The cardigan that thinks it's a bomber
Early access to rare sweaters. Plus boots that hit where they should, mini-martinis in Paris & more
Welcome to Concorde, Blackbird Spyplane’s “women’s vertical” that the fellas love as well. Every edition is archived here.
Check out our monumental new list of the 50 Slappiest Shops across the Spyplane Universe.
Our brand new guide to Japan’s Best Clothesmakers is here.
Erin here. In today’s Concorde we’ve got:
Spyfriend-Exclusive Early Access to a blessed collaboration between a legendary cotton breeder; a shepherd and his flock; and one of my favorite Philadelphia clothesmakers.
Sculpted boots that hit exactly where they should, from a great designer whose shoes remain slept-on.
Clog intel, and my love for M.I.C. D.R.O.P.S. — Men In Clogs Dressed like Real-One Painters — reignited by a swagged-out artist’s newly opened retrospective.
We need to shrink our drinks; a new vintage store can’t unseat the reigning champ; and more recon from Paris.
Let’s get to it —
One of the basic tenets of this newsletter is that it’s tight when humans come together to make cool clothes. When humans work harmoniously not just with each other but with plants and animals? That’s a holy trinity.
Today we’re stoked to bless Spyfriends with early access to one such holy 3-way collaboration between Wol Hide designer Leah D’Ambrosio; color-grown-cotton breeder Sally Fox; and shepherd Francis Cestari. Together, they’ve created a new organic, dye-free yarn made of 40% FoxFibre® Coyote cotton from Fox and 60% Rambouillet wool from Cestari.
Wol Hide are a Philly line who make god-tier sweatpants, along with a bunch of cozy organic knits and wovens too dope to relegate to the “home clothes” category. And they knit this new cotton-wool yarn into some fantastic bomber-style cardigans, with rounded silhouettes, drop shoulders and undyed corozo buttons:
I’ve been wearing a sample for the last week, and haven’t wanted to put on anything else. I’m continually surprised by how warm it is for how lightweight it feels: That’s the power of Rambouillet wool, which has long, soft, springy, insulating fibers. And the brown cotton has a warm, radiant depth that doesn’t quite come through even in the beautiful photos above.
That color is thanks to Sally Fox’s FoxFibre™ — an organic dye-free cotton she’s grown and bred since the 1980s (as seen in the field, below top left). Fox is a literal Spyplane Icon, whose nursery Jonah visited last year and whose work we’ve written about in-depth here. We’ve previously featured her collaborations with other clothesmakers we admire, like Cottle, Evan Kinori and Dana Lee Brown.
Leah from Wol Hide told me she first visited Fox’s farm in 2015 and was so taken with the “puffs of warm beige, pinkish tan and cream,” that she started using FoxFibre™ for hand-loomed garments in 2016, shortly after she launched her line. She’s worked it into other pieces over the years, but this is the first time she’s been able to create her own wool-blended FoxFibre™ yarn from scratch.
The FoxFibre™-Rambouillet Box Bomber launches this week in a limited run — but Classified-Tier readers don’t need to wait. You can secure one of these beauties right now, before anyone else, using the 🔗Spylink at the bottom of today’s sletter.
Next up —
Speaking of excellent knitwear: There’s a designer who gets justified respect for sweaters, but over the past few years has been cementing her status as one of the best shoe designers out, too. Last fall she launched a new boot shape with a sculptural leather-wrapped heel that I kicked myself for not copping. When it reappeared in August, I jumped on a pair: