和平的征服 Evolution – From war to peace

Evolution – From war to peace

Evolving Fabric 1940 to 2016

This season team AK Club ( **We could add a general intro to AK Club here for newcomers to the brand**) digs deep into its roots and inspiration and focuses on one of the most important characteristics of any collection of clothing; the materials.

In the period after WW2, consumers quickly realized that the type of clothing developed for war purposes was superbly engineered, used the finest fabrics and had function at the very centre of the design process. Hence many people found these items great for their own daily use and activities. They looked great too. These values and the focus on fabric, form and function have always been at the centre of the design process at AK Club.

At AK Club we have always been fascinated with fabric and especially with the types of fabrics used in “critical use” applications as they are known in military speak. This led to our investigation to find some of the actual fabrics that were used during the war and post war period. After much effort we managed to find what is known as “dead stock” fabric and items from the immediate post war era; that’s to say the fabric/ items of that time which are still unused to this day. One example of such a find was some fantastic U.S. and European WW2 tent covers (USE IMAGE). We purchased these items in their original form and have recycled them into clothing, keeping all the wonderful features of the original item such as toggles, strings and leather eyelets as well as the original stamp printing found upon them. Another area we will reuse and recycle into clothing has been a favorite of ours for the past few years; the U.S. army kit bag. These have been a great source of design inspiration especially in terms of natural artwork that the soldiers have painted themselves on the bags (USE IMAGE) which in the past we have used in tee shirts. This season we will carefully cut, recycle, sculpt and craft these kitbags into clothing.

Finally on our visit to uncover some original dead stock fabrics we found and purchased some wonderful French canvas from the 1970’s, some Swiss military denim from the 1950’s and a rubberized quality also from a European defense force. To add to these wonderful fabrics we also uncovered some French army 1950’s leather extension belts used for various functions on the body to attach equipment and fasten clothing. We will be reusing these belts on our clothing throughout our recycling story (USE IMAGE OF BELTS)

At AK Club our research has come full circle from the finding of old fabric which at that time was highly technical and advanced in its day we have also purchased modern 2016 technical fabric from our usual sources which we will be mixing with the old to show the full evolution of fabric and complete our very special story.

Our color palette this season will be clean and sharp using military tones of olive, green and dark khaki, cream, grey with a small highlight of yellow.

Our styling and design as always will take its inspiration and start points from the military items we love mainly from the 1930’s and 1940’s WW2 era. This season we have focused on our favorite land and sea items but have modernized most of the details and brought them into the modern day avoiding direct replication and encouraging innovation.

Welcome to another blockbuster of an AK fashion show....