Way back in 2006, pretty much the first thing I ever heard about Nau was that there were these crazy people making a blazer out of technical fabric. I was working at a climbing magazine at the time, and people literally shook their head at the idea of using buttons to close a coat. But fast-forward, and the Riding Jacket has become an icon for Nau, and one of the most popular pieces in the Fall Line. I sat down with Creative and Design Director Peter Kallen to talk about the Riding Jacket, its inspiration, and how it’s changed for Fall 2011.

Alex: Why do you think it is that people have responded so well over the years to the Riding Jacket?
Peter: We’ve always positioned our brand as the alternative to what’s already out there. We wanted to challenge the idea that a blazer is only meant to be at a wedding, or a job; that’s really not the case. It’s just a great silhouette that can have a lot of versatility if done right. So I think that people were ready to see a less serious blazer that had a lot more versatility, and that’s why it shines so bright.

You mean people were ready for buttons.
You’re in Chamonix and the whole playground there; look at old vintage photos: everybody had a blazer on with buttons. I think the Riding Jacket is maybe a present-day version of what was available to guys mountaineering back in the 1800s. It’s taking yesterday and bringing it to today.

You talk about that historical context of people wearing