US Registration

In the land of the free and the home of the brave another step forward as we now have trade mark registration of Jack Flynn Brand in the United States of America. We look forward to all the possibilities of showing our brand in the US and seeing what we can do on the other side of the pond.





Inspiration

In our research for inspiration we came across these images - shot in the 60's of a family holiday (thanks great story behind it) - They have a true rawness and explorer feeling to them as well as feeling strangely modern - especially like the images of the levi's jeans, hat and sweat shirt. More info will be in our Fall/11 collection.

GOAT - Greatest of all time

It has been on our wish list for sometime - but the larger version at 3K was a bit of a stretch. Now released the smaller version at a much more tolerable price (until we can afford the big one) - GOAT - A tribute to Muhammad Ali - bought from Mendo  - www.mendo.nl

China - Fabric Fairs, Samples, Mad fish, Expo, Fashion Week & Good DJ's

Over the last few weeks we have been working hard and roaming around China to source new fabrics, meet suppliers, see prototypes, work on the collect and take in a few other sites - Expo, Mad fish lunches, Shanghai Fashion Week, Racing driver taxi's, Neon highways, good DJ's and dinners, not to mention the odd panda or two - here are a few pictures and we are more than happy to recommend a few places to go.

Swipelife

Further thanks to swipelife for the coverage - great blog from someone who shares the same passions as we do. Further coverage of some great stuff go to swipelife.com 

Continental Divide - Down Body Warmer

With the resurgence of down body warmers and Autumn sweeping into Europe we dug into our outerwear archive to see what we had and came up with this great we think 1950/60's down body warmer from Continental Divide "the Denver" (although we can not find the company). The body warmer has a tough nylon outer shell and fine soft nylon canvas lining, filler is 80% Down and 20% feather. Interesting is the care instructions when drying the vest after washing they recommend to "tumble dry with a clean tennis shoe". The snaps are copper and metal fastenings and still functioning.

This got us thinking and we then had a bit of a dig around and found some Jan Sport Ads for down jackets. We liked the context to real life people versus staged advertising and the reference to "try them at your local Jan Sport purveyor". The second advert you see printing cost are kicking in as it is the 25 cents for a catalogue.

Fashionminded blog

Thanks to Fashionminded for the support (great blog check out the link) 

more Fall/11 info coming your way 

Denimaniac

As we start to spread the brands awareness our coverage is spreading out on the internet - thanks for the support to Denimaniac 

Fall/11 images will be on their way 

For more check - http://denimaniac.com/2010/10/06/brand-new-jack-flynn-outerwear/ 

Wide Range Photo

As part of the inspiration for Fall/11 we have been looking into the right outdoor images to support the mood and theme of the collection (like the below from our inspiration boards). 

 Similar names and similar passions with have had initial contact with photographer Jack Brauer of WideRange Photo, His eye for photography of wilderness mountains is a perfect match for what we are looking (you can see his work on http://www.widerange.org)

Jack we will be in contact further !

Inside neck branding for heavy outerwear

We have re-looked at our branding and added a new neck/inside patch label to all the jackets - first preview for Fall/11

The Creamery

A good friend of our brand (now a proud wearer) is our friend Jaime who as part of his many skills has helped us with the digital side of things (a lot) but his main passion is building guitars.

From a small workshop in Manchester that looks more like a cross between a second-hand bookshop, a set from 'Delicatessen' and the kind of place "where the old man lives", he crafts one-off individual electric guitars, effects pedals & pickups by hand. Each guitar is unique; no two alike.

All pickups are hand fed & scatterwound on a Heath Robinson type contraction that does the job beautifully. All scratchplates are custom-made for each guitar, all bodies are cut, routed, sanded, finished and oiled by hand. Even give each one a loving polish with a dry lint cloth before cracking a mini-bar sized bottle of Single Malt over the hull and letting it set sail. On a dry day, you may even see Jaime drag all the tools out into the alleyway and set-up bench on the cobbles, the buzz & clang of the router harmonising with the bell of the off-licence door and smell of the chip shop that wafts, Lowry like, over these northern terrace roof.

To see Jaime's guitar go to www.at-the-creamery.co.uk and check out some of his beautiful creations down below. 

Thanks Jaime again for all the help it is very very much appreciated.

Shirting

As there seems to still be some of summer left drifting into October - we though why not add some shirting to the collection - so a lot of shirting research, a visit to a couple shirting manufacturers, a selection of checks from fabric suppliers, some mother of pearl buttons and we are away developing some shirts to complement the jackets and knits being developed.

Photographer Lotte Bruning

One of the key people on our journey in helping and supporting the development of Jack Flynn is our up and coming photographer friend Lotte. She has a creative eye and understands the balance of composure, light, posture and details in her fashion shoots from her extensive period behind and in front of the camera (as well as putting up with us).

After studying Lotte worked at a PR Agency where during this period her interest in photography took off and she is doing a further study at 'Fotovakschool at Amsterdam' direction photographic design (HBO). She is also doing an internship at photographers Daan Brand (www.daanbrand.com) and Shamila photography (www.shamilaphotography.com) and in March 2011 hopefully (we know she will) have her diploma and go on to new things.

We want to thank her for her support and we look forward to working together more on the next seasons challenges. Below is some of her recent free work and you can find lots lots more on her website (www.lottebruning.com), flickr and facebook pages. 

Summer 2011 Trade Fairs

This summer a part of the collection was shown at Modafabriek in Amsterdam by Mercedes (www.thetrain.nl) among a distinguished mix of brands.  

Lille - Market and Fabric Fair

Short visit to Lille for the first of Fall/11 European fabric fairs, bit of lunch, baguette or two, shops for the first collections of the season and then home.