Fuzz Clothing’s latest and greatest Finnegan Jacket has been available for around a month now and we decided to take a closer look at the initial version, which comes in a deep shade of green and a Japanese NYCO fabric. NYCO meaning nylon cotton blend fabric, for the ill informed.
To get right under the seams of this new jacket, we chatted with brand owner, founder and designer, Andrew Foster, about his greatest creation to date.
On the design concept: I basically wanted to do a Jacket with fishing vest-style pockets that would develop every season by changing the shape of the jacket, length, fabrics and everything in between. The constant would be those pockets. I had a massive obsession with those vests for such a long time and always found the pockets looked off to me in proportion or whatever else and could be aesthetically pleasing with some tweaking. I wanted to perfect that style of pocket and get all the proportions right, the hardware, the placement on the jacket and all those little details. It took loads of version to get to this and I’m over the moon with how it’s turned out.
I think it’s important to get even bad ideas out and sampled so you can rule them out or develop. I do love how pieces come on from sample to sample and there’s usually at least a month gap between samples so there’s plenty of time to mull over all aspects, wear the pieces and see what’s working and what’s not.
The shape of this first version sits somewhere between a field jacket and a short parka. I had done a Utility Field Jacket a few years back and it’s a development on some of the ideas from that. I am currently working on a Finnegan Parka for AW and a new version of the Utility Jacket along with a bunch of other stuff. The hood on these sits nicely too and it’s a development on the previous hood from the Dallas smock. It falls nicely and gives good peripheral vision. It also doesn’t come up too high on the chin area as I hate that kind of bulk with hoods.
On the fabric: The fabric on this one is amazing and I’ll be using it through collections in many colours. It’s a 50/50 mix of cotton and nylon so it gives a great depth of colour. When garment dying was first used, one of the coolest things about it was that each material on the piece would take the same dye in a different tone depending on the fabric. It’s like that with this fabric; the cotton takes on a more yellowish hue and the nylon a much deeper green. The combination of the 2 types of fibre that are already woven when the fabric is dyed gives it such depth that you don’t get from single fabric materials. I tried to carry this idea through the entire piece with the tonal nylon tape.
I’m looking forward to garment dying some pieces made from this raw material and am excited to see the results. Garment dyed has kind of become a bit of a buzzword due to the Osti connection but done correctly with the right mix of materials it can bring out some fantastic results as it was originally intended to do. The Japanese company that produces this also supply me with the bulk of other fabrics I’m using. I still spend a lot of time going through fabrics so there’s some really cool stuff on the way.
On seasonal variations: This piece is going to be one that is adapted for each season. Currently, there’s this version which is the Spring/Summer iteration and the Autumn/Winter version which I’m currently working on. Ideally, I’d like to get to a position where there’s a version for all 4 seasons and that’s the plan. All singing, all dancing waterproof for Winter and ultra-light for Summer, then two in between.
I do still think it’s lazy to come up with a pattern and stick with it in different colours for years. It is a lot of work to keep coming up with new stuff, but I’d rather do that than stagnate. My father-in-law is an oil painter, and he paints with a group called the Northern Boys. I remember him telling me something that stuck with me – the guys he paints with who are always trying to better their paintings are the ones who improve, and you can see it over the years. There are then some who think they got it perfect 20 years ago and have never improved since. I think about that a lot and what might seem perfect one day won’t be the next, so I’m always trying to tweak and improve constantly. It’s nothing new mind and loads of brands do this, it’s just sensible. There are some who are definitely resting on their laurels though and have a ‘that’ll do attitude’ and that’s something I never want to turn into.
To shop the Finnegan Jacket, see here.
