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The ingredients of SS15 are hard to articulate using mere words and pictures, but we’re going to try anyway. We’ve pulled out all the stops to deliver a collection which encompasses everything we’re passionate about. We’ve taken a lead from the notorious Japanese attention to detail and appreciation for high quality, yet married it with the best characteristics from all over the globe. Travelling extensively over the last couple of decades has given us a unique take on what makes things look great. From West Coast surf culture to East Coast prep, Americana remains a thread running through almost all of this, our sophomore season. We know our followers appreciate the finer things in life so we’ve done our utmost to ensure we’ve created some timeless, yet totally wearable outerwear as the centrepoint of the season. The sun doesn’t always have his hat on. Sometimes his hood is up so we’ve reflected that in some very serious jackets. It’s a collection we’ve engineered...
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“So welcome to this, our second season. It’s Spring Summer 2015.”
The UG Team
02.
Shell Jacket and our unique take on the classic M65 are highlights this season, and we’ve revisited the popular Flux Capacitor in an attempt to improve on something we already considered perfect. Let’s not forget the season though. For those occasions when your jacket is neatly folded on a deckchair, we have some key seasonal styles to suit even the most discerning dapper lad. Tie-dye patterns feature alongside more austere ivy influences, with t-shirts and shorts which straddle the boardwalk between sport and surf.
We’ve delved into the archives of surf style and put something together which sympathetically evolves that using modern fabrics. We’ve also taken the Ivy look - perhaps the most timeless subculture - and again, given it a healthy helping of UG sensibilities.
It’s grown up without being stiff. It’s
irreverent and slightly subversive
without being needlessly so. Also on a t-shirt tip, we’re honoured
to have kept Ben Lamb in the saddle
for spring/summer, and he’s once
again come up with the goods.
We’re so privileged to have a man of
such vast talent onboard and when
you see his offerings this season
we’re sure you’ll concur.
We’ll also be drip feeding you this
season’s collection over three drops.
We liked the idea of tailoring our
collections more precisely to the
time of the season, and we also felt
it’d be nice to have something new
to talk about almost constantly. It’s
good to leave people wanting more,
isn’t it?
We hope you like what we’ve done.
We think you will.
The ingredients of SS15 are hard to articulate using mere words and pictures, but we’re going to try anyway. We’ve pulled out all the stops to deliver a collection which encompasses everything we’re passionate about. We’ve taken a lead from the notorious Japanese attention to detail and appreciation for high quality, yet married it with the best characteristics from all over the globe. Travelling extensively over the last couple of decades has given us a unique take on what makes things look great. From West Coast surf culture to East Coast prep, Americana remains
a thread running through almost all of this, our sophomore season.
We know our followers appreciate the finer things in life so we’ve done our utmost to ensure we’ve created some timeless, yet totally wearable outerwear as the centrepoint of the season. The sun doesn’t always have his hat on. Sometimes his hood is up so we’ve reflected that in some very serious jackets.
It’s a collection we’ve engineered with dreamy days in our heads, but we’re also mindful that British weather doesn’t always deliver. The Cali
03. While it might not be something we’d normally admit to so openly, it’s a collection we’re so very proud of. It’s the embodiment of everything we love, from the sanguine spirit of surfadelia to the stiff upper lip of monochrome modernism and various touchstones in between. It’s ideal for the mid-century man about town yet somehow portrays a sense of futuristic optimism. We want it to reflect the best from past and present to create something new for the future. It’s a sartorial snapshot of the clean lines and sharp images which exist in our head. We’re trying to explain it using snappy soundbites but the truth is, it’s not possible.
04.
The best of the best is what inspires us. Timeless product design and architecture surround us in our everyday life so it follows quite naturally that the tenets and principles which they embody find their way into our own creative process.
We’re a proud UK brand but with worldwide influences. Top end modernism and elegant U.S West Coast haute couture bleed into our collection yet somehow get twisted into something new and fresh.
“The best of the best is whatinspires us.”
The summer months are all about bright, vibrant colours to us. But we’re quite precise about those colours. Anyone can take the loudest hues and make a statement, but we’re more concerned with making sure everything fits together just right. We take influence from mid-century classics and the best, most perfect art direction.
This season is an amalgam of all the things which inspire us, yet with a thin layer of something else dusted over the top. Like every serious brand, we have our unshakeable core beliefs regarding quality, fit and without wanting to sound too self-regarding, a visual language that’s very much ours.
“Anyone can take the loudest hues and make a statement.”
05.
The best things always age well, aesthetic masterpieces
created and appreciated by the design obsessed. It may
seem like a cliché to say it, but it’s a philosophy
that has served all the best designers well.
You might not need to buy a replacement
in five years, such is the quality. But
we’re aiming for you to want to.
That’s timeless design. To us,
everything from the
Dyson vacuum
cleaner to
McClaren cars embody a very British sense of agelessness. It’s not just about making or wearing nice clothes, it’s about living a nice life, surrounded by nice things. Of course, it’s not just about making nice clothing for ourselves and our friends, we want to succeed and have a real passion to achieve great things.
“It’s not just about making or wearing nice clothes, it’s about living a nice life, surrounded by nice things.”
06.
07.One thing I really feel the need to reiterate is how much we believe in this collection. Hand on heart, we’ve insisted on the best fabrics, applications and construction and been blown away by how everything that first existed slightly imperfectly in our heads has come out better than we imagined.
