Written by Menswear Style in Events on the 19th June 2018

Photography by Craig Landale

The iconic MINI is a much-loved car, but auto is not only where this brand sits within business. They’ve put a big focus on other areas of life that their typical customers have strong interests in, such as home design (MINI LIVING) and now fashion (MINI FASHION). On a rather hot day in Florence, this year’s MINI FASHION project titled ‘Field Notes’ in collaboration with The Woolmark Company was unveiled to the menswear industry at Pitti Uomo 94. An impressive space housed each of the young and talented designer’s creations along with displays showing the processes and inspirations involved. Each of the designers were also on hand to talk through their garments in further detail. This year’s collection is limited-edition and will be sold exclusively through the streetwear publishing giant Highsnobiety who have a strong and dedicated modern audience which matches the foundations of this fashion collection rather well.

The 16-piece capsule collection sees a quartet of up-and-coming international designers translating personal memories from travelling into fashion pieces for the urban traveller using the finest Merino wool. “Travelling for us amounts to more than just stepping over physical borders, going from A to B; it’s about our experiences and the blurring of the lines between feelings, cultures and perspectives,” explains Sabine Ringel, Creative Lead at MINI FASHION.

All four designers have sourced inspiration from trips to foreign cities – and woven the encounters and stories they’ve picked up along the way into garments for the collection. The designers involved this season are Liam Hodges, Staffonly, PH5 and Rike Feurstein. These designers are among the most exciting new names on the fashion scene. And most of them being alumni of the International Woolmark Prize, one of the world’s most renowned awards for rising stars of the fashion world. The products included are reflective of the designers’ travels – using a variety of colours, forms and material composition, and featuring contemporary, innovative uses of wool as the principal material.

Liam Hodges’ designs have a touch of the new yet familiar, giving classics such as jeans, denim jackets and long-sleeves something fresh and new to say through the use of wool and Wool Denim. Rounding off Hodges’ six-piece look is a car coat, a bucket hat and a travel pouch made from a water-repellent bonded wool fabric with classical Prince of Wales check. Staffonly’s creations focus on Greenwich Park in England, a bolthole of tranquillity for the designers during their studies in London. The lush green of the park lawns provides the central colour theme for this contribution to the limited-edition collection. And the Meridian Line running through the park recalls the Bonnet Stripes on a Mini. These two elements form the connecting theme for Staffonly’s ensemble of jacket, shirt and patchwork jeans. One of the highlights of their creation is the matching duffle bag, which also serves as a garment bag.

PH5 sets out to create boundary-breaking knitwear with a new and playful twist. Their pieces are inspired by the Art Deco District of Miami Beach. The combination of pastel colours and special technical design features can be found in the Jacquard woven wool sweater with Mini and PH5 logos, sleeveless knitted jumpsuit and hand-crocheted shawl, which doubles up as a travel rug. Rike Feurstein’s hats draw on impressions from a trip to Russia – and in particular the Catherine Palace south of St. Petersburg, the original home to the legendary Amber Room.

Mini Fashion and The Woolmark Company present the Field Notes capsule collection with designers such as Liam Hodges and Staffonly at Pitti Uomo 94.