Afends.

Coming from a family with a long history in workwear, I’ve always looked to traditional workwear for inspiration. One of the favourite pieces I’ve had the opportunity to design is the Culture Wave chore jacket. The jacket is constructed from recycled hemp, using the off cuts off the factory floor to create a new fabric that had a denim look.

On my return to Afends, one of the first creative projects I initiated was launching the Afends Magazine. The brand was creating amazing content with their team and photographers around the world that needed to all be combined into one to have a really powerful impact.

This project couldn’t have come together without all the content creators involved and graphic designer, Jack Stutfield who I worked with closely on the project.

I’m a big believer in creating products that serve a purpose. The Heavy Skate chino came to life after conversations with our skate team. The boys were going through pants on a monthly basis. I looked again to workwear and military uniforms and developed a heavy-weight stretch canvas fabric. They turned out to work perfectly for the skaters, the fabric was tough but had enough stretch to allow them to skate freely.

I had the honour of working with artist, Zachary Bennet-Brook on the Dreamtime Collection for Afends. A big aspect of my role is working with artists, taking their fine artworks and applying them to apparel in a manner which is respectful to the artist.

In 2010 I developed the Afends denim signature found on the back right pocket of all mens denim, the signature is an abstract depiction of the word, “Afends”.

After a hiatus of three years working with other companies, I returned to Afends with my first collection back being Winter 2017. It was a fun season to create and the highlight was this heavy-weight wool trench coat. It was unchartered waters for Afends as the price point of the jacket was high, but it was on-brand and well received.

Traditionally, check pants have always been manufactured in wool which can be scratchy and hot to wear in Australia. My goal was to create a contemporary check pant out of a heavy weight cotton twill fabric, which wouldn’t have the scratchy feel of wool but still have a traditional look and feel.

The custom check fabric created for Afends was used across the mens and womens collection, the yarn dye check was designed with a graduated feel in a heavy-weight cotton twill fabric that was perfect for a pant.

The Pennywise x Afends collaboration came to life through a longstanding relationship that the brand had with Dave Jiannis from Epitaph Records. Pennywise was one of the most influential punk bands of the 90’s that influenced the skate and surf industry we know today.

One to tick off the bucket list, I kept the design simple, going back to the original PW graphic used on their first self-titled album, printed at a large scale, reminiscent of an old mosh short.

It’s amazing what can happen when you move away from the “norm”. The Hemp 5.0 is the most innovative, natural fibre surf short on the market. The fabric is a lightweight hemp with recycled polyester blend with a drawcord that runs throughout the waistband, allowing in-between sizes to cinch in the short. The in-leg of the short has no seam so each leg panel is cut from one piece of fabric to ensure there is no seam to rub up against your legs.

This season was the first time in Afends history that the only boardshorts we offered were hemp as we finally believed we’d created a superior product to the “tech 4 way shorts” on the market.

This custom Houndstooth fabric for Afends was constructed using a rayon / cotton twill blend for beautiful drape and a really soft hand-feel. The colour and hand-feel made this one of my favourite fabrics I’ve had the opportunity to create.