Lady Kensington, Canucks and Europe

By on October 15, 2012

Now well into fall I am behind on my orders.  Part of the struggle of running a small brand is that I cannot replicate myself.  I am in a constant struggle to keep up with the demands of producing really really high quality jackets with a tiny team and tiny resources.  This year I have been incredibly lucky to start relationships with some of the best stores in Europe and the U.S.A.   I am ecstatic that my jackets are desired and selling and am now facing the challenges of meeting production demands and regulatory requirements of the countries involved.  What a crazy business!  I have to become an expert very quickly at bureaucracy that I am completely unfamiliar with!  These are new designs and materials that I have put together this month.  Sadly I had to model the first Japanese Shinki horsehide Canuck myself as I made it size huge for the test jacket!


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Designing a Pattern: Handmade and Hand Grade!

By on September 20, 2012

Many times a month I am emailed or requested to create a specific design or modify a jacket to make some special edition for a customer.  As much as I would like to be able to do this I find myself explaining the impossibility of it and the complexity of the process of developing a new design or pattern.  I thought I would take the time to explain the very unique process of coming up with jacket designs here at Himel Brothers and why our products are unique compared to large corporate fashion.

It is important to understand that we design our jackets and patterns by hand using pencil and paper.  The large corporate fashion companies have softwares that can take ideas from computer to finished product and 3-D animation in less then a day.  Gerber and Optitex allow for seamless production.  I believe however to truly capture the beautiful lines of original garments and the organic nature of the human body, it is required to hand draw, alter and finish patterns.  When I design a new jacket I start with original jackets for body shapes.  I create an aged vintage mock up of the design in Photoshop to get an idea of what the finished product would look like.  From there we draw up a pattern, often using the original jackets and a tape measure to get shapes just right.  From there measurements are altered to fit a modern body size and a cotton mock up is made.  The mock up is altered, the paper is altered and this goes back and forth until we can get just the perfect fit, shape, curves, strange lines and authenticity.  This can take weeks, and when it is finished a real leather version has to be made and tested on several different people of the sample size.  If the jacket works we send the pattern for grading, if not it starts all over again.  Grading is tricky itself.  To make all the different sizes you have to determine rules to adjust the size consistently, but on occasion change those rules as the sizes get to the far ends of the size range.  Every step of the way can lead to failure, especially when grading as any mistake is repeated on every single pattern size produced.  So you can imagine I can’t just whip up a new jacket on the fly! But I believe our handmade pattern process is superior to computerized system that smooths out lines and removes the organic nature of the design.


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Summer Projects: New Clients, New Ideas.

By on September 11, 2012

This summer was very busy for HBL.  I participated in my first serious collaboration with Imogene and Willie.  Matt and Carrie were awesome and we created a gorgeous buffalo hide womans d-pocket jacket using rare and limited 1960s brass Lightning Zippers.  The jackets turned out beautifully!  I worked with Kiya and The Self Edge and came up with some very very special limited edition cafe racers and a Heron jacket with WW 2 herringbone Duck reversible camo liners.  And now I am working on new designs to be announced soon for arrival into Europe.  I made a 1930s style buffalo summer weight jacket that is light and cotton lined for summer.  My favorite new projects are working on messenger bags of buffalo and horsehide with vintage U.S. military tent componants, and my soon to be release cordovan boot collab!  It is my wish that these products hold up through the testing phase so I have been banging my bag around for a few months before I continue to make more to make sure that it works!  The Heron jackets with the blanket liners are a combination of new and old as well.  I have been tricking out the new horsehide with vintage 1930s blankets.  Can’t guarantee  holes or dyes but they sure look cool!


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Himel Brothers Vintage Leather