Issue 59 - Behind The Scenes

THE

essential journal The pursuit of a quality lifestyle

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essentialjournal.co.uk 1

C R A F T E D T H E O L D W AY I N I TA LY F O R Y O U R E V E R Y D AY M O M E N T S

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CONTENTS

07.

28.

38.

The Primer.

Drinks, Eats & Chats

To Hell with Heritage: Billy Tannery

Talking Shop: with Rag Parade of Sheffield

15.

Article of Note: Schott NYC Perfecto®

12.

60 Years of Dr. Martens

22.

The Original Penny Loafer: G.H Bass

32.

Cover Story: In Conversation with Dreph

42.

An Interview: Mitshel Ibrahim

46.

52.

An Interview: with Empirical

In Persuit of A Better Cup of Coffee

50.

Two Good Bartenders - + Elementary Tayer

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Columns & Thoughts

CONTRIBUTORS CONTACTS Alex Wilson

Levi's

Publishers

Partnership Manager

Ross Geddes

La Marzocco

Essential Studio

Sam Dyson

Jason Schott

G.H Bass

essentialstudio.co.uk

s.dyson@essentialstudio.co.uk

Ajoto

Dr. Martens

Dreph

Studio Mutt

Editor

Lead Designer

Billy Tannery

Alex Kratena

Tom O'Donoghue

Monica Berg

Jessy Busgeeth

Marta Verdes-Montenegro

Jojo Elgarice

Barnby Windermere

OMBRA

- + Elementary Tayer

Mitshel Ibrahim

Ashley Palmer-Watts

Empirical

Jake O'Brien-Murphy

Ettinger

Mathew Gonzalez

Tessuti

Sam Watson

Will Halbert

Christopher Gerrard

w.halbert@essentialstudio.co.uk

christopher.gerrard@essentialstudio.co.uk Front Cover: Dreph

Creative Director

Thomas Sumner t.sumner@essentialstudio.co.uk

@essentialjournal essentialjournal.co.uk

By: Tom O'Donoghue For: Tessuti

TERMS & CONDITIONS Under no circumstances must any part of this publication be reproduced without prior permission of the publisher. Whilst every effort is taken, the publisher shall not be held responsible for any errors. Furthermore, the publisher shall not be held responsible for any advertising material/content. Please also note that the views and opinions written within this publication do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the publisher. All prices and details stated within this publication are correct at the time of print, however these are subject to change and the publisher shall not be held responsible for these. Third party contributors own exclusive copyright to their own material that they have submitted as part of the publication. All rights reserved.

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A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR.

‘A man is worked upon by what he works on.

He may carve out his circumstances, but his circumstances will carve him out as well.'

– Frederick Douglass A concise opening but an honest one: I love people who love things. I do. I love the almost inexplicable, entirely unrelatable, and downright unapologetic geekery of those who are truly passionate about, well, just about anything. I love the deep divers and the connoisseurs, the snobs and eccentrics in any and all of their myriad forms.

From watch collectors to train spotters, from tailoring nuts to fitness freaks. I love them all.

I love people with soul in the mix and skin in the game for the simple fact that they have, for want of a better cliché, put their money where their mouth is on more occasions than society might deem mentally sound. They’ve spent time, money and considerable effort sharpening their tools, mastering their trades, and generally just jumping headlong into the far-flung reaches of some bizarre esotericism. That’s worth a thing or two in my book; that takes heart and soul.

This issue, then, goes out to the artists, makers, tanners, and cocktail shakers with skin in the game and soul in the mix. It’s a behind-thescenes, beyond-the-curtain look at what goes into the making of, well, just about everything.

From the world’s most identifiable shoe to Manchester’s most handsome pen, from London’s most engaging street art to Denmark’s most iconoclastic distillers, issue 59 is a celebration of the graft, magic, and love that lies behind our favourite things.

Enjoy.

Will HALBERT.

THE PRIMER WHAT WE’VE BEEN DRINKING: 20 Whiskies that Changed the World

With a 20-year tenure in selling the world's finest spirits, it’s safe to say that the guys and girls at The Whisky Exchange don't deal in half measures. Perfect Measures are more their speed, as it happens - and their upcoming '20 Whiskies that Changed the World' Tasting Set is a solid testament to that very fact. The set contains 20 whiskies divided into four themed flights, a pair of tasting glasses, and a tasting book packed with details of all the whiskies. It's a veritable roll call of all that’s peated, punchy, fruity, and far-flung. From the iconoclastic grain alchemy of Compass Box’s Hedonism to the peat n’ oak powerhouses of Laphroaig’s Quarter Cask; from the sherry cask charm of Macallan 18 to the peppery-sweet bite of Blanton Gold’s Single Barrel bourbon. If it’s divisive, decisive, or just plain delicious then chances are it’s in the mix. The result is a beautifully presented and lovingly-curated little collection that doesn’t just chart the ever-shifting landscape of whisky but also serves as a testament to The Whisky Exchange’s standing within the wider industry. If you’ll forgive the obvious whisky pun, we think that’s pretty neat. www.thewhiskyexchange.com

WHAT WE’VE BEEN AWW'ING OVER: Pocket Negronis The teeny, tiny Pocket Negroni lets you enjoy the full flavour and top-shelf quality of a well-made Negroni from the comfort of your own picnic blanket (or bus stop, we won’t judge - it’s been quite the year). Also, just look at them; they’re essentially puppy dogs in pocketable (and potable) form. That’s not to say that they don’t pack a punch though. www.shopcuvee.com 7

FIVE in 5 Direct From EJ Towers...

F9 Family, Family, Family Family, Family...

Bo Burnham: Inside An existential meltdown, but hilarious

The Euro's Final: It went home; to Rome

Daddy's Home St Vincent Synthy Lo-Fi dirtbag pop ballads

Brat, Shoreditch It's good for the sole!

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WHO WE’VE BEEN TALKING TO: Ross Geddes of Finnieston, on being Glasgow-born, Clyde-built

Interview by Will Halbert

Riveters Jacket Workers Shirts on an almost daily basis. Our tees, sweats, and accessories have had an amazing reaction, with people returning for new colour options.

We live in our tees, sweats, and beanies too. They’re just so easy to wear teamed with selvedge denim, work pants and a good pair of sneakers or boots. It’s good for customers to see this too – we absolutely stand by everything we design and make, and would never endorse anything that didn’t live up to our standards and expectations in terms of quality.

First thing's first; how'd you get here? How did Finnieston come to be?

After several years as a director of my family’s retail business, I decided to step out and use my experience to create something entirely new. Being a menswear buyer gave me a lot of insight into the industry and I felt there was a gap in the market for a good, honest heritage brand from Glasgow.

Being ‘Clydebuilt’ has always meant being built better - is that the kind of standard to which you guys hold yourselves? How do you go about doing that?

Clydebuilt was the ultimate hallmark of quality within its industry. We want Finnieston to be associated with quality, and it’s especially important when paying tribute to an industry people are proud of. Every single detail goes under the microscope: fabrics; trims; buttons; linings; fits; weights and colours. It’s hard to look at our jackets and not see them as the huge list of components that you’ve spent months agonising over. Only when you’re confident can you absolutely guarantee faith in the garment to do what it was made for.

Glasgow is very much a working, industrial city. How has that provenance shaped Finnieston as a brand?

Glasgow is an incredible City – just voted friendliest in the world again too! Working-class heritage and a good sense of humour. You have to strike a balance between authenticity while not taking yourself too seriously. We wanted to create a brand Glasgow can be proud of and we think we’ve achieved that – we have tremendous home support, support that was even more apparent once we opened the doors of our Concept Store.

The ‘built to work’ mantra is a cool one. How does that impact your design principles?

Well, when you call something a Riveters jacket or a worker's jacket, you’ve got to do it properly. These manual workers needed hard-wearing gear that would last years, and Finnieston Outerwear has to echo that. The last thing you want is something that looks or feels flimsy – we wouldn’t be happy but also it would be quite insulting. While we doubt anyone will be joining steel plates or heading down the mines in our workwear-derived collection, we designed them to perform for years to come.

What pushed you towards more workwear-inspired pieces?

When we began to explore the Clyde’s shipbuilding legacy, workwear just seemed like a no-brainer. We looked through decades of old archive images of guys in their work garb and loved different details of the uniforms and protective gear. We like details like the pocketing, the reinforced panels, the stipulation that durability be paramount. We already had a good relationship with world leaders in waxed cotton, Halley Stevensons, and traditionally these fabrics lend themselves very nicely to workwear, but Halley are pioneers in fabric innovation and their newer fabrics really bring the silhouettes into the modern age.

Is it ever a challenge to create utilitarian goods with a more relaxed, everyday wearability?

I think what we are looking to do going forward is really introduce that more relaxed, day-to-day wearability.

Historically, you’d maybe tend to categorize our outerwear as statement pieces. That being said, we wear our

Can you tell us a little about the concept store? How much of a challenge was it to get things up and running during a pandemic? What made you take the leap?

We’ve always been very pro bricks and mortar. The high street has been faltering for years and online discounters are killing brands who have been around for decades with merciless, year-round sales and instant reductions on brand new lines.

We wanted to return to the old-fashioned principles of great service and a quality offering; a proper shopping experience that the people deserve! While we’ve had great success online so far, our outerwear really needs to be seen to be appreciated, and especially when you’re a new brand people may be reluctant to take that leap when a jacket costs them several hundred pounds. This is where the store comes in. It’s a chance for people to come in, see for themselves, and have that one-to-one experience.

And finally, what's next for Finnieston?

We’re developing our lines and filling in the gaps in our range. We’re taking our first foray into trouser options and shirting this year. In addition, we’re just desperate to get back into our brand new store, as we feel we haven’t had the chance to celebrate that – it’s a huge milestone for us and because of restrictions we had a modest launch because we were straight into the busiest and most important week of the year. We’re hoping to continue to grow that local support, develop our offering and become the West End’s go-to independent outfitters while growing our online support further afield. www.finniestonclothing.com

WHAT WE’VE BEEN EATING: Koya’s ‘Omiyage’ Box

If freshly-made dashi broth and udon noodles aren’t an out and out celebration of simplicity done perfectly, I don’t know what is. Handmade fresh the day prior to landing on your doorstep, Koya’s udon and dashi boxes come with an exclusive (and collectable) recipe card from Koya’s head chef and co-owner Shuko Oda, starting with a simple recipe on how to cook the udon and dashi at home so customers can master the basics. The boxes are inspired by the Japanese custom of ‘Omiyage’: souvenirs gifted to friends, family or even coworkers when returning from a trip as a symbol of gratitude and appreciation. All well and good, but don’t let that put you off ordering one for yourself. You greedy devil, you. www.koya.co.uk

LEVI'S SO-HIGH. LEVI'S RAISES THE BAR, AND THE WAIST, FOR THE MEN'S 'SO-HIGH' AW21 COLLECTION. In the '90s, it was all about the '70s. Today, it's all about the '70s by way of the '90s. At least that's what the major Levi's vibe is for their AW21 collection. The stand out piece from the range, the So-High jean is a new fit that features a higher waist and looser drape in a nod to that classic 1970s style, while keeping everything else very much rooted in the here and now.

Taking inspiration from the classic Levi's Orange Tab styles, the So-High features both a slim and a boot version, each mixing an on-trend higher waist and modern relaxed fit. They've kept some of the other signature Orange Tab details too, like the smaller coin pocket and slightly flattened Arcuate stitching on the back pocket. EJ The Levi's So-High collection will be available from levi.com

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A MASTERCLASS IN MAKING A MESS THE LEVI’S® X END. 'PAINTED' CAPSULE COLLECTION

The inaugural collaboration between selvedge denim stalwarts, Levi’s and UK menswear purveyors, END. is an emphatic and unmitigated mess. And that's exactly the point. The capsule is a beautifully erratic, expertly-crafted display of paint-splattered pandemonium from two of the very best in the business.

The seven-piece collection transforms classic silhouettes from Levi’s archive with hand painted splatters, iconic Big E branding, screen-printed logos and comes embellished with END.’s trademark branding. All in all, it's a mess in the best of ways, offering up a multi-coloured celebration of Levi's well-made, work-worn garments and, more importantly, the people who wear them. EJ

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60 YEARS OF DR. MARTENS WHAT DELIVERS A SHOE FROM THE CONFINES OF TREND AND CATAPULTS IT TO THE LOFTY HEIGHTS OF THE TIMELESS CLASSIC? ALEX WILSON HAS HIS IDEAS ON THE SUBJECT... words by Alex WILSON

Six decades of iconic boots and shoes, that’s correct, the footwear that has defined so many subcultures it’s hard to pick just one. Casting my mind back to my first pair, one particular memory always presents itself - 2AM, New Year’s Eve, 2014. A night in which I’d donned my new and prized 1460 black boots - recently purchased and saved for just such an evening.

Like all NYE decisions at a certain hour, this one lacked intelligence and common sense.

It seemed like a great idea to vault over a wall into a warehouse party that I couldn’t find the entrance for (it was a few meters around the corner). During said excursion, my new boots were scratched by a stray piece of wire fence.

