This game-changing bucket hat got our attention...

And led us to Man-tle, two Comme des Garcons alums' fantastic under-the-radar brand

Bucket hats: can you ever have too many? Here at Blackbird Spyplane we’ve been known to do profound contemplation among luminous mountain mosses while rocking a cherished Kavu joint, pictured below — but we stay on high alert for additional vibey specimens….

Case in point: Australian brand Man-tle, who first caught our eye with a piece they call the “Cap-2” …

Man-tle’s fantastic C2 bucket hat

What we have here is a 6-panel bucket consisting of 3 elements that recur throughout Man-tle’s entire line: rich color inspired by road trips the designers take through rural parts of Western Australia, where they’re based; special fabric woven at a longstanding mill in Shizuoka, Japan; and a skinny cinching strap, made out of seat-belt tape...

Field-testing my C3 in the cotton-linen “Dusk Amber” color

Did a brand capable of a bucket hat this nice have other joints? We pushed further into the Man-tleverse to find out, taking a moment to admire the classic “CAP 1,” pictured below in a very summer-2020-a** shade of lime…

The C1

They coated this cap with paraffin wax — a treatment MAN-TLE gives to a bunch of their clothes, like the navy asymmetrical-zip shirt below left, to make them sturdy enough to gorp out in the rugged Australian bush & also so they look cool as they age…

Man-tle is still a relatively slept-on operation in the U.S., but was launched 4 years ago by Larz Harry and Aida Kim, a Perth-based husband & wife duo who met in Tokyo while working various jobs for Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garcons & Dover Street Market Ginza. At Man-tle, Harry oversees pattern-making while Kim oversees production. They put out men’s & women’s lines that share an androgynous vibe.

Their enzyme-wash garments, like the camp shirt above right, have an appealing pop to them … but what sticks with us about the line is that if you are the type to occasionally suffer from “GRAPHIC T-SHIRT FATIGUE,” or periodically o.d. on wild prints, like us, it’s cool to find a brand that can get this expressive with solids.

Their materials research and sourcing is impressive, whether it’s “HIGH-DENSITY MOSS-STITCH JERSEY KNITTED FOR MAN-TLE IN GIFU,” “TRANSPARENT 100% NYLON MICRO-RIPSTOP” developed by Japanese chemicals megalith Toray, or “HEAT-TREATED COMPRESSED 100% NYLON.”

ALSO we respect that they make extremely minimalist joints but can get a touch out-there with it, too …. case in point, below right: their “JOJO” work sandals, “made in collaboration with Naito, the traditional sandal maker from Gion, Kyoto.” These are composed of sneaker foam, tire rubber, Kanazawa-grown cork (!), “parachute-grade velcro” and …

… “a blended silicon used for baby dummys” (?!)

Dunno if that’s Australian slang for something other than creepy infant mannequins but either way we can guarantee you that if we rocked these flip-flops our whole fit would go “dummy, baby.”

Man-tle stocks their clothes at a handful of North American shops, including Neighbour, Departamento and C’H’C’M’.

But the real MAN-TLE JAWN DEPOT is their vast e-shop, where among other things you can cop their weirdly dope translucent down scarf & liner, which would make a sick layering piece come winter …

Their pricing reflects the brand’s small runs, Japanese fabrication & unique materials — which is to say, it isn’t cheap. But if you toggle on their site from AUD to USD maybe it’ll feel like u entered a discount code… ??

-The MAN-TLE web shop is here
-Their main site is here
-You can find their clothes at Neighbour, Departamento, Meridian and C’H’C’M’ too.