Photography
Off White
I think what shocked us all so much about Virgil Abloh’s untimely death was that he had kept so quiet about his aggressive and incurable cancer; only people very close to him were aware of what he was going through. Such devastating news, and the way he left us was incredibly unreal. The pain goes deep. When Virgil had a stroke in 2019, the cause was explained as stress from his phenomenal workload – Louis Vuitton and his own label Off White alongside 300 other projects with companies including furniture and automotive brands, his work with Nike, book publications, art exhibitions, public speaking, and of course his global DJ gigs and productions. Every day was packed with meetings in different countries. So that was his everyday life. But there was a dark side to his continual acceptance of more and more projects: knowing he didn’t have long to live, he poured all his strength into achieving everything before facing the final curtain. In autumn 2021 he suddenly sold Off White to the LVMH Group, which now owns over 60% of the label. He did that although everyone knew he’d wanted his own label to stay independent, with nobody interfering with his visions or frowning over the figures. The proceeds from the sale naturally went to his family, so they never need to worry about money again – not that they would have had to anyway. Virgil Abloh knew his time was short, but he announced the news of the sale to distract us from noticing it. Until now. He died on November 28, 2021, just three days before his last collection in Miami was due to show. He never saw it. It’s absolutely heartbreaking. Releasing a new collection into the world is the most emotional experience ever for an artist, and then not even to see it happen after putting your heart and soul into it? It’s left me deeply, deeply shocked and completely numb. Brother, we worked on a few projects together and it was a joy to create the Off White Football Helmet and present Virgil Abloh’s Alphabet at Louis Vuitton. I normally play the role of the phantom in the shadows, but who knows, there may be more projects with your label. I well remember when Virgil Abloh became Artistic Director at Louis Vuitton. I was at the LV headquarters when it happened and the people there asked me what I thought of him. They were baffled by all the hate comments, but also sceptical of the new Artistic Director; they begrudged him the job. Under enormous pressure, he sometimes borrowed Duchamp’s philosophy of ‘ironic detachment’ to adapting styles from other designers, which earned him plenty of criticism. At a company as traditional as Louis Vuitton, there was disbelief that streetwear would be fashion’s new ne plus ultra and dismissal of its importance in attracting the millennial generation as new customers. I would never have thought I would end up writing a letter like this. Rest in Beats, Rest in Paradise, Love Dreams and Hip Hop Virgil Abloh.
Photography
Off White
CAZAL 951 . MEMORY OF CARI ZALLONI
CAZAL 951 . IN MEMORY OF CARI ZALLONI . 5TH REMEMBRANCE YEAR
In 2013 a presentation with eyewear designers was planned in New York and because I was working with Cazal as creative partner and in Special Marketing and Sales at the time, I was asked to redesign the Cazal 951. I had always wanted to continue updating the design of the Cazal 951 – it’s so much more than eyewear, and I’m familiar in depth with all of the details and all the sources of inspiration that Cari Zalloni had drawn on. When I presented my designs and ideas to the then owner of Cazal in Passau, Germany, he had to laugh when he saw one of my ideas; he recalled Cari Zalloni coming up with exactly the same idea in the 80s and putting it on hold because it was too difficult to realize. He might also have been persuaded to leave it be, under the “no such thing as can’t” philosophy that rules among designers. And now it’s official: Cari, this one’s for you, 32 years on. This is your design, updated by me and implemented as a simulation. Rest in Paradise good old friend. (*1937-2012)
*This shoot was made with love and is not sponsored, endorsed or otherwise approved by the Cazal eyewear company or his estate.
CAZAL 951 . IN MEMORY OF CARI ZALLONI . 5TH REMEMBRANCE YEAR
In 2013 a presentation with eyewear designers was planned in New York and because I was working with Cazal as creative partner and in Special Marketing and Sales at the time, I was asked to redesign the Cazal 951. I had always wanted to continue updating the design of the Cazal 951 – it’s so much more than eyewear, and I’m familiar in depth with all of the details and all the sources of inspiration that Cari Zalloni had drawn on. When I presented my designs and ideas to the then owner of Cazal in Passau, Germany, he had to laugh when he saw one of my ideas; he recalled Cari Zalloni coming up with exactly the same idea in the 80s and putting it on hold because it was too difficult to realize. He might also have been persuaded to leave it be, under the “no such thing as can’t” philosophy that rules among designers. And now it’s official: Cari, this one’s for you, 32 years on. This is your design, updated by me and implemented as a simulation. Rest in Paradise good old friend. (*1937-2012)
*This shoot was made with love and is not sponsored, endorsed or otherwise approved by the Cazal eyewear company or his estate.