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Upon closer inspection in the sobriety and searing pain of January first’s hangover, they came out relatively unscathed and, dare I say, boasting a little more personality than before. This brings me to one of the defining qualities of a Dr. Martens boot: its toughness. Specifically, its ability to wear knocks and scrapes with grace, like they were always meant to be there. These are not the shoes for your average sneakerhead; those who place their shoes carefully back into their box after a day on the cobbles - Dr. Martens are made to be worn and torn.

Dr. Martens have long been the footwear of choice for many a subculture and music scene - escaping bygone trend status and comfortably

H O ME G ROW N H E R I TAG E words by Will HALBERT There sure is a lot to like about Dr. Martens’ iconic 1461, isn’t there? A low-cut, three-eyelet Derby, the 1461 goes well with just about anything - matching the laid-back steez of streetwear as effortlessly as the sharp severity of sartoria; it looks just as good boxfresh as it does beat to hell; and it’s as capable of low-key subtlety as it is ready for outright, in-your-face ostentation. What better way to celebrate the 1461’s big six-o than with a rundown of our favourite Made in England variants?

The Horween Cavalier is crafted from premium leather from the esteemed, 100-year old, Horween Leather Company in Chicago. The 1461 shoe boasts standout, white stitching around a notched welt, a leather Horween tag, and gold-scripted insoles.

making it onto the feet of everyone from mods, two-tone musicians, punks, goths and those in the grunge and britpop scenes. No one was shy to a pair of trusty Dr. Martens. The footwear was synonymous with the stylings of iconic brands throughout the decades, such as The Who, The Cure, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Blur and Oasis.

Dr. Martens celebrated a big birthday last year. The 60th Anniversary of the 1460 Boot and the brand itself. This year marks the 60th Anniversary of the 1461 Shoe, too. The original boot’s design was a collision of two worlds – cutting-edge German engineering and decades of British shoemaking heritage. This unlikely fusion was the first step in what became the brand’s incredibly diverse and unpredictable history.

The first pair of Dr. Martens boots rolled off the production line in rural Wollaston, Northamptonshire on the 1st April 1960. Their original market? Workers, postmen and policemen.

They were built to be more durable and comfortable than anything on the market at the time. Exactly one year after the 1460’s debut, the 1461 followed. It packed all the functionality and the unmistakable markings of a DM’s boot into a sleek, 3-eye profile. The boots and shoes

were more comfortable, durable and lightweight when compared to their competitors at the time. Throughout Dr. Martens’ history, the brand has been adopted and subverted by a diverse range of individuals, musicians, youth cultures and tribes. The simple silhouette allows people to customise each pair; whilst on a utilitarian level their famous durability makes them ideal footwear for any and every occasion.

The air-cushioned boots easily transitioned from the workshop floors to Saturday night glad rags and Sunday best. The boot’s unconventional markings - with yellow welt stitching, a grooved sole and scripted heel loop - became a symbol of working-class pride and self-expression. Six decades on and Dr. Martens boots are still made the same. From the same materials, using the same process, and often in the same factory. They’re still comfortable, durable, and designed to get better with age. The only thing that keeps changing are the people wearing them. The innovators, rebels and freethinkers who’ve turned a humble British boot-maker into a global alternative brand. AW

The C. F. Stead Desert Oasis shoe is crafted from fine-grade suede with a rugged nap. Oiled and waterresistant, the Sun Yellow suede variant is our personal favourite. Constructed on a slightly tapered last and finished with gold-scripted sock liners, this is a bona fide spring-summer statement.

The C. F. Stead Saddle range is built from a mix of leathers from renowned Leeds-based tannery C. F.

Dr. Martens’ Made In England packs are all available at drmartens.com and select stores.

Stead. These new 1461 reworks take cues from the classic saddle shoe, last seen dominating dance halls throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s.

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ARTI C LE OF NOTE The Schott NYC Perfecto® words by Will HALBERT

You can say what you want about the enduring charm and timeless appeal of the classic leather jacket, but seventy years ago the collective opinion was very different: Leather jackets scared the hell out of people.

Over the course of the late forties and early fifties, the leather jacket was a rallying call for thrill-seeking war vets and rebel-against-anything biker gangs alike. On the silver screen, anti-heroes like Marlon Brando and James Dean - posterboys of rebellion and cowhide cool - added fuel to a fire that still burns today. All the while, New York-based leather jacket makers, Schott NYC have looked on without so much as batting an eye. And why would they? For well over a century now, Schott’s only concern has been creating premium, homegrown, American leather jackets that outlast trends and go the distance.

Schott’s Perfecto® range is the ultimate expression of that endeavour. Fashion-forward but always built with the ride in mind, the Perfecto® jacket is a hand-crafted celebration of Schott’s heritage: ‘My great grandfather started making fur lined raincoats in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1913 and sold them door to door,’ says fourth-generation Schott family member and Chief Operating Officer, Jason Schott. ‘In 1928 he invented the modern day motorcycle jacket. Today, the third and fourth generations of our family still create the classic original designs in our New Jersey factory using original machines.’

These classic designs in question make for an iconic (and oft-replicated) biker jacket that - in a testament to its versatility - can be enjoyed both on and off the bike. From the asymmetric zip designs and sturdy collars, to the gusseted rear panels and rich, uncompromising leathers, the Perfecto® is a utilitarian but undeniably cool jacket that will only get better with age. Over time, every crease, scuff and blemish will tell a story that’s all your own. In an industry plagued by fast fashion and throwaway style, the Perfecto® stands out as a bastion of the well-made and the hard-wearing.

It’s a long-standing mantra of the Schott family that you can’t do business by sitting on your ass. ‘We try to lead by example and don’t expect anyone to do a job for us that we wouldn’t do ourselves,’ says Jason. ‘It’s extremely important to my family to be involved in every step of the manufacturing process. We are all on the factory floor every day and managing every level of production.’ Aside from their superior quality jackets, it’s this hands-on approach to business and production that has secured Schott’s place in the hearts, minds and wardrobes of riders and fashion enthusiasts alike for over 100 years. EJ

Marlon Brando wearing his own personal & customised Schott NYC Perfecto® 613 for the classic movie The Wild One, 1953

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BEHIND THE BRAND WITH JASON SCHOTT OF SCHOTT NYC interview by Will HALBERT We sit down with COO (and fourth-generation family member) Jason Schott to talk heritage, integrity, and the impossibility of doing business sat on your ass

First off, Schott has been a family-owned business for over a century. How would you define the Schott family philosophy?My family’s philosophy is to make the most durable products that stand the test of time and get better with age.

From rock stars to rebel bikers, there’s a long-standing fascination with the Perfecto® jacket. What is it about the Perfecto® that makes it such an enduring staple piece for so many people?We hear it all the time, but when you put one on for the first time, it changes you. The weight and stiffness of the leather and the bold hardware provides an invincible quality that makes you feel instantly tougher. The classic design and durability gives it a longevity that you can wear everyday and everywhere for the rest of your life. The Perfecto® jacket has a soul you grow very attached to it, like an old friend who has been there with you through it all.

Schott NYC has been around for quite some time now. How do you define ‘heritage’ personally? What does it mean to you?

My great-grandfather founded the company in 1913. It’s very rare these days to still have a family business that manufactures in the USA using the same machines. We know how rare and special what we do is, and therefore there is a tremendous sense of responsibility to keep it going and pass it on to the next generation.

Heritage to me is creating something new that has become an essential part of American culture. It’s our task to honor my great-grandfather’s invention of the motorcycle jacket and continue his legacy.

Can you tell us a little bit about the creative process as a whole? How do you move from initial design to material selection to actual fabrication?

When it comes to leather jackets we typically start with sourcing unique materials and let 16

the hide dictate the style. Certain materials lend themselves better to different styles in the way they drape on the body. We create samples and production in our factory in New Jersey and try to use American made materials whenever possible.

The beauty of being in the factory every day is that we are constantly inspired with new ideas. Many times those ideas come from applying new materials to archive designs. We often say “our past is our future”.

How important is it for you to be hands-on with the process?

Being hands-on in the factory is absolutely essential and one of the most important principles in my family. There is a Schott family member on the factory floor every single day and we are all involved in every aspect of development from design, material selection and manufacturing. My great-grandfather Irving, who founded the company, wore a tie clip everyday with the acronym YCDBSOYA which stands for ‘You Can’t Do Business Sitting On Your Ass’. It’s an important reminder to all of us to live by that motto.

Schott NYC must have quite the back catalogue. Can you tell us a little about the Perfecto® archives?

We’ve been collecting jackets for a while now and continue to add interesting pieces when we find them. The oldest is from around the 1920s when we were still using button front closures. It’s gratifying seeing the jackets after they have lived their lives on someone else’s back and seeing the stories each scratch tells of where they have been.

Do you have any collaborations or customizations that you’re particularly proud of?

Collaborations are a great opportunity for our designers and craftspeople to take on challenges and grow our factory capabilities. We love working with designers to see their creative vision expressed through our materials and manufacturing.

It was particularly special for me to get the chance to work with Ralph Lauren on a RRL collaboration a few years ago. We currently are working with Coach on a collaboration using imagery and archival pieces from our 1970s collection which has been exciting to work on.

Do you have a favourite Perfecto® yourself?

I’ve been wearing the 619 brown oiled cowhide Perfecto® jacket for many years. The leather reveals beautiful colors in the highs and lows of the creases as it breaks in. Unfortunately, I lost it for a while which was painful, but it’s back in rotation now. I guess you could say I have too many favorites.

And finally, how do you recommend that people look after their Perfecto®?

Wear it often! Don’t let the leather dry out and never store it in plastic, it has to be able to breathe.

If cared for properly, a Perfecto® jacket should last your whole life.

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What are your favourite leathers to work with? Any particularly interesting ones you’ve used over the years?

My favorite leathers are the ones with unique character and grain. We have been working with the Horween family who has been tanning leather in Chicago for over 100 years and makes some of the most beautiful vegetable-tanned skins. We’ve been experimenting a lot with nubuck leather lately, which has been very popular and has a matte velvety finish - a contrast to our signature shinier cowhides.

You guys still make your jackets out of the USA - how important are the notions of authenticity and provenance to Schott NYC? Authenticity is paramount in our designs. We never add details for design sake; they must be utilitarian and functional. Many of our classic styles are based on military-specified garments and we try to make improvements on historical styles to fit modern day lifestyles.

C

www.schott-store.com

WWW.BARNBYWINDERMERE.COM

A leopard can’t change its spots.

But a Barnby Windermere shirt can.

In fact, you’ll find yourself dressing it up and down so easily that you’ll have a hard time working out if it looks best with denim, sweats or under your suit jacket – but here’s the big secret. It looks best with everything.

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ESSENTIAL

MUSINGS THIS MONTH’S AD-HOC RECKONINGS AND MOSTLY-RELEVANT RUMINATIONS

WORDS BY WILL HALBERT

THE RELAXED-FIT JEAN: LVC ‘Loose Fix’ sees Levi’s Vintage Clothing swapping its classic Americana ruggedness for the boxy, baggy vibes of Manchester’s historic music scene. I’m good with this for a number of reasons. Firstly, I'm an incorrigibly sentimental ‘80s kid from the North West of England who can’t resist a good throwback.

Secondly, I’m a notorious sucker for a slim fit who needs to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into less tapered territory. And thirdly, I’m a shameless, so-millennial-it-hurts hipster who feels a sense of smugness in being old enough to see a trend come full circle.

While the aughts (or noughties, depending on your position in relation to the proverbial pond) saw jeans eschew their looser cuts for leaner, lycra-esque fits, recent years have seen things filling out again. LVC’s ‘Loose Fix’ falls squarely into that relaxed-fit renaissance with a series of boxy, baggy fits that call back to the heydays of Manchester Sound. Not a cuff nor taper nor questionable bulge in sight, just an array of breaks and stacks and sags and drapes inspired by the sounds of Salford.

It’s a refreshing sight, to be sure - one that pushes LVC way, way out of its Americana comfort zone.

But therein lies the beauty of it all: LVC are masters in the art of archival callbacks and historical curation. They’re big on the deep dive, jumping feet first into fashion’s past with a glee unparalleled and a skill unmatched. As a result, they have become experts in capturing the cultural zeitgeists of yesteryear in fabric form. ‘Loose Fix’ is no exception.

It’s nostalgia incarnate. Music-inflected garment mastery at its finest. Pair this with last year’s ‘Folk City’ collection and you truly start to appreciate the breadth of LVC’s historic and creative scope.

Sure, it ain’t workwear, and I can see it ruffling feathers aplenty amongst those who subscribe to LVC’s more hardcore, blue-collar origins. But if you ask me, it's yet another string in LVC’s forward-thinking, backward-glancing bow. If a couple of denim head melons get twisted in the process, then so be it. www.levi.com

THE PUB-READY SHIRT: BARNBY WINDERMERE You can’t beat a good local, can you? Not a bar, mind; but a proper pub. The scent of wood varnish and stale beer. The sweet promise of a carefully-poured Guinness from a line old enough to give the Royal Family’s lineage a run for its money.

The tinny din of football commentary in the background, the familiar melody of the fruit machine in the fore. A dog-eared newspaper with the crossword half filled (or half failed, depending on your outlook and general disposition). Optics, sticky bar tops, and that carpet. You know the one. Not a single whiff of any themed fakery or the forward march of gentrification, just a good old-fashioned, down-and-dirty drinking hole. A no-nonsense temple of knees-up revelry.

