You need to talk to your family about swag
Bless the Thanksgiving function with big pleated trouser news, plus sick sneakers, fleece caps, wool jackets & more
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— Jonah & Erin
Happy Thanksgiving to all our Spyfriends talkin’ tofurkey …
In today’s newsletter we’ve got an array of swag-related developments for you, and — while it might get awkward, or even heated — P👏L👏E👏A👏S👏E talk to your relatives about these and other bussin’ matters over the dinner table.
We’ve got:
New French-Japanese sneakers, with the sumptuous colors & phat rubber mudguards up front
Ill small-batch fleece beanies for swaddle season
TWO new sick contrast-stitch zip jackets
Phenomenal new side-zip boots
And much more…
But first —
While writing Tuesday’s sletter about our current SALES BLOAT ERA, I was stoked to talk with the chill and thoughtful Spyfriend Dan Garrod, who runs the excellent independent Vancouver line James Coward alongside the also-mad-chill Patrick Bull and Aaron Gray.
James Coward make (and don’t mark down) fantastic clothes that are rockable by the fellas & ladies alike. Today we’ve secured a “Spyplane First Look” at a clutch of slappy imminent FW23 pieces that they and we are particularly stoked on.
First up, they pointed us to three tremendous jawns cut from beautiful midweight Japanese-milled black wool gabardine. This is a Top 5 Fabric in the Spyplane Textile Pantheon in any event, but yooo these Vancouver kings sourced theirs from an undisclosed “storied mill in the Chūbu region” that none other than tha black wool-gabardine god Yohji Yamamoto himself has used for years.
Yes — we are talking certified Y.G.G. (Yohji-Grade Gab) !!
Apparently James Coward initially cut samples using a different wool entirely, then ran into supplier issues, couldn’t secure that fabric, and thought they were f**ked!! But then they stumbled into this fabric. “Given the mill’s history, working with them meant a lot to all three of us,” the JC boyz said, “and the wool gabardine is singular: dry, airy and durable.”
There’s a clean zip-front Site jacket and a banger “Utility” top coat for going C.O.C.O. Mode, both pictured above left… and crucially, there’s a new wool-gabardine two-pleat pant called the Mercato, top above, inspired “by a vintage pair of tailor-made slacks Patrick picked up in Toronto’s Little Portugal. Our favorite detail is the refined box pleat that meets a workwear-referencing widened belt loop.”
Spy Nation please trust and believe that I (Jonah) have already placed an order for the d*mn Y.G.G. double-pleats !!
Beyond the wool-gabardine pieces, James Coward called out:
their first-ever denim jeans (silhouetted above, and modeled by Aaron and Patrick) which are “made in Okayama, Japan’s denim region. Both the black and the indigo are one-washed for a softer hand. It’s a simple, full-legged, five-pocket jean,” but it “deviates from the archetype with a double-darted rear construction, which we added in lieu of a yoke.”
Very sick new zip-boots (above bottom right) made in collaboration with the UK’s Tricker’s: “A high-polish black calf boot with an almond-shaped knuckle toe, a Dainite sole, and the thickest leather midsole we could get.” An immediate contender in my (Jonah’s) continuing Banger Boots Hunt!!
And, finally, a clutch of new pieces “in our ongoing collaboration with our good friend Keith of Henry’s.” (A button-up is teased above top left.) “This release will be more comprehensive than what we’ve done in the past, and all the fabric comes from a near-century-old family-owned mill in Shizuoka.”
Mamma mia! The wool-gabardine jacket & double-pleats drops tomorrow, 11/24, along with the denim. The Henry’s collaborative capsule is scheduled for the following Friday, 12/1. And the wool-gabardine top coat and zip boot will come the week after that. James Coward are online here, where you can find a list of their stockists too.
And since we are on-the-record contrast-stitch appreciators, you already know we are feeling the high-density-cotton black contrast-stitch FW23 Site jacket they dropped a few weeks back.
Meanwhile —
Let’s get to these fleece caps, hardbody-yet-refined sneakers, and new zip-jackets we mentioned…