Archival Reinvent (who some know as ARC) majorly float our boat, of that we’ve made no secret. If you’re not yet on board with the Hong Kong collective, they explore functionality, garment tech, and future of design. ARC’s previous collections toyed with a dystopian future and wouldn’t have looked out of place lurking in the shadows of the digital cityscapes of The Matrix. The new collection, dubbed ‘Photosynthesis’, sees a distinct shift, however. Almost as if the brand has been propelled a further 200 years into the future, and the cities have crumbled and been enveloped by nature once more. A bunch of neo-samurais forage through the foliage and battle AI-infused self checkout machines that have taken over the earth. Our heroes pull mangoes from multitude of pockets adorning their ARC get-up and launch them at the robots. ‘Unexpected item in bagging area,’ exclaim the droids, before being vaporised.
With sights fixed firmly on the Autumn/Winter season, the collection consists of outerwear styles, pocket-laden bottoms, cargo vests, shirting, and more. Standout pieces include the Teflon® Crossbag Jacket, Teflon® Switchable Cover Shirt, and the Insulated Down Jacket. Modularity remains a central theme, as some items posses the ability to morph from outerwear into bags – a handy bit of Hongkongese ingenuity that could have been developed with the British climate in mind.
If you’re not yet into ARC, through the Photosynthesis collection, you may well see the light.