Barnby Windermere’s Gretton Shirt is exactly that but in 100% Italian cotton. Not in the sense that it smells like stale beer, you understand (yours might, but who am I to judge?). More in the sense that it boasts the same no-nonsense, brass tacks straightforwardness of your classic boozer.

That’s a rare thing indeed, isn’t it? A go-anywhere, do-anything, wear-with-everything shirt that can be dressed up or dressed down as occasion calls, tucked or untucked as etiquette dictates, and buttoned or unbuttoned as situation demands? The spread collar, mother of pearl buttons, and plaid pattern are lush touches too. Properly excellent stuff. Perfect for pint down the local, if you ask me.

Anyway, it’s your round. www.barnbywindermere.com

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THE PERFECT WHITE TEE: MERZ B. SCHWANEN In the vast oceans of fashion and style, the perfect white tee has come to represent that most evasive of literary legends, the White Whale. More a product of fashion folklore than of tangible, touchable reality, the white tee shirt has become an almost mythical thing - oft sought and seldom found. The perfect white tee, my friends, is the Moby Dick of modern menswear.

And that’s because the perfect white tee shirt relies entirely on an almost mystical alignment of elements. Shape, drape, fit and fabric must all come together in a feat of garment mastery that few brands struggle to achieve. Unless of course you’re Merz b. Schwanen, a brand that has made the masterful something of a benchmark standard.

A German heritage brand with a contemporary approach to luxury basics, Merz b. Schwanen has become a dab hand at crafting spectacularly wellmade basics. If anyone is up for the task of creating the last white tee shirt you’ll ever need, it’s them.

Their Sea Island Crew Neck is a fine case in point. Not only does it boast some truly peerless construction credentials and an impeccable fit, it also happens to be made from the finest, most sought-after cotton in the world: Sea Island cotton. Grown and handpicked in the Caribbean, Sea Island Cotton is used to create soft, luxurious garments that don’t just look the part, but feel the part too. And with Sea Cotton accounting for just 0.0004% of the world’s cotton supplies, it’s pretty much as rare and legendary as Moby Dick himself.

Merz b. Schwanen’s Sea Island Cotton Tees aren’t just a masterclass in simplicity done perfectly, nor are they merely a benchmark in luxury basics. For all intents and purposes, they mark the end of a lifelong quest in menswear mythology; they provide a glowing proof of the existence of that which has evaded menswear enthusiasts for so long. Call off the search and shout it from the topsails; the perfect white tee has been found.

www.merzbschwanen.com

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T H ROW B ACK K I CKS Clarks Originals team up with Levi’s Vintage Clothing and for a Manchester-Inspired Capsule Collection word by Will HALBERT All too rare are the occasions in which brand collaborations move beyond the eyebrow-raising, well-well-well-evoking realm of really quite interesting to instead bask in the pastures of actually kind of inspired. The all-new collaboration between Clarks Originals and Levi’s Vintage Clothing covers that distance and then some, finding itself squarely in the ‘oh damn’-inducing environs of genuinely bloody cool.

Designed in conjunction with Levi’s Vintage Clothing’s “Loose Fix” color palette, the collaboration features three classic Clarks silhouettes draped in premium suede and boasting all the rave-inflected, psychedelic charm you can shake a glow stick at.

First up is the tried-and-tested, go-with-anything Wallabee, clad in the trippiest pink suede outer and finished with a mauve nubuck trim and matching laces. Then there’s the Desert Boot, which comes in a two-piece, light blue suede construction offset with a pair of lavender laces. Last but not least, there’s the Weaver. A hybrid style that bridges the gap between the Desert Boot’s all-round practicality and the Wallabee’s collegiate cool, the Weaver comes in two shades of sandy yellow suede with nubuck detail.

‘When we were putting together the ‘Loose Fix’ collection, we thought it would be amazing to collaborate with Clarks to coincide with it,’ says Paul O’Neill, Head Designer for Levi’s Vintage Clothing at Levi Strauss & Co. ‘They were really big in Manchester in the ‘80s and throughout the UK. I’ve probably been wearing them myself for the last 30 years. It’s just a really old school approach to making shoes that are timeless, shoes people will always love. These are all traditional Clarks shoes with a contemporary approach to color.’

Like I said, genuinely bloody cool. By turns respected arbiters of style and unrivalled archivers of fashion history, Levi’s Vintage Clothing is steeped in lore and legend aplenty. They understand - perhaps more than anyone else - the joy that comes with the fond look back. That they should team up with Clarks to pay tribute to the audiovisual delights of Manchester’s late ‘80s music scene isn’t just inspired, it’s pitch perfect. EJ The Clarks x LVC collection is available now 21

The Original Penny Loafer

by G.H.Bass & Co words by Alex WILSON

My first point of reference for G.H.Bass & Co comes around 2002. At the time, I’m 12 years old and the thought of white socks and black shoes only presents itself when there are no black socks left and I’m late for school. But then one weekend I stumble upon this archive shot from a 60s Ivy League campus of an unnamed student, books enveloped in the fold of his arm, button-down shirt neatly worn under a varsity sweater with white chinos, white socks, and black penny loafers glistening under the summer sun. It’s the first time anything outside of a sneaker or football shirt has plucked my style lobe since, well, ever.

That image then lays dormant in my brain for over a decade, whilst polyester and ill-fitting denim take centre stage until the ripe age of 26 when that very same image reappears whilst I’m 22

thumbing through a copy of Take Ivy by Teruyoshi Hayashida. It’s then I find out that they are known as penny loafers and the originals I’m after are the playfully named ‘Weejuns’ from G.H.Bass & Co. The origin for the style's namesake comes from the campuses in which they were so popular. The very students that wore them kept a quarter in the shoe’s saddle so they could always make a phone call, long before the age of WhatsApp and FaceTime - thus, the moniker ‘penny’ was coined.

The G.H.Bass & Co loafer has been a footwear choice for many a subculture, from the aforementioned collegiate stylings of the '60s campus catwalks to silver screen matinee idols like Paul Newman, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and the

original preppy icon, JFK. Though it doesn’t end with undergraduates and public figures. Mods adopted them to accompany their button-down shirts and fishtail parkas.

They’ve even bled more broadly into the skater scene and first movers who know how to mix their metals - those who refuse to abide by the unwritten rules of tribal fashion and become ‘this guy’ or ‘that guy’. Nope, not for them. If it works, it works and nothing offsets sweats and a baggy hoodie like a pair of Weejuns. In the same breath, nothing picks up the stiffer, more classic suit silhouette than a pair, either. Subcultures are meeting in the middle today and in my opinion, right now is one of the most exciting times for style.

It doesn’t have to be so regimented. The original penny loafer from G.H.Bass & Co is one of the

most enjoyable shoes to test this theory with. A classic icon, disrupting the narrative.

Established in 1876 by George Henry Bass, G.H.Bass & Co believed in a simple principle - 'To make the best possible shoe for the purpose for which it was intended.' The iconic penny loafer was created by G.H.Bass & Co in 1936, in response to a request from the US editor of Esquire. Putting heads together, they adapted a Norwegian farm shoe intended for ‘loafing in the field' and as such, the ‘Bass Weejun’ was born. The world’s very first penny loafer.

Handmade ethically in their factory in El Salvador, Weejuns still use the same techniques pioneered in 1936. Moreover, there are now some contemporary takes on the iconic shape available alongside the original, bringing an intriguing

alternative to the time-honoured classic. Take the latest collaboration with Fred Perry, for instance. G.H. Bass & Co’s iconic Weejuns are given the Fred Perry treatment with tough, heavy-duty styling and an all-over texture which references the piqué of Fred Perry’s signature cotton tennis shirts. Designed with a thick, ridged commando out-sole in lightweight but durable EVA rubber, the leather in-sock is finished with a tartan trim taken from the brand’s Harrington jacket. AW

Shop the full G.H. Bass & Co collection at www.ghbass-eu.com 23

O NE THI NG DO NE WELL Ajoto Ajoto’s beautifully designed and perfectly balanced pens are putting the art back into the written word A good pen is a fine thing, isn’t it? A well-made pen is more than a tool; it’s as much an outlet for your half-baked musings as it is a conduit for your magnum opus. It charts your meanderings, your master plans, and your money spinners with equal enthusiasm. It shapes your thank yous, I owe yous, I love yous, and to hell with yous with equal eloquence. A good pen is tailor-made for the hasty complaint and the bitter, don’tput-your-rubbish-in-my-bin flat feud. It gives final form to the inspirations, exclamations, and oh-so-satisfying imprecations that float around your head all day. A good pen is at your side for the big deals, the small touches, and every single stroke, jot, scribble, sketch and sonder in between. Which begs the question: where on earth did all the good pens go?

It seems to me that the humble pen is a tool so ubiquitous and eternal that throwaway culture and mass production - the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of modern living - have done their damndest to dull its once sharp and sophisticated edge. Thank heavens, then, for AJOTO. Taking its name from the Japanese word for ‘first-class’, the Manchester-based studio employs a high-art approach to the everyday. Which is to say that they make very, very good pens. Their Brass Pen is a fine case in point. From the teardrop elegance of its silhouette to the purposeful simplicity of its design, The Brass Pen is a masterclass in timeless craftsmanship. Precision-machined from a solid bar of lead-free brass before being polished by hand, the pen is then left totally untreated. As a result, the pen will age and patina over time, gaining a little more character with each and every letter penned and eureka moment scribbled. A story-telling tool with a tale all of its own to tell?

Sign us up. EJ

Shop Ajoto pens at www.ajoto.com @ajoto 24

J OT T IN G IT DOW N Scribbles, scrawls, squiggles and scratchings from AJOTO's Marta Verdes-Montenegro Can you tell us a little about the philosophy behind Ajoto?

Our philosophy is the result of being fed up with the disposable nature of consuming, the questionable ethics around production and short obsolescence of products that can’t be fixed or repaired.

When we began AJOTO we knew we couldn’t force the world to change, but thought we could do our bit and try to inspire others through our actions.

We are constantly challenging ourselves to improve every single aspect of our business, from operations through to how we design. We enjoy meeting people and listening to their stories, exploring different and innovative materials and seeking out approaches to our work that are not only profitable for ourselves but also our wider community.

In regards to our products, we ensure that each facility we work with meets with exacting environmental requirements and operates to the highest ethical standard to ensure everything from safe working conditions to fair wages. The careful selection of not only materials and processes but also the people and the factories we work with is something we are very proud of. It’s a holistic approach but by working together with world-class people helps with making this simpler process.

How did you guys get started? What made you turn your attention to pens in the first place?

We didn’t start AJOTO with pens or stationery in mind, the evolution to developing The Pen was a little more serendipitous. We actually began AJOTO as a design studio and consultancy agency, and spent the early days formulating a process that reflected our personal ideology and ethos around design, manufacturing, marketing, retail and business.

The problem at that time was that we didn’t have anything to share that showcased our vision, so we set out exploring a vast array of products and services that we could develop. Throughout the early stages of this journey, we realised that the product we were looking for was in our hand all the time. So we decided to do justice to the most important creative tool that we used: the pen.

It’s important to note that ten years ago, pens and stationery were massively overlooked as a product category worthy of attention and interest.

They were either seen as throwaway utilitarian mass-produced products, fountain pens aimed at a small group of collectors, items of designed novelty and gimmicks or most sadly a relic of the past no longer required in the world of the smartphone.

So we began creating our first timeless tool ‘The Pen’ that reflected our obsession with modernist craftsmanship and had a story to match that could be openly explored by every customer and last a lifetime.

Your pieces show some truly remarkable refinement. Was it ever a challenge to express yourselves with so unique a canvas?

Our approach to design follows many of the principles of Dieter Rams and the Bauhaus across both our aesthetic language and also our approach to materials and manufacturing. I remember reading an interview with Jonathan Ive of Apple that resonated, where he stated that when they are designing products, they try to ‘get to a point where the solution seems inevitable’. This is what drives us forward, not to create products that aim to shock or stand out but to produce tools that become the gold standard of what a product can and should be.

I would say that the biggest challenge has been being self-funded from day one with very limited resources. For a few years, we were living very much hand-to-mouth and sleeping on camp-beds in our studio, so we had enough money to cover the production costs. This approach brings with it a number of limitations, but it has also ensured that we maintained focus on making a successful product and not getting distracted with other projects.

With The Pen, I believe we have made something very special and we hope our customers enjoy their investment.

Of course, there’s more to a pen than how it looks. How did you go about getting the feel of the pen just right?

In developing the first AJOTO pen we produced hundreds of prototypes, made from a wide array of materials, from modelling foam and wood to 3D printed resins. Some were created to explore the overall form, while others looked at the mechanical elements. Our archive is full of 3D-printed prototypes and pre-production samples. Every detail was fine-tuned and perfected.

However, it wasn’t until we began production that we got a true understanding of the complexity of making something that looked and felt so simple and balanced. Ever since launching our first edition of The Pen in 2013 we have constantly evolved and improved every aspect. At first glance, the pen produced when we launched is similar in looks to the one we make today, but as a finished product, they couldn’t be further apart.

