Whilst out on manoeuvres wearing our Ark Air Tundra blue camo smocks (in the hope of a white Christmas) we contacted the brand’s head designer William Jarrett on the walkie-talkie in order to get his favourite five. After several hours de-coding his message and a bit of ‘set to’ with the old lady across the road who we mistook for a sniper, we’re now safely back at HQ where we can share this previously top secret information with you, our allies.
Item of clothing
Is a hand made (partly by me.. when I used to have time for such things.) ‘safety orange’ mac. The garment is made from the original ‘Vango’ type tent fabric, which is a very lightweight, tight weave proofed cotton. Its such a superb cloth that naturally, almost feels slightly damp to the touch. Its stitched in a ‘Koban’ thread which is another discontinued outdoor invention. It was a corespun thread with cotton outer, synthetic inner. The idea being the cotton would swell when wet sealing the stitch holes. In practice the cotton just wore away leaving the synthetic inner.
Piece of music
I love the Tron soundtrack by Daft Punk it’s a lame guilty pleasure that I play in my car. I do a lot of driving with work.
Work of art
Art by Beksinski is fantastic. Still underrated and basically unknown. I love looking at it and own some prints, but it’s too macabre to put in my home.
Book
The Book of Eels by Tom Fort is brilliant. It’s very engaging and easy to read. The history and lifecycle of the Eel is amazing, it also used to be a big part of European diet, culture and trade before they became quite rare. So inspired by this book I actually got a tattoo of an Eel! The best part about this is it really does figure out early on with girlfriends if they have a good sense of humour:
Girlfriend: “Why have you got a tattoo of a snake, that’s a bit of an ill omen’’
Will: “Its not a snake, its an Eel’
Girlfriend: ‘’That’s even worse than a snake!’’
Will then explains how everyone looks down on Eels as lowly slimy creatures, but in reality after sitting in a river for years on end, they suddenly decide one day (nobody knows why) to swim to the Sargasso sea which is 3500 miles away, then they breed and die. If that’s not an endeavor worth celebrating in tattoo form I don’t know what is!
At this point if the girlfriend is still present and listening I know she’s a keeper! Thanks Eels.
Something Else
I have a fly rod that was built for me as a young guy. It is one of a few fond memories I have with my dad. It even has my name written in it. I hardly ever get chance to go fly fishing anymore I’m normally spinning or sea fishing but I still treasure it all the same.
