Clothing

Introducing… Labo Mono

If you’re a fan of staying dry and raincoats made from plastic bottles you should probably have a gander at this wonderful Urban Jacket from Labo Mono. Bold, versatile, and eco-friendly, the Urban Jacket is the brainchild of Hackney-based designer Ali Namdari, who’s on a mission to create the world’s most ‘fun-ctional’ jacket.

Here at Proper, we’re often drawn to jackets that have been designed with a different customer in mind. You know, the super technical ones, meticulously crafted to withstand a 4-day expedition somewhere mad like The Svalbard Islands? Although our obsession with fancy jackets shows no signs of fading, it is interesting to see a brand come along and try their hand at creating a technical jacket that’s actually designed with our day to day lives in mind.

As a project that began as a Kickstarter, Labo Mono were keen to involve their community from the offset, with sustainability and clever functionality at the heart of all that they do. Their mission was to create a jacket that encourages people to get outside without having to worry about the weather.

Created using fully waterproof, super soft breathable fabric the Urban Jacket is the perfect antidote to the unpredictable British weather. With top-notch features like its reversible reflective cuffs (for extra safety when indicating on your bicycle) and its stowaway helmet friendly hood. The jacket is fully packable and even comes with some nifty handles and snap loops so that if the sun decides to shine, you can carry it as a tote or even clip it to your backpack.

Despite being super functional and rather nice to look at, the thing we like most about the Urban Jacket was the way in which it was produced. Labo Mono place great importance in their transparency especially when it comes to their manufacturing process.  Trying to find someone who could produce this complex jacket in such small numbers whilst maintaining a fair and ethical working environment was a difficult hurdle to overcome for the brand.

Following months of intense scouting, the perfect partner was found, after weighing up options across the globe, Ali followed the lead of some of the worlds most sustainable brands like Patagonia and Fjallraven and began production in Hebei, China. What’s refreshing about this is that Ali distinguished any stereotypical views of goods produced in Asia by documenting a trip to the factory to meet the workers producing his jackets. You can read more about this trip on the brands blog here.

A nice touch to show that the brand is genuinely trying to make a difference in a world where we don’t often see the full picture. Grab yourself an Urban Jacket here.

https://labomono.com/

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