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Above all else, the quality of what we make is as much about the people and specialists we partner with. To produce our pens, we have partnered with over 30 individual specialists across the UK and Europe - not counting our own workshop and studio. This list includes bespoke spring manufacturers in Skipton, Yorkshire; precision engineering machinists in Preston, Lancashire; and traditional letterpress studios in North Wales. We truly believe that how a product is made is just as important - if not more important - than how it is designed and we openly share these stories across our website and social media.

As you’d expect every production batch of pens is an improvement on the last as we learn more about new production processes, seek out new partners to work with, gain access to better

technology and invest in new machinery. It takes a little bit of time, but the result makes it all of the effort worth it, plus we are obsessed with details.

And lastly, what’s in store for 2021?

2021 is the year of our 10th anniversary and to mark the occasion we have commissioned the extremely talented Manchester-based Illustrator and screen printer Alex Sylt [Crooked Cartoon] to create artwork that celebrates our journey so far. Along with our 10th anniversary celebration, we are planning to launch an exciting new product that we have been working on for the last year in collaboration with Olivia Aspinall Studio and Manchester-based artist Lazerian. We also keep expanding our product range and exploring new materials and finishings, so you’ll have to watch this space!

interview by Will HALBERT photography by Source STUDIO

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MADE TO MEASURE

READY TO WEAR

S A RTO LUXU RYTA I LO R I N G .CO.U K

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Billy Tannery is a new kind of leather company.

After discovering that not one goat hide left over from the UK food industry was being tanned here, we decided to do something. Tapping into local leather knowledge we built a pioneering micro tannery and our sustainable, bark-tanned goat leather now completes the circle from food to leather. Our growing range of leather goods is designed and made in England to celebrate this exceptional material.

To Hell With Heritage; an interview with

BILLY TANNERY

by Will HALBERT

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First off, can you talk us through the Billy Tannery philosophy a little? What drives you guys?

At Billy Tannery our primary focus is to put an end to the waste of goat hides in the UK. These days so much attention is rightly given to food waste, but a forgotten part of the system are the by-products from initial food production, which is exactly what animal hides and skins have always been. While we may start with something that was once a waste product, our goal is to elevate this into something exceptional and show that there is a new way to look at leather.

What was the spark that got you guys going in the first place?

I grew up around agriculture as my dad was a dairy farmer for many years before later getting really interested in goats. I was working in marketing in London but was actively looking for a more practical project to get my teeth into when my dad asked if I could help him find some local restaurants to sell goat meat to. It was then that I discovered that not one British goatskin was being tanned in the UK and many thousands were either going into landfill or burned each year. This just seemed like such a waste, so we decided to act. From the start I knew that to make Billy Tannery a success the brand needed to be really strong, so I asked Rory to join me as co-founder.

Moving into the leather industry was a pretty drastic vocational departure for the two of you. How was the learning curve?

Rory and I had absolutely zero experience in the leather industry, or the fashion industry for that matter, so the learning curve has been steep from the word go. I previously worked in marketing and in consumer research and Rory is a graphic designer, so from the start we were convinced that the story was a really great basis for a brand - we just had to then work out how to make it happen.

For Rory it meant getting his head around product design but for me it was a little more drastic as I had to build a tannery and learn the leather making process - which I'm still learning.

A lot of leather brands can get a little bogged down in the heritage side of things. Do you think your backgrounds outside of the industry gave you a unique perspective?

From the start there were two words we wanted to be really careful of - heritage and craft. Both are massively overused to the point that they lose any real meaning. While both are relevant to Billy Tannery, we want this to be a story about the future of the leather industry, rather than being stuck in the past - which frankly hasn't been working out too well in the UK. We definitely always try to bring a fresh perspective and make people think differently as we're getting to a point where leather is in real danger of being written off as a material, which would be a real shame.

What are the properties of goat leather that make it so great to work with?

I'd love to say that before we got started, we knew that goat leather was this incredible material that

just needed to be revealed. The truth is that we had an idea from the old saying "treat someone with kid gloves” that goat leather was soft, but what we didn't know was how strong and durable it is too.

We found out that many of the big European fashion houses had always used it for high-end handbags, but would always just call it "leather" without any clue as to the origins. Now that we know how great goat leather is, our goal is to show this through our range of products that show it off its fullest potential while also being fully transparent.

For some, leather goods and sustainability don’t immediately go hand in hand. Can you talk us through the benefits of investing in well-made leather goods?

This is a really good point and something that really needs to be talked about more. People like simple answers, so to label all leather unsustainable and move on is proving very tempting. As with all things it's a lot more complex in reality, but for us the key is knowing where and how the leather is sourced and tanned, as this will give you a big clue as to the environmental impact of its production. There is a huge difference between our goat leather, which is sourced in the UK and tanned

using a considerate vegetable tanning process, than say cowhide sourced from South America and shipped to the other side of the world to be tanned irresponsibly. This is before the leather goods are even made, so you also have to think about where that happened and how far your bag then travelled to get to you. A well-made leather product will last for many decades, if not generations, so investing in one that has been made in the right way will be an even better investment.

We're seeing a rise in synthetic alternatives to leather as people move away from animal products, but that doesn't necessarily benefit the environment as much as people think. In what ways do you think leather is still the better option for those looking to shop (and live) more sustainably?

We're seeing a massive trend for synthetic "leather" at the moment and it's a source of real frustration and distraction for the wider leather industry. For us it goes back to our core objective, eliminating waste in the most productive way possible. While meat and dairy products are part of our food system, we need to use leather as otherwise what happens to all of the hides?

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Burning them and then making something else to mimic leather just doesn't sound like a practical solution. You also have to dig into how leather alternatives are made and also how they perform over time, as right now many are coated with plastic and do not match leather's durability. By choosing leather goods that have been sourced, tanned and made responsibly, that can also be repaired, you will have items that will outlive you. For us that's what sustainability is all about.

Of course, there’s a fine line between challenging people’s mindsets and getting preachy.

Billy Tannery navigates that line spectacularly well. What’s your secret?

That's very kind of you to say. We always try to be honest and practical about what we're doing at Billy Tannery, so I'm really glad to hear that we are striking the right tone. Most of our communication as a brand is to those that have already chosen to follow our story, either via Instagram or our Billy Drum email newsletter, so while we always want to educate, we don't need to go too far. What's that old saying about preaching to the choir?

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You guys have great relationships with the food industry and play a major part in the growing ‘nose-to-tail’ approach to meat consumption.

Do you think that spirit of collaboration is important in modern business?

We proudly promote our links with the food industry which is sadly a very rare thing in leather and part of what gives it a bad name. Talking about our partnership with Cabrito Goat Meat, who we source most of our goatskins from, has been vital to us and we work really closely with James and his team. Over time chefs and restaurateurs have also become customers of ours, as we use our leather to make menus and aprons that take nose-to-tail to the next level. We recently made some leather tortilla holders for an amazing new Mexican restaurant called Kol and that sort of project just wouldn't happen without a strong spirit of collaboration.

Price is always a point of contention with fine leather goods. How do you guys approach it?

As with everything, we've always approached price in a really practical way. In order to make our

products in the way that we want to - in the UK, in small batches with the best materials - we have to charge a certain price for that. What we don't do is bake in a massive margin so that we can sell thousands of bags wholesale, as that's not our game plan.

When buying one of our products you can be sure that the price reflects the true value and that any additional cost is going to be reflected in the product itself.

And finally, what can we expect to see from Billy Tannery next?

Outside of the food industry, collaborations with other UK manufacturers are a big part of our plans. Our goat leather can be used in so many ways that we're only just getting started, which is really exciting. Our next project launches later this month (May) and sees us launch a Suffolk-made desert boot, our first footwear project since our really popular sneaker collaboration with Crown Northampton. We also have projects in apparel, furniture and the kitchen all in the pipeline, so the future is looking really exciting. billytannery.co.uk

M O D E R N + S U S TA I N A B L E S W I M W E A R

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CHESTUDIOS.CO.UK

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IN CONVERSATION WITH

NEEQUAYE DREPH DSANE FROM HIP HOP TO HIGH ART: LONDON-BASED VISUAL ARTIST, DREPH, TALKS US THROUGH HIS STORY SO FAR

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Dreph sees public space differently to most. For the London-based visual artist, public space isn’t some inert domain briefly shared by passing strangers. It’s a place of meaningful connection and communication amongst people with more in common than they might first think. Dreph’s murals - in all their might, scale and stature - coopt the wall’s typical function as an instrument of segregation to instead share stories and bring people closer together. In the artist’s hands, each and every painted brick is no longer a tool for social enclosure, but a point of cultural orientation. Dreph’s work allows for stories too long untold to be heard, to be admired, and over time, to be understood.

Can you think back to any particular moments that sparked your interest in graffiti and street art?

Hip Hop came to the UK via New York in the early 80s and by about 1985, after spending some time break dancing and b-boying, a friend of mine brought a book called Subway Art into class one day. It was so mind blowing for a kid of my age. Just seeing so much amazing artwork and this entire subculture, we were blown away. Before long we started trying to emulate what we were seeing. By the late 80s we’d started to meet other artists in our local area, and by 1990 we were active painting tubes in London.

How did you see your tagging in those early days? Did you see it as artistic expression, rebellion, or both?

In those early days we were just incredibly driven; travelling from outside London just to make a name for ourselves and express ourselves in this new way that we’d found. As a young person, you don’t necessarily have the skills that you possess in your adult life when it comes to expressing your feelings and your thoughts. So it was definitely a very raw form of expression in those days. To some degree there was a hint of rebellion too, a sense of adventure. As time went on, it also became about a sense of community.

Graffiti is quite a divisive and subversive medium. How encouraging were your teachers and family of your art? What was your family’s reaction to those early graffiti years?

I was raised in Windsor, where there were hardly any black families. My parents worked extremely hard to make something of themselves. So there was an expectation that I would become a doctor or a pharmacist or something along those lines.

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I decided I was going to follow an art career. My mum didn’t quite get it at the time, but my dad did.

He’d explain to me that that others in the family wouldn’t necessarily understand my alternative lifestyle, but he understood what I was doing. Even if he didn’t necessarily agree with the path I took to get there, he got me.

Your work often bridges the gap between graffiti and fine art. Was that always the goal? How did one lead to the other?

Growing up, I was interested in everything from British comics to the works of Lucien Freud. So the lettering and tagging went hand in hand with my developing interest in portraits.

Back in 2005, I went to Barcelona where I met artists who had a huge impact on me. Not just in terms of my art, but in the way I thought about things. I started to see graffiti as something I could do for fun and I started to develop my art in a more serious and focussed manner. It became something I started to take much more seriously. It was nice to have the separation - approaching different work and different styles in different ways.

Over the last four or five years or so, I’ve reflected on all I’ve learned throughout my career in terms of placement, colour, and use of space. I've merged that with my interest in fine art. Putting all of those elements together has gotten me to where I am today.

Your more recent works often depict the faces and stories of unsung heroes. Who were your heroes growing up?

I think Hip Hop has been a big influence on my development. I wouldn’t call any of the artists heroes, necessarily, but the phrase ‘Hip Hop raised me’ certainly rings true for me. Hip Hop allowed us to navigate our childhoods. It helped us make sense of life as young people growing up in the UK during the 80s and 90s. Some of those tenets I still hold dear to this day.

How do you see your responsibility as an artist? What are you here to do?

For me, the most important thing will always be using my art to inspire people. I want to tell people stories, too. I’m just blown away by people’s stories; how they live and how they perceive the world. I have a platform that allows me to tell people’s stories. When I was younger, I was exposed to many different worlds. In my early teens my first job was doing a paper round in Windsor Castle, and by my late teens I was painting trains in London.

"WHEN IT COMES TO STREET ART, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN TO YOUR WORK ONCE IT’S FINISHED. I’VE SEEN ARTISTS GO TO THE PUB AND WITHIN THE HOUR THEIR PAINTING IS TRASHED."

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"YOU CAN’T BE TOO PRECIOUS ABOUT YOUR WORK ONCE IT’S OUT IN THE WORLD. YES, I TAKE PRIDE IN MY WORK, BUT I ALSO UNDERSTAND THAT IT’S NOT GOING TO BE THERE FOREVER."

My childhood was defined by a juxtaposition of worlds. That juxtaposition has followed me throughout my life, and I want to share that with people. I want people to know that there’s a whole world out there to explore. The phrase ‘the world is yours’ is something I take literally. I can go anywhere and do what I want. That’s what I teach my son, that the world is ours. That’s my message.

Street art isn’t a particularly private process.

How does it feel to have people watch your work unfold in real time?

When you’re painting in the studio, no one sees your work unless you want them to. So you create, you make your mistakes, you attain some level of perfection in your finished article - or at the very least you arrive at a place where you’re happy with your work - and only then do you show it to people. In quite a controlled way, too. At an exhibition for instance. The street is completely different; the first mark you make gets some sort of comment or critique from the passers-by. So the whole process is a very unique and interesting one.

