I’d already made a bunch of custom moto jackets for women. This was a perfect opportunity I thought, to work on a men’s iteration. Another driver for this experiment was the hardware. I’ve used my fair share of Riri zippers at this point but really wanted to try YKK’s high end line called Excella. Seeing as I draw a lot of inspiration from my Japanese side, it just made sense to make this transition. I also knew what lining I would use right away, I had a blue kimono in my stash that my mum brought back from my grandparents’ place.

With everything ready to go, I cut everything out just to get to the back panel, where I unfortunately ran out of leather. Panic and defeat set in as I messaged the Intern guys to see if they had anymore. No luck. As a last, desperate effort I message Ecco Leather on Instagram not expecting any sort of reply. Not only did they get back to me, they shipped me what I needed and then some!

I’m a huge proponent of looking at things from an optimistic angle, taking note of all the small wins along the way. A massive company like Ecco Leather supporting little guys like me, I see as a huge win. Thank you Anna, truly…