Our aim this season was accelerate the evo-lution of the brand beyond what people would normally expect. While Uniformes Generale is young, our combined experi-ence in this industry feels like it has led to this moment. I’m fortunate enough to have been going to Japan regularly since I was 20 and it’s fair to say their passion for design has made a huge impression on me and UG. They’re the most sophisticated consumers in the world and I love the place. If you pinned us down and demanded to know what drives us, it would have to be an unwavering desire to create something beautiful. But without bringing together the best possible influences and combining them with really special construction and fabric, we couldn’t hope to get near where we want to be.
Spring Summer 2015. It’s Sand dunes, Woodstock tunes, full moons. Concrete, Cornettos and Cars. It’s about serious military inspiration mashed up with peace, love and har-mony. It’s about modern living with the best from the past cherry picked and renewed somehow. For us, it’s lifestyle survival.
“Spring Summer 2015, Sand dunes, Woodstock tunes, full moons. Concrete, Cornettos and Cars.”
09.
From De Niro in Taxi Driver to Considine in Dead Man’s Shoes, the M65 jacket has forged an iconic reputation that’d be hard to find in any other garment. Entrenched in popular culture yet rooted in genuine military utilitarianism, it ticks more boxes than an indecisive election voter.
“From De Niro in Taxi Driver to Considine in Dead Man’s Shoes…”
10.
12.“From right back to early drawings by the legendary Ferry Porsche in 1959, the fundamental design barely altered for more than 30 years.”
When we decided to use a classic backdrop to this launch pack, there could only be one vehicle that would do... the Porsche 911. From right back to early drawings by the legendary Ferry Porsche in 1959, the fundamental design barely altered for more than 30 years.
Despite our dreaming of sunny days to come, we still have our eyes fixed on utilitarian styles, and that means outerwear. To signal the start of our second season we’ve decided to do our take on a genuine classic.
A common theme of the feedback on social media last season was how impressed people were with the quality. Taking a timeless piece of clothing and attempting to perfect it is a task we relish. In our case, the UG M65 boasts a construction that you just couldn’t get at this price elsewhere. And the fabric, wash and detailing is just bang on.
While movie icons have popularised this jacket, we can’t help but observe the style and think of Country Joe and the Fish. Known for their Vietnam War protest songs and seminal psychedelic status, they fit the bill for UG, just as we hope our M65 will fit the bill for you.Meanwhile, the Cali Shell Jacket is this season’s premier piece. As ever we have compromised on nothing in our pursuit for perfection. The shell is constructed from two different fabrics, the upper section is PU coated dry feel Ripstop and the lower section is laundered soft touch cotton. We’ve created two very well-received variations on the Flux Capacitor Jacket in our short life as a brand, and it’s a jacket we think will be with us forever. Just look at the list of ingredients that go into an outerwear piece like this. There’s the premium shell fabrics, the most expensive trims available and to top it all a full premium down liner, unattached at the hood aperture. This aspect takes a lead from our distinctive Down Hoodies for that very cool, adaptable layered look. It’s something unique, at least until someone rips us off. Get it now, before it’s too late!
For the hazy days and lazy nights, when real summer rears its head we’ve juxtaposed classic surf style with a relaxed take on the preppy scene. Salt and Pepper marl and tie-dyes feature heavily. Our college sweats are perfect attire for any Delta house frat party, while simultaneously channelling the spirit of the Italian Stallion as he prepared to face Mr Creed. No, not that one.
We’ve even managed to echo the military aesthetic of the M65 via our Desert Rat chino short, the ideal choice for sandlovers or seafarers. And for that Endless Summer vibe, our La Brea swim short is wave meets rave with tie-dye patterns which also feature in our tees.
13.
“We’ve juxtaposed classic surf style with a relaxed take on the preppy scene.”
“Time and time again, it was reinterpreted yet somehow remained totally faithful…”
When we consider the concept of constantly perfecting a design classic we can’t see much further than the 911. Time and time again, it was reinterpreted yet somehow remained totally faithful to the aesthetic that made it so beautiful in the first place.
15.
“Like the 911, the Leica is one such example of design perfection.”
If you’re obsessive about seemingly trivial issues, such as how a hood on a jacket should sit just right on your shoulders, then it surely follows that same appreciation should stretch to anything and everything. Like the 911, the Leica is one such example of design perfection.
16.
SS15 is a seminal moment for us. Building on the firm foundations of our inaugural season, we’ve aimed to keep the same subversive spirit which has always driven us. We’re proud of where this journey has led us so far and excited to see the twists and turns it’ll take us on in the future.
18.
“We’re proud of where this journey has led us so far…”
“Design is a funny word.”
Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.
Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to the quality of the design.
Engineering, business, architecture and painting are concerned not with the necessary but with the contingent - not with how things are but with how they might be - in short, with design.
19.
1. Stay Wild Summer Tee_
2. Piped Dreams Tee_
20.
I’m really excited to be teaming up with UG again for SS15. This is my second season with the brand and it’s a huge buzz to be on board, helping it build and grow into something special (we hope!). This time the themes I’ve explored revolve principally around summer activities: surfing, waves, tropical islands, exploring, beach-combing, making friends, and dreaming
of hazy summers gone by. Of course, we had to update the Stay Wild Sasquatch graphic from last season… and I’m pretty sure that won’t be the last we see of our hairy homind friend. I’m already working on some new tee designs that’ll hopefully drop later in the season, and I’m seriously looking forward to warmer weather so I can cop some UG shorts for summertime shenanigans. See you all poolside folks!
en Lamb, illustrator extraordinaire is back with us foranother season.”
21.
Uniformes Generale would like to thank the following for all their involvement in the shoot, Ali Tollervey, Rob Pybus, Andy Hall, Martha Marriot & Great Escape Classic Car Hire. Please help to support Ashgate Hospicecare, Chesterfield.
“Behind the scenes& thanks…”
Enquiries: [email protected] | www.uniformesgenerale.com