When it comes to street art, anything can happen to your work once it’s finished. I’ve seen artists go to the pub and within the hour their painting is trashed. But I used to paint trains; I’d be lucky if I could even get a photo of my work back then. Even if I did, the work itself would almost certainly never see the light of day. That’s where I’m from. You can’t be too precious about your work once it’s out in the world. Yes, I take pride in my work, but I also understand that it’s not going to be there forever.

The most important thing is for people to engage with my work in whichever way they see fit. Even if it’s just for a day.

Have you found that your art is received differently depending on where you work?

In my experience, the way property is viewed in the UK is very different to the rest of the world.

Nowadays, you can paint in the street and it can be seen as giving something to the community - but it can also be seen as an attempt to gentrify the area. It can be seen as something that gives value to a community, or else something that will raise property prices. It’s a double-edged sword, and you have to be very aware of that. There’s more to it than grabbing your paints and picking a wall.

It’s important to be mindful of where you put your work and the motivation for doing so.

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From your subcultural roots in hip hop and graffiti, to your Ghanaian heritage, to your work in schools - you’ve been lucky enough to exist within a number of diverse communities.

What has the concept of ‘community’ come to mean to you as a result?

Community is a really interesting thing for me. I always sought community, but I’ve always seen myself as someone who operates on the periphery of it. I’m always welcomed with open arms, but at the same time I find myself on the outside looking in. I think that’s an essential part of what I need as an artist; to be able to capture what I do and present it to the world, I need to stay on the outside looking in.

That’s not to say that it’s a lonely process. One thing that’s really important to me is the concept of ‘community listening’. Every artist is different, but when I’m in the street, I recognise that I’m in someone else's world and I feel an obligation to engage with that respectfully. To listen and learn. I get into some of the most incredible conversations while I’m working in the streets, because people feel like they can share. They see you sharing and then they share in turn. Learning about other people’s realities is honestly such an important and rewarding part of the process.

Was it that sense of community that inspired the ‘You are Enough’ project?

‘You Are Enough’ was born out of wanting to paint my friends and tell their stories. Before long, I began to realise I was creating a particular body of work; I was telling the stories of strong Black women within our communities. By the time I got to my fifth or sixth painting there was a fair bit of interest around what I was doing. People started to follow the narrative; they began to engage with my subjects’ stories.

There was a context from which the work was being made, of course. Conversations around gender pay gaps were alive, Donald Trump had just come into power and with that, the Women’s March had begun. It was a turning point for a lot of people. It was certainly a turning point in my outlook and my career.

‘You Are Enough’ really showed me the power of making a body of work designed to tell a story.

It showed me the power of the streets as common ground on which to open up a real and meaningful dialogue with people.

Your work seems focussed on keeping the conversation going and bridging socio-cultural gaps. Are you still optimistic about that goal in today’s post-Brexit, peri-pandemic climate?

I think we’ve definitely seen a shift in the world over the last few years and, of course, we’ve seen some major societal changes over the last year and a half. We can only remain optimistic; that’s all we can do. And I genuinely do remain optimistic. I’m eager to keep up the fight - to stay positive and try to put some good back into the world. I think if we all did that, we’d see the changes we so desperately need to see in this world.

And finally, how important is the concept of personal style to you?

Personal style is important to me, and it’s something I’m constantly trying to develop. Not just in the way I dress, but also in the way I work and create. Art permeates everything I do. Art comes first.

I think my work, much like my style, is a culmination of everything I’ve seen and lived to this point.

When I was young, I held no distinction between fine art and popular art. They were both artistic outlets. I try to approach all creative outlets, style included, with a child’s mind - without boundaries, distinctions, or discriminations. To find my way, my voice, my own sense of authenticity and originality.

www.dreph.co.uk interview by Will HALBERT photography by Tom O'Donoghue

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TA LK I NG S HOP : Jojo Elgarice of Rag Parade, Sheffield interview by Will HALBERT photography by Jessy BUSGEETH

There’s a lot of pretence in menswear. That should come as no surprise, I suppose. The men’s fashion arena has long been a breeding ground for if-you-know-you-know posturing, ante-up preening, and straight-up, tit-for-tat partisanship. Not just in the clothes we wear, but the associations we flaunt and the knowledge we see fit to lord over others.

This makes chatting with Jojo Elgarice - of Sheffield's Rag Parade - a breath of fresh air. Here’s a man with more of a right than most to get a little snobby from time to time. Over the years, Jojo has become what someone with a thesaurus to hand and a point to prove might call a fashion cognoscente. A connoisseur, even. He boasts the kind of ground-up knowledge that comes only from a lifetime spent in the thick of it (‘it’, in this case, being the intricacies and minutiae of everything from classic French workwear, to terrace culture clothing, to German militaria).

But here’s the thing: there’s not a hint of snobbishness about Jojo’s operation. In fact, his candour and his approachability put him amongst some of the most likeable figures in the industry.

His insights and anecdotes aren’t laced with the usual pretence, but alive with a genuine, earnest sense of excitement. No stress, no fuss, no fancy trappings or unnecessary flexing, Jojo is just happy to let the visually impressive and historically expansive cobber of his store do the talking.

It’s been an interesting year and half to say the least. How are things?

For sure, it’s been pretty crazy. I’m surprisingly not too bad. Missing travelling, meeting interesting folk, and buying missions. But other than that, all good.

A well-trodden subject, I’m guessing, but what kicked off your fascination with vintage in the first place?

It was all by accident, really. I left school at 16 and went on to train to become a chef, after a few gruelling years in kitchens - and not particularly enjoying it - I started doing a bit of buying and selling on the side. It wasn’t really anything new to me; I was always trying to sell something as a kid [laughs].

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My mother’s an antique dealer, and we grew up around lots of old stuff. I must have subconsciously absorbed some level of knowledge and it spiralled from there really.

What were some of the first bits you started selling?

I really got into handmade and bespoke shoes and was buying them in battered condition, breathing a little life back into them and reselling them out of a rucksack and online. I think the way I learn is quite photographic; I can remember imagery in my head quite easily. This really helped when identifying old tags, labels, handwriting and maker’s marks. To cut a long story short, I woke up and decided to quit my job one day and rented a little shop above another shop, Syd & Mallory's in the city centre of Sheffield. After a few years, the shop was set for redevelopment and I found myself taking the leap to my own store. That brings us to today, really. It sounds like a nice fairy tale story, but it’s been a long and emotional road.

What do you think it is about vintage that continues to interest people after all these years?

I think quality and design are key. Some of that old kit was really well made - in terms of construction and fabric - so it has just worn and lasted so well over the years. I think something that is well made is always going to have appeal. One thing to always remember though is that just because something is old doesn’t necessarily mean it is good. Unfortunately, a lot of bad quality kit has been churned out over the years.

You're a well-travelled guy. Do you find that the interest in vintage clothing is a universal thing? Or do some places and communities take it more seriously than others?

It’s definitely more popular in some countries than others and has become increasingly popular in more obscure places over the last few years.

Japan has been at the forefront of the scene for a long, long time - in an almost obsessive sort of way. Every detail matters out there.

How does it feel to have been able to turn your interest in clothing into livelihood?

I was never really focused at school and found the conventional institutionalised way of learning to be very boring and repetitive. So, when I found something I was super interested in, I became obsessed pretty quickly. It gave me a focus. I feel very lucky to be able to do what I love for a job and create my own rules.

How have the likes of Instagram and other social media impacted your business over the years?

It’s been really handy. I think that’s probably the case for most people in my business. It’s brought customers to my shop from all corners of the earth and created many long standing friendships and business relationships. Physically and virtually. Pretty amazing when you think about it.

Who’s the craziest person that’s ever come through your doors over the years?

It would be hard to pinpoint one person, but it really does always surprise me who’s going to walk through the door next. We’ve met some incredible people in the shop over the years and I think most importantly they all share that same sort of passion. We had a customer not that long back who travelled from Mexico just to visit the shop.

That sort of thing will always blow my mind.

Are there any great finds from over the years that you're particularly proud of?

I had an insane find fairly recently which I still can’t get over. I met a guy whose father was in the British Commonwealth Games and the Olympics in the late 1950s up until the 1970s and I purchased a sweatshirt from him. I then later went on to buy his sports bags and tracksuit. After a few months, I wondered if his dad was still alive and decided to try and track him down. It turns out he’s in his late 80s and we got chatting on the phone. I went on to purchase his complete collection of medals, blazers, ties, shorts, flags, photograph albums, badges and pretty much three decades of his sporting history. It’s a really beautiful collection of stuff that tells such a great story, it needs photographing and logging properly.

By the same token, are there any grail pieces or ‘ones that got away’ that still haunt your dreams to this day?

I’ve missed out on some killer stuff over the years, but I try to not lose too much sleep over it nowadays. A few pieces still elude me but hopefully the time will come.

Can you think of any particular garments that are just that little bit better when bought vintage?

Some of the classics are definitely better when they’re old and I think it’s mainly down to the fabrics. Something like a really beautifully-worn old moleskin French work jacket. Compare that to a new one and it’s a whole different level. The same goes for an old Tootal Scarf; they never got those quite right when they remade them. Like a lot of things - not just clothing - the processes can get lost over time and things don’t quite have the same aesthetic and feeling as the real deal. It’s a bit of a Georgian Townhouse vs Barratt Home scenario.

What styles influenced you growing up?

I spent a lot of time skateboarding growing up so I suppose that had quite a strong influence from an early age. All the old videos were great as they exposed us to every genre of music. That helped a lot; it gave me a real broad taste.

How would you define your own style as it stands today?

That’s a tricky question as I don’t really have a set style, I mainly just like to mix up some older kit with some more contemporary gear and make it work for me!

@ragparadesheffield @jessyb.co.uk

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an interview with

MITSHEL IBRAHIM, OMBRA

by Will HALBERT

Did you know that the word ‘pastificio’ is the Italian for pasta factory? I sure didn’t. It’s a fitting moniker for London’s Ombra to don, though. For a number of reasons. Not only is Ombra the peerless producer and purveyor of seriously (seriously) good pasta, but the team’s unified response to the ongoing pandemic has been nothing short of machinelike in its drive and efficiency. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing though. Mitshel Ibrahim gives us the lowdown keeping a business afloat over lockdown.

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First off, it’s been a mad year. So, we’ll start with the most important question: How are you and the Ombra team doing?

We’re doing ok! We can’t quite believe (along with the rest of the industry) that we’ve survived the last year. We never closed our doors – well there was a week we had to at the end of last year – but other than that, we’ve been open the entire time. Transforming into a pastificio & alimentari has obviously been great for us, our staff, our guests, our sanity, and was quite a natural evolution. But whilst playing shop has kept us going, we’re beyond excited to welcome people back to Ombra as a restaurant.

Let’s talk shop a little bit. You and the Ombra team have displayed some truly masterful pivoting over the last year. Can you talk us through how you’ve managed to navigate the pandemic?

It honestly didn’t take that much thought. We knew we needed to sell what we already had in stock so as not to waste any produce, and it kind of carried on from there. Our regulars were coming in asking for our fresh pasta, or if they could have some of our home cured salumi. Plus we had all of our suppliers whose lifelines – restaurants – had suddenly disappeared overnight, so there was a sense of responsibility and obligation to find a way to keep going.

Luckily Ombra itself, being an Italian restaurant, meant that turning into a pastificio & alimentari wasn’t something totally alien to us. I have a friend who helped make out labels and packaging and once we had that, we were ready to go.

How have you managed to keep a level head through it all?

It was a LOT of teamwork, calling in favours and relying on the goodwill and camaraderie of a really great team at Ombra. Of course there were challenges, like the delivery aspect of the service, but we made sure we kept honest and open communications with our guests and worked it out together. There were definitely times we had to actively choose to channel our energy into innovating and adapting, rather than being angry. But it’s always worth keeping perspective. So many people had it a lot harder than I did. Our main aim was to get ourselves and our community through, it was keeping all of our heads above water in whatever way we could.

Was there a therapeutic element to keeping things kicking in the way you have?

It was also cool to think up ideas and new sauces and dishes to package up, that creative part of the process was actually pretty exciting. We didn’t know how people would respond to the new offering though, so we feel really lucky it worked out.

Eventually it all really started to pay off, too. We did better than we had ever expected.

Covers were higher than usual in August, for example. That was a real turning point for us, we started opening on Mondays and people were so excited to come back and dine with us.

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We managed to switch back to a restaurant pretty easily, pausing the delivery service and giving us time to think about launching an online shop despite the success of people dining with us throughout the summer period. I’m glad we did start thinking about that side of the business as a permanent feature, because as we all know, we then faced another lockdown.

What are the main lessons you’ve taken away from this whole experience?

To be prepared for anything and go with your gut.

The chopping and changing of rules really kept us on our toes, and often it was quite demoralising.

But we know we can do it now – although please don’t test us again. Plus, complain as I might about never having nights off when the restaurant is open, I will never again.

It sounds as if you felt a fair bit of social responsibility. Not just for your staff but all the way across the industry. Is it important for a successful venue to be connected with its community?

Most definitely. We were lucky to welcome a load of new faces to Ombra and the pastificio last year, and these people will hopefully become regulars.

We also have a very solid, loyal community in the area and this year has definitely cemented that.

We are staggered by the support and love we’ve been shown, it’s been truly amazing.

Now, let’s talk pasta. It’s an obvious forte of yours. What goes into making the perfect fresh pasta?

The key is a simple, great product, don't over complicate things. Don't over-cook the pasta. Don't under-season your water. If you follow these rules, you'll be laughing.

There are about as many varieties of pasta as there are ways of enjoying it. So I have to ask; do you have any personal favourite serving suggestions you could give us?

Whenever I get asked my favourite pasta shape and why, I always hit straight back with, 'well... that depends on the sauce'. But I’m fully aware it can make me come across like an obnoxious Italian, which I am. So, I’m trying a different approach these days and have come up with a more diplomatic answer.

Pasta in Italy is categorised into three major groups; lunga, corta e ripiena (long, short and stuffed). Some sauces work better with specific pasta shapes, according to the tradition. Tagliatelle works better with meaty or rich tomato-ey sauces but you would never serve them with fish or seafood sauce. Carbonara is never served with a pasta which has eggs in it as it would become just a bit much - the list goes on. But what if I told you that there was a shape so versatile that it can be served with a variety of sauces and while being short it can also be stuffed, baked and fried? I know, incredible.

Paccheri, a giant maccherone traditional from Napoletean heritage. Made from only durum wheat flour and water like most pasta shapes from Southern/Central Italy. And as the legend goes, this shape was born of a necessity to smuggle garlic into the Austrian empire. My favourite ways to serve it are ‘alla sorrentina’, tomatoey cheesy vibes, or ai frutti di mare.

And just as importantly, do you have any drink pairings you’d suggest? What’s been your go-to aperitivo over lockdown?

I discovered the 'negroni tonic' which is essentially a hybrid between an Americano and a Negroni.

The fizz of the tonic gives you the impression of it being a light aperitivo but do not be fooled…it can be lethal: • 25ml Campari • 25ml gin • 25ml red martini • 25ml tonic

the Essential

RECIPE Mitshel IBRAHIM Tagliolini with guanciale (at Ombra it’s an in-house cured variety), Sicilian artichokes & Verdicchio. This recipe is based on using fresh pasta, but if you’re using dried, follow the pasta cooking instructions on the packet.

• 200g tagliolini • 100g guanciale • 200g baby artichoke • 75ml verdicchio • Salt, pepper Start by gently frying the guanciale in its own fat. While that is frying, add very thin shavings of Sicilian young artichokes. When the artichokes start to wilt, deglaze the pan with a bit of verdicchio wine. This emulsifies with the fat of the guanciale. Once the sauce is ready, turn the heat down and put it to one side. Drop the tagliolini into boiling water, after about 30/40 seconds drain the pasta and finish the cooking - 30 second or so - in the pan with the sauce.

www.ombrabar.restaurant 44

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ESSENTIALSTUDIO.CO.UK 45

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an interview with

EMPIRICAL www.empirical.co @empiricalcph

by Will HALBERT

Empirical are, at their heart and by their own admission, a flavour company. The passion project of Noma alumni, Lars Williams and Mark Emil Hermansen, the Danish drinks brand are all about forging their own flavour fables as opposed to falling back on tired myths. There are no half-baked, false histories to be found here; no secret family recipes or long-lost concoctions. Just good, old fashioned science.

This, my friends, is flavour intelligence in its purest form; it’s a collaborative, category-bending drinks endeavour at its finest. Using low-temperature distilling, long fermentation times, and a unique base spirit made from koji, the guys at Empirical are more than happy to just let the flavour do the talking - and what a tale it has to tell.

It’s been a crazy year and a half, hasn’t it?

How are you guys doing?

It has been crazy - but in these difficult times I feel evermore blessed to have such a solid team.

Everyone has really shown up and given it their all, which is really more than I can ask of people, given how difficult things are for people personally. A few things that we used to do separately (ie. jujitsu, yoga or Crossfit) we’ve gotten the equipment for and brought in-house. So we have this sorta adopted family bubble at work. Of course business-wise this has been an extremely challenging year. When the pandemic hit, 80% of our business was ontrade in bars and restaurants, and that evaporated overnight. But the team pulled together and somehow managed our best sales year ever, albeit with a lot more hustle than we could have imagined. As I said, I’m very grateful for the team we have.

How would you define Empirical’s overarching philosophy in a nutshell? How does that feed into what you’ve got going on right now?

The exploration of compelling flavours and the ability of those flavors to link and create dialogue between people around the world is the main driver for us - and frankly, something that we could all use a bit more of. Maybe that’s because the bulk of us come from the hospitality industry.

As we’ve matured, we’ve moved from calling ourselves Empirical Spirits to Empirical; that was to acknowledge our transition to being more of a flavor company than one that simply created spirits. We launched our Can series not too long ago, and are about to introduce our Provisions: a more culinary focused segment using the same products we use in alcoholic beverages.

Empirical isn’t just a celebration of flavour, but of nature itself. How important is the notion of seasonality to you?

Seasonality has always been important to me; the flavors I crave are wildly different during different times of the year. In that sense, I’ve always felt that foraging is essential to our process - even if whatever we found only evolved into a limited, one-off product. There’s something about a walk in nature that has always justified the time spent, leading to a creative breakthrough.

Just before Christmas, we made a sloe berry wine and fortified it with a medicinal botanical from Zimbabwe called the Resurrection Plant that we will barrel age into something for next winter, because those dark musky notes made sense with the brief dim days and long nights. But we are already hoping (in vain) for some sunlight, so now our new Can 03 of Carob, Fig Leaf and Lemon Myrtle feels just like what we need.

In broad strokes, can you tell us a little about your process? How do you get from concept to can?

In broad strokes, my creative process usually starts off with a brainstorm session with our head of R&D, Chris. We will go through the things we’ve been digging through and collate flavors or techniques that we think will fit well together during the year. Loosely, there are three avenues that we follow during the creative process: one that is

product based, seeing what we can do with pasilla mixed chilli for example; a second that is technique based, asking questions like ‘can we make a “rum” or “tequila” out of nordic products?’; and a third that involves deep research sessions like exploring every permutation of, well, whatever: fat wash, grains, fermentation techniques, you name it.

What’s the weirdest flavour you’ve ever come up with, accidentally or otherwise?

Probably an Oyster (actual shelled oysters) and Green Gooseberry spirit that we did as a ‘one off ’.

It had the slowest sales out of the gate, but it’s the one people still email me about asking if we’re going to make it again. At the time it made perfect sense...to me at least.

Flavour is so intrinsically linked to memory. Do you have any flavours that take you back to a particular time in your life?

The first spirit we ever did was one that used Douglas Fir needles as a botanical. That’s because I was wandering around this pine forest just north of Copenhagen, trying to figure out what we were going to do as a company. I wanted to share that sensation of the beautiful smell of the trees and the soft squishy moss underfoot with my sister in Brooklyn, who recently had two girls and so hadn’t been able to visit in a few years. So that became the first moment I wanted to share. A bit later, we had another spirit, now discontinued, that reminded every single person who tasted it about some childhood candy - no matter whether they were from Zimbabwe, Brazil, London, or Tokyo. Even if it wasn’t something they had ever actually tasted before. That juxtaposition of novel and memory is when I feel we have proper success.

And finally, do you have any more collaborations lined up for 2021?

The next collaboration is one that we actually finished this time last year. It’s a ‘whiskey’ inspired koji based spirit that uses Katsuobushi as a botanical, aged in a cognac cask. We use katsuobushi from the renowned Kaneshichi, the world's best producer who also happened to teach me how to make katsuobushi. Unfortunately, the apocalypse broke out. So we’re waiting until we can do a proper Japan launch to release it. Luckily, it’s a liquid that’s only getting better with time.

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Article of Note:

THE ETTINGER CAPRA Bordeaux COLLECTION

by Will HALBERT Google tells me that the definition of ‘reminiscing’ is ‘to indulge in the enjoyable recollection of past events.’ I like that. It takes what is essentially a subconscious act and gives it a kick of agency. As if the simple act of remembering something were a pastime you set aside time for - like reading a book or pouring yourself a glass of wine.

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This might well explain my affinity for Ettinger’s Capra Bordeaux collection. Crafted from the fine goat leathers of France's southwestern tanneries, the Capra Bordeaux collection is more than an expertly-curated capsule of luxury accessories, it's a beautifully crimson, claret-smooth invitation to get downright nostalgic. At least for me, it is.

Bordeaux, for me, will always be a tale of sunny excess and incomprehensibly beautiful people; of the smell of oak barrels and limestone walls; of the bone-white sails of the Bordeaux docks and the bittersweet (and admittedly oh-so-British) sting of sunburned knees. I see each of those memories reflected in the red wine hues of the new Capra Bordeaux collection, from the minimal charm of the Three-fold Mini wallet, to the simple elegance of Visiting Card Case, to the silver-gilded sophistication of the Capra Journal.

I understand I’m placing a lot of personal stock in an inanimate object. But has the Capra Collection not always encapsulated the spirit of adventure in each of its expertly-crafted accessories? That it should serve as a jumping board for my tall tales of adventures past is par for the course with a brand as storied for their travel accessories as Ettinger.

Much like a glass of Bordeaux wine - a hefty slug of nostalgia is all the sweeter when shared.

When fading memories are given legroom enough to meander into the tall grass of fantasy; recollection made myth; story made legend. There’s a fine line between a fond memory and wild imagination. If you ask me, Capra Bordeaux collection captures that fleeting meeting point beautifully. EJ Check out the entire Capra Collection at www.ettinger.co.uk

Essential Thoughts On:

L A MARZOCCO’S L I NE A M I NI with Will HALBERT Christopher GERRARD & Thomas SUMNER

Handmade in Italy, La Marzocco’s Linea mini packs all the clout and quality of the brand’s commercial machines in a more compact, kitchen-friendly size. Which suits us just fine, because if team EJ knows one thing, it’s the importance of caffeinated clout. To that end, we invite you to read our thoughts on the machine that has revolutionised our pre-deadline pick-me-ups. We ask only that you do so without casting too harsh a judgement on what is quite clearly a serious addiction to caffeine. Have at it.

First off, how seriously do you take your coffee?

WH: I’ve been called a snob a time or two. Which I resent wholeheartedly. Just because I own a Chemex, prefer single estate roasts, and can say ‘unwashed beans’ without giggling like a school child doesn’t make me a snob. Does it?

CG: I like to drink nice coffee - but there’s nothing serious about it for me! I think drinking coffee, much like drinking alcohol (if that’s your thing) is equally about why, where and who you’re drinking it with.

TS: Have coffee, will travel - but it better be damn good! Much like Chris, when drinking coffee out in the wild, for me, it’s as much to do with the people serving it and those I’m drinking with as it is the coffee, but coffee always comes first.

What were your first impressions of the Linea Mini?

WH: It’s a beauty. It may clock in a little smaller than what you’re used to seeing at your local coffee shop, but it’s no less mighty. Ours is a sassy, cherry red number and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t take a minute every now and again to just look at the thing with its blinky lights and shiny surfaces. La Marzocco’s machines have always been a sight to behold, it’s nice to see how well that has translated to a smaller scale.

CG: She’s the real deal.

TS: Is this thing in the Design Museum? The Chemex is and I think this should be sat right alongside it.

Has the Linea Mini been easy to master?

WH: Easy peasy. The set-up was a breeze, and I’ve been around commercial coffee shop machines for long enough to have the basics down.

What’s really impressive is the balance between the machine’s user friendliness and the quality of the coffee. It’s not some big, scary monster of a machine, but you can easily get consistent, speciality-level coffee from this thing with a little practise.

CG: You know that big first decision you make early on in your working life; sales, retail, or hospitality? I made the wrong choice, man. I’ve always thought that. Getting to grips with the Linea Mini has only compounded my poor life choices and served as a daily reminder that slinging espresso is not only way fun, but an altogether more enviable way to make a living.

TS: Ok, so I thought I could make a coffee. I mean, I’ve visited plenty of cafes, sat up at the bar and studied many baristas in their delivery of a flat white, so why couldn’t I?! Having learnt from such previous uneducated life choices as ‘attempting to build an IKEA wardrobe without looking at the instructions’ I opted to jump straight onto the accompanying app! Link it up via the office WiFi, follow the tutorials and guides, then have it count you up to your perfect double espresso. Seems I can make a coffee after all.

What has the Linea Mini brought to the office/working day dynamic?

WH: It’s a more involved process than simple whacking the kettle on, that’s for sure. Which makes it a great way of disconnecting with work for a moment. We’ve all learned to appreciate good coffee that little bit more too: weekly bean rotations; milk alternatives; latte art throwdowns, you name it. Unlimited access to espresso has also made me work (and talk) at a more accelerated rate, which I think counts as cardio. Bonus.

TS: Initially, and still from time to time, it brought some light-hearted humour to the office as we weaned out those who could and those who couldn’t pull a decent espresso. Now that we’re at a decent level across the board, it offers a welcome power-escape (cousin of the power-nap) when simple and everyday words on your screen appear to no longer make sense or a branding project zaps all creativity out of you. That 40 seconds at the machine can restore your afternoon.

And finally; how would you describe your latte art?

WH: Remember that restored Ecce Homo painting that was doing the rounds a few years back? The botched Jesus? That’s how I’d describe my latte art: I aim for a swan or tulip, I get some hazy, amorphous onion. I don’t say this lightly; this shortcoming is a constant source of shame for me. Having cut my teeth on Liverpool’s burgeoning food and drinks scene - slinging cocktails, coffees and cocky smiles for the best part of a decade - I really ought to be better. Luckily, the Linea Mini’s steam wand is such a doddle to use that the texture of your milk choice is still amazing even if you can’t quite nail the art.

CG: I’ve been doing these super-realistic renditions of Galaxies and star clusters. Andromeda, Cygnus A, The Milky Way (classic). I think they’re going pretty well.

TS: The less said about this the better...Americano anyone?

uk.lamarzocco.com

CG: I’d say it’s brought a more considered and methodical start to the day for me. It almost sets a precedent for approaching whatever’s on the day's agenda; with a little more care, thought and precision. On the slower mornings, you can actually feel your brain gearing-up with each clunk of the machine. Oat-milk latte for Dr Frankenstein?

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Two Good Bartenders Our Editor speaks to Alex Kratena & ‐ + Elementary Monica Berg of Tayer

This might sound like more of an apologia than an introduction, but most of my friends are bartenders. Don’t worry, I’m not about to reinforce the towel-slinging, lighter-wielding, moustache-twirling trope of the bartender-confidante, but there’s a tacit demand for empathy, patience, and good judgement behind the bar that few can truly master. Which is probably why they’ve had such a hard time automating them, now I think about it. Take it from a man who has gotten himself into many a drunken conversation with bartenders and Tesco cashier-bots alike - the difference is immediately apparent. The point (I think) I’m trying to make is this; there’s a lot that goes into being a good bartender.

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Alex Kratena and Monica Berg are both spectacular bartenders. The award-winning, top-of-theirgame variety of spectacular. Together, they’re the driving force behind London’s Tayer + Elementary, where they specialise in the kind of craft and ceremony that elevates bartending to a spectator sport. In short, they’re the perfect people to ask about life behind the stick. Which, as you’ve probably guessed by now, is exactly what we did.

First off, how did you get here? Talk us through the path that got you guys to where you are today.

We have both been in the bar business our entire life. Monica started in bars and nightclubs in

Oslo, where she is from. I left The Czech Republic as soon as I turned 18 and bartending took me all over the world. We met in London, but our first date was during an industry convention in New Orleans. The rest is history.

How has the bartending profession changed over the years? Is it perceived any differently nowadays?

The perspective of our job has changed. The old-time distinctions between professions have shifted and so has the role of drinking. As much as there is interest in food, there is an equal interest in what people drink. I can’t think of a city that doesn’t have a great cocktail bar now.

There has been an intense focus on drinks in the last 15 years, from craft beer to third-wave coffee, to natural wine and cocktail bars. From cocktail books and blogs to magazines and TV shows. The popularity of chefs and cuisine has hugely helped to increase the average person's knowledge and produced some really passionate and sophisticated drink aficionados in the process.

There’s far more to the bartending profession than slinging cocktails. What, in your opinion, makes a good bartender?

A good bartender is first of all a good listener, it is a person who always sees the glass half full and makes people's day better every single time.

A good bartender is a nice person with a great sense of empathy.

By the same token, what makes a good bar?

The beautiful thing about bars is diversity; there are thousands of different bars for different people. What might be seen as an awesome feature of one bar could be a flaw in the next one. A good bar is a combination of a thousand different details all executed brilliantly; a place that makes you feel good. That could be down to great bartenders, fantastic drinks, excellent music, fun atmosphere, spectacular views, or all of the above.

A good bar is a place where you pop in for one and five hours later you are still there having a good time.

Speaking of great bars; tell us a little bit about the philosophy behind Tayer + Elementary. What was the inspiration behind the concept?

Our latest project, Tayer + Elementary, is a culmination of our ideas, life experiences, taste in design, and opinions on drinks and what makes a great gastronomic experience. As for concepts, it offers two different concepts in one. Elementary is an all-day bar serving tasty seasonal drinks, bottomless coffee, and tasty snacks. Tayer, on the other hand, is a progressive bar where ingredients inspire everything we do. We combine modern techniques with long-established practices to create drinks and food that express freshness, quality, and the sheer simplicity of our ingredients.

Above: T&E's small but mighty 'One Sip' Martini Left: The method behind the madness. T&E's Alex Kratena and Monica Berg

What has been the most important lesson you guys have learned from moving from behind the bar to running your own businesses?

The biggest lesson learned is this; when you don’t know, ask for help! Also, things will never go as planned, so embrace the change, accept the chaos, but stay true to yourself.

www.tayer-elementary.com 51

IN PURSUIT OF A BETTER CUP OF COFFEE The Fat Duck's former head chef, Ashley Palmer-Watts, turns his expert hand to the home bean scene

words by Will HALBERT Let’s be honest; we’ve all made some terrible life decisions down the coffee aisle of our local supermarket. We’ve committed some truly heinous crimes in the brewing of our morning coffee, too - sacrificing the myriad pleasures of taste for a negligible gain in time or convenience. We’ve all made do with the ashy, up-and-at-'em expediency of the three-day-old, improperly-sealed bag of ground coffee. I'd wager we're all-too-familiar with the milquetoast, quick-hit mediocrity of the instant option, too. In short, we’ve all downed some bloody awful coffee when left to our own, barista-less devices.

Thankfully, Ashley Palmer-Watts and the team at Artisan Coffee have created a selection of six ethically sourced, masterfully blended coffees that don't demand a barista's skill or fancy pants machine to prepare (unless you happen to have one, you lucky devil).

Former Head Chef of Berkshire's fabled The Fat Duck, Ashley's knack for complexity, consistency and experimentation is (quite rightly) a thing of legend. That he should turn his hand to crafting

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the kind of bean blends that guarantee a good cup of coffee - regardless of brew method - just seems logical. From V60, to Moka Pot, to French Press, the Artisan team has crafted bespoke recipes to ensure the perfect cup o' joe for any and all of your favourite coffee-making rituals.

There's a hefty dose of heart and a refreshingly human element in the mix, too. Not in the clichéd, awkwardly anthropomorphised, I-like-mycoffee-like-I-like-my-men manner of describing coffee, you understand; there’s no tall, dark and handsome talk to be found in Ash's flavour notes, thankfully. What Artisan Coffee offers instead is a family of relatable flavour profiles that make picking your morning brew a doddle. Want something punchy, upfront, and assertive? The Big Shot’s your man. Fancy something rich and fruity?

Check out The Enigma. In need of something a little more complex and stimulating? Wrap your senses around The Genius.

Each of the six blends is the product of Ashley's rigorous, ready-when-it’s-ready research and development process, and there's plenty here to satisfy those with a more scientific approach to their go-faster juice - but that all plays second fiddle to Artisan's true goal. Artisan's blends, more than anything, are a celebration of coffee as the great conversation starter; they’re a nod to the common ground created by the concepts of flavour, aroma, and personal experience.

By replacing speciality coffee’s typical esoterism for something altogether more inclusive, approachable and, well, fun, Ashley and the team at Artisan Coffee have come away with something that not only keeps those caffeinated conversations alive, but opens them up to a wider audience. And my word, don’t even get me started on the chocolates. www.artisancoffeeco.com

COLUM NISTS BOTTLED & BATCHED Addressing the Table with Jake O’Brien-Murphy

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ax Chater talks fast. I like to think it’s because he is the kind of person who has too many good ideas to keep up with. Through the everyday miracle of video conferencing software, I found myself staring at most of his forehead. Zoom, I had come to learn, does not cater to the kind of excitable movements you find with hyperactive minds and Chater could not sit still. I had missed out on Champagne + Oysters, a collaboration between Victory London Distillery and Vault Vermouth, by a margin of what must have been seconds. It sold out in about the time it’ll take you, the reader, to finish this sentence. That quick. In an abrupt moment of stillness, Chater’s smile came into focus as he whipped off an introduction to his latest release: ‘V2 is still a sipping Vermouth; a blend of Laurent Cazottes Mauzac and Loin de L’Oeil & WestWell Ortega wines.’ He then launched into a list of ingredients containing the usual suspects of traditional vermouth: ‘wormwood; sweet lemon; Bergamot’ and some less likely inclusions sure to pique the interest of gilet-wearing, nouveau riche, tote baggers like Epping acorns, Colchester oyster shell, and bronze fennel. The Bizarro Vermouth takes its place as part of The Victory Pilot series, a collection of meticulously crafted products, which delivers an inquisitive poke at the boundaries of what booze can be.

After a few entertaining false starts, which included Chater holding a pinecone up to the camera while he spoke fondly about his favourite tree, I managed to get him back on topic.

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What he had to say made a lot of sense. The current trend of directto-door booze was the logical response of an industry forced, through no fault of its own, to close its doors and still incur the associated costs of operating a business. Regardless of acclaim, Victory is still a small operation, working directly with the bars and restaurants that stock their products. ‘It’s hard. We’re part of a larger machine that is the on-trade. So when bars and restaurants are strong-armed into closing, the waters dry up for us too. So that’s why we have to think outside of the box. That’s how we came to the collaboration. That’s how we ended up with Champagne + Oysters’.

Chances are you've recently noticed a lot of this stuff popping up in your social media feed. Natural wine, collaborations between producers and Ready to Drinks (or RTDs to boffins). To the layman, an RTD is a premade cocktail in a bottle, can or pouch format. Actually, they are not really new at all. Marks & Spencer have been producing a range of canned cocktails for a while now. Which are readily available with the single drawback being that taste seemed to be an afterthought. In hindsight, the alcopop could be seen as a bell-bottomed progenitor to the RTDs of today. However, Tropical Reef, Baileys Glide and the Smirnoff Mule never seemed to gain the widespread appeal of their modern relatives. Due in no doubt to the fact that they were all brought to market as neon variations on saccharine protoplasmic goo.

The Gordon’s Piccadilly Cocktail is the oldest, genuinely antique, RTD which my research could find that is still available for purchase.

It’s a mix of Gordon’s gin, grenadine, dry vermouth and anise served in a bottle that resembles an old-fashioned cobbler shaker. If you fancy trying a cocktail that predates the foundation of the European Union by well over a decade, it’ll cost you around £400 and, I imagine, your stomach lining.

This current niche of micro-produced cocktails comes as a direct knock-on of COVID-19, a niche that has developed meteorically from what was its previously plotted trajectory. Before the word ‘lockdown’ became a part of the common vernacular, the RTD category had seen little to zero worldwide growth and market projections suggested that little was going to change. So very few companies were dedicated to producing these kinds of products. Which is to be expected, the global spirits market is the place where big companies get to swing their bits on the biggest of big hitters; hence the boom in flavoured gin. If you get that right and you'll be polishing your Lamborghini with gold bricks. It won't work, but f*ck it, you've got twelve. This approach, of course, comes with the associated prudence of wanting to avoid, at all costs, any miss-swings that would lead to repeatedly smashing your genitals against a wall. (See Diageo and Pharrell William's catastrophic Qream liqueur, sold regrettably as a ‘cream liqueur for the high-end leisure class’ as the prime example).

"MARKS & SPENCER HAVE BEEN PRODUCING A RANGE OF CANNED COCKTAILS FOR A WHILE NOW. WHICH ARE READILY AVAILABLE WITH THE SINGLE DRAWBACK BEING THAT TASTE SEEMED TO BE AN AFTERTHOUGHT."

Before lockdown, very few, if any bars and restaurants had a takeaway booze offering.

Let alone a single cocktail, neatly packed, labelled and ready for a domestic setting.

This is mainly because the traditional model of hospitality has worked so well for so long that it hasn’t needed to change much since the days of the Roman conquest. Admittedly, we now have LED disco laser lights, tiny cocktail umbrellas, and there’s much less focus on knifing political enemies in the back.

For the most part, the model had remained unchanged; bring people into the four walls of a venue; feed them; liquor them up and send them off into the world fatter and happier than they were before. You can add any affectation you like, but from a Teppanyaki grill to a roller-rink drag bar, the wallpaper might be different but the fundamentals are the same.

As well as this, operating as a takeaway and booze delivery service is mired in complex legislation surrounding off-licences and tax. The details of which I’ve chosen to leave out here simply because I don’t understand them. Also, out of genuine worry that any effort to understand the intricacies would cause my eyeballs to rupture out of boredom.

Now, thanks to the UK Government relaxing some of the same rules that I refused to learn, booze deliveries are potentially big business for bars and restaurants. Max Venning was in the middle of a logistical nightmare when I text him asking to chat about bottled drinks. Max, along with his brother Noel, owns Three Sheets in Dalston as well as Top Cuvée with business partner Brody Meah. Prompt decision-making at the very start of lockdown meant they had struck oil as far as home delivery was concerned. Over the intervening months, they have managed to build a shop front, almost entirely reliant on E-commerce, out of the embers of what could have been a catastrophe. Pleasingly, they called the venture; Shop Cuvée. The shop has gained quite the following through a lurid, Psilocybin trip social media presence. Which unsurprisingly appeals to the sensibility of fuzzy lipped natty bros with a mixture of genuinely exceptional products and impenetrable irony. Because who doesn't love a wine that you can chew? Due to recent issues at the border, a shipment of their bellwether product, Chin-Chin (a Portuguese Vinho-Verde that smacks of apple skin), was in post-Brexit import limbo. Eventually, I cornered Venning outside of Three Sheets, which had been operating as a cafe in the interim period between enforced closure of bars.

The Venning brothers wrote the book on bottled cocktails. Bottled & Batched Cocktails To Make Ahead may make for a slightly premonitory read now, but it is the first and best place to go for anyone wanting to produce their own bottled drinks.

@jakeobrienmurphy

(A somewhat self-indulgent aside; included in the acknowledgements is yours truly. While only one half of my second name is present, you can tell it’s heartfelt). ‘The main priority is making sure that the product in the bottle matches as closely as possible the experience of drinking it in the bar.’ While it might seem like a given, Venning is quick to point out that the underlying infrastructure of any bar is all pointed towards guests' experience. Once taken in isolation (pun definitely intended) the drink itself has nothing but its own inherent quality to rely on. ‘People are still drinking, that's for sure. We're just dedicated to making sure they're drinking well’. To this end, they also offer products from other leading bars. Including, for my money, the best RTDs available; I haven't found a circumstance that the Tayer + Elementary Palo Santo Gimlet can't improve.

However, what remains to be seen as the world eventually (heavy emphasis on eventually) eases out of lockdown is whether oddball vermouths, cloudy wines, RTDs and home deliveries simply served as short-term remedy to a larger problem, or if they will continue to represent a substantial portion of a business's profits going forward.

If so, it would no doubt signal a seismic shift in how we interact with hospitality on the whole. It is a little odd, I must admit, that many of the venues I love now resemble an Amazon storage depot, rather than a place that I would usually dress up and make reservations to get into. Then again, I can now sip an Earth Martini from Three Sheets in my slippers, flanked on all sides by Hawksmoor takeaway boxes - thus proving the cosmic balance of the universe will forever swing between shit and wearing slippers. This shift towards delivery has certainly helped, albeit in a small way, in mitigating the financial ruin of an entire sector of the economy. It’s a pedalo in a piss storm admittedly, but, it’s better than nothing. JOB 55

"FOR THE MOST PART, IT IS NOW COOL TO NERD OUT ABOUT COFFEE, CYCLING, BAKING, YOU NAME IT. IF YOU ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT SOMETHING, PEOPLE NOW RECOGNISE AND ADMIRE IT." THE SUBVERSION OF COOL

@m.g.bespoke

Tailored Thoughts Matthew Gonzalez

D

efining what is and isn’t cool is one of those things that can be difficult to do but easy to recognise. Coolness seems to be instinctual, a gut feeling. It’s also binary; someone normally is either cool or not.

To describe them as ‘kind of cool’ is a charitable act to avoid an insult. The word itself, as we use it in this context, is a product of the early 20th century jazz scene and over the decades, it evolved to eventually describe what it means today. At its peak, people like Andy Warhol, Steve McQueen, Frank Sinatra, Tyler Durden (Fight Club) and The Dude (The Big Lebowski) all epitomised coolness. Being cool meant that you were top of the social hierarchy, that you possessed some combination of rarefied qualities that the rest of the population didn’t have. Its existence meant that when social value was assigned to everyone the top of the curve was set by those who were cool, the rest were graded accordingly.

For most of its existence being cool was an exclusive privilege but things have begun to change. Coolness has started to become democratised. Case in point, Don Draper, arguably one of the most iconic characters of 21st century television, was introduced to audiences in the same year that Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory was. Both have had lasting global impacts on pop culture and have shaped what it means to be cool in the 21st century. In order to better understand how we got here, it's time to look at how in the 21st century almost anyone can be cool.

Broadly speaking, there are a few common threads that help create the narrative of traditional coolness. It generally must appeal to a person’s sense of aesthetic tastes or else be a desirable personality trait with an added 56

element of allure. Just because someone was nice and well presented didn’t automatically make them cool. Coolness at its core needed to be very exclusive to maintain its social value. The basic logic being that if everyone was cool then no one was. This thinking helps explain why coolness was so narrowly defined for so long; it was exclusionary by its very nature and this is what helped create strictly-defined cliques and subcultures.

One of the best pop cultural references for this phenomenon is the 80s film, The Breakfast Club. Each character hailed from their own respective social clique, a clique in which they were liked and had friends. But their assigned social value ultimately takes hierarchical precedent when the group is forced together during a Saturday detention. By using the traditional ‘cool’ metric, each character was distilled down to one particular aspect of their identity to be evaluated for their social worth and judged accordingly. Ultimately, The Breakfast Club attempted to critique the traditional lens through which we look at and evaluate others. It tried to challenge the notion that being cool was only reserved for the proverbial captain of the football team or the rich, preppy girl.

Coolness existed long before we had a specific four letter word to describe it. Before someone might be described as confident, rebellious, charismatic, independent. These terms, and others, would eventually create the archetype of cool. But this is where things have begun to change. While these adjectives still make up a part of what is considered cool, new traits have been incorporated into the identity of cool. Empathy, passion, nerdiness are all traits that can now also make someone cool.

Dan Harmon, show runner from the cult TV series Community and Rick & Morty recently said in an interview that ‘the internet revolution was in everyone realising that they are a nerd.’ His words perfectly capture how coolness has been turned on its head.

@thefermentationstationuk thefermentation-station.co.uk

For the most part, it is now cool to nerd out about coffee, cycling, baking, you name it. If you are passionate about something, people now recognise and admire it.

Individual authenticity has never been cooler. One of the biggest shortcomings of archetypal coolness was that it was quite flat. The icons of the past were largely known for one thing. It may have been their acting, singing, artistic ability or athletic prowess but that was their singular public identity.

Don Draper would have been mocked if it was revealed that he was a passionate baker because that would have undercut his otherwise homogenised façade of coolness.

By contrast, it is now celebrated when someone is geeky about something. Ted Talk speakers from all walks of life capture our attention about some of the most esoteric subjects. There are Instagram accounts with tens if not hundreds of thousands of followers dedicated to DIY repair, vegan cooking, and model rocketry. Ultimately, if you are happy with who you are then, by all measures and by any conceivable metric, that’s pretty cool. MG

The most well-known of these new brewers is Mikkeller. Founded in 2006 by high school teacher (this is important) Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, and journalist Kristian Klarup Keller, the original concept was to be gypsy brewers without ties to any specific bricks and mortar spaces.

They wanted to live a nomadic life, drifting from brewery to brewery and leaving a trail of highly-rated collaboration brews in their wake.

But at some point, we all have to grow up.

And grow up they have. Mikkeller now has four main breweries; two in Copenhagen, one in San Diego, and one in London (not to mention a string of bars across the globe). Mikkel has a twin brother, Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø who, in keeping with the long tradition of feuding brewer families (think John and Samuel Smith, Theakston’s, Black Sheep, etc.) set up his own, critically-acclaimed brewery by the name of Evil Twin in Brooklyn.

When working as a high school teacher, Mikkel taught two of his students how to brew beer outside of school hours. In 2010, they started their own microbrewery, To Ol. To Ol recently opened their own 26,000 square meter brewing city, which also houses a craft cider and kombucha producer, blending the three worlds of fermentation together, on occasion, to great effect.

This evolution of Danish brewing heritage has firmly cemented Denmark on the world stage of beer. It doesn’t appear to be slowing down, either. In fact, the future of Danish brewing looks set to grow stronger and more varied. Even Carlsberg have launched their own pilot microbrewery by the name of Semper Ardens (Latin for ‘always burning’). It’s a motto that champions constant innovation and encourages collaborations both within the brewing industry and the wider hospitality sector. Hey, maybe the giants aren’t so bad after all. SW

D IS FOR DENMARK INSIDE OUT & OUTSIDE IN

Sam Watson’s The ABCs of Beer

with Studio MUTT

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f Carlsberg did ABCs of beer, Denmark would be at the top of their list. Carlsberg, after all, have enjoyed a near monopoly on the mass beer production front since they bought out their largest competitor, Tuborg, in the 70s. However, as of 2020, Denmark has around 300 active breweries and the vast majority of these are microbreweries. So perhaps the tides have turned on the Danish giants.

Danish industrialist and owner of Carlsberg, J.C. Jacobsen, revolutionised the world of brewing by breeding a pure strain of lager yeast called Saccharomyces Carlsbergensis (now known as Saccharomyces pastorianus after Louis Pasteur). The development of this yeast allowed Jacobsen’s brewery to achieve and maintain a large and consistent output, which resulted in the total domination of the pale lager category. To this day, pale lager accounts for 95% of Denmark’s total beer sales.

This not only hurt smaller breweries, but also led to a reduction in beer styles and quality. As of the early 2000s, however, there has been a renewed interest in higher-quality beer of various styles thanks to a number of new brewers.

A

@studiomutt

t Studio MUTT we design exhibitions - hang on, architects design exhibitions too? - and you may have heard of the ‘Bags: Inside Out’ exhibition which we designed with the V&A in London earlier this year. Exhibition design is historically often overlooked or relegated to a supporting role, so why do we think it is so important, and what exactly do the designers do all day?

We believe that exhibition design is about storytelling. More than simply deciding where the objects go, exhibition design should create miniature worlds which support and enhance curatorial narratives.

It is a truly collaborative design process and designers are uniquely positioned to act as a mediator between the visiting public and the curator - having an understanding of the content and how best to display it, while also maintaining a naivety which allows us to clarify the message by asking what, why and who.

What did we do at Bags? Bags are both a private possession and a public statement. Take the red ministerial despatch boxes as an example, held aloft by chancellors as a symbol of supposed coming prosperity, and also often pictured, documents spilling out, alongside the same stressed ministers in a Virgin Pendolino first class carriage as a functional briefcase. The design of the exhibition playfully responds to this duality, creating two very different design characters over the two levels of the V&A Fashion Gallery: downstairs an intimate space lined in colourful stretched fabric walls, and upstairs an expansive space with building-like cabinets arranged as a miniature cityscape.

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Bags: Inside Out is the result of a 2-year collaborative process with curator Dr Lucia Savi, and a fabulous team of researchers, conservationists and designers at the museum. At the heart of the process was a series of large physical models through which the design was developed, tested and visualised. A doll's house-like card and paper model capturing the full exhibition was a regular companion at weekly design and curation workshops. Other aspects of the project were arrived at collectively, in particular a set of two mannequins displaying a pair of 18th Century ladies’ pockets and a 19th Century cut steel chatelaine, which are displayed on bespoke dresses designed by the team to show the objects in the best possible way. We collaborate to create the unexpected.

Exhibition design changed in the 1990s when National Lottery funding transformed museums from dusty and static entities into dynamic and visitor-focused cultural institutions. Over the past 25 years many enlightened museums have worked with a diverse selection of architects, artists and designers to tell the stories of their collections through rich and immersive exhibitions. So, what does the future hold for exhibition design? Bags: Inside Out is one of many exhibitions designed both before and after the emergence of Covid-19, and the national lockdown in the UK has put pressure on museums to create alternative ways of viewing through virtual tours, live curator Q&As, and VR experiences. Virtual walkthroughs will never replace the joy of visiting exhibitions, but we believe this additional content will play a crucial role in museums reaching new audiences, telling more stories, and singing the praises of their collections. SM

@willhalbert

WHEN JUMPING THE SHARK JUMPS THE SHARK: F9 And Another Thing from our Editor Will HALBERT

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o they go to space in this one. Which isn’t so much a spoiler as it is a dramatic inevitability. At this point in the series’ trajectory, driving a car through space is less a product of big-budget ante-upping and more a consequence of complete, narrative exhaustion - the inevitable destination of a franchise that quite literally has nowhere else to go.

But that’s entirely on us, isn’t it? For the last two decades, we’ve watched on with a sort of tormented glee as the Fast & Furious franchise freed itself from the pesky shackles of logic and reason and continuity and physics. We’ve rallied, in bouts of fist-pumping fervour, behind baby-oil sleek physiques increasingly at odds with both their own skeletal systems and our wider understanding of human locomotion.

And all the while we’ve demanded more. More fast. More furious. Until all we’re left with is a kind of accelerating stupidity. A pedal-to-the-metal preposterousness that sees the traditional cinematic underpinnings of dialogue, plot, and nuance shake and scream like a stock car’s chassis under the destructive aggression of its own unchecked speed.

All of which leaves very little room for things like irony and self-awareness - devices trusted to deliver a bad film from the murky depths of utterly unwatchable to the cult-like heights of endearingly schlocky. No sir.

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"FOR THE LAST TWO DECADES, WE’VE WATCHED ON WITH A SORT OF TORMENTED GLEE AS THE FAST & FURIOUS FRANCHISE FREED ITSELF FROM THE PESKY SHACKLES OF LOGIC AND REASON AND CONTINUITY AND PHYSICS." F9’s excess is delivered in complete and total earnestness, leaving any notion of postmodern lampoonery in the dust of its own shambolic inertia.

No matter. I bought the ticket. I took the ride. And as F9 races past $500 million at the worldwide box office, I can rest easy knowing I played my part in saving the future of cinema. But as Dom Toretto hits his memetic apogee and his increasingly bizarre crossovers begin to read like plausible sequel options, know this: we brought this lunacy on ourselves. WH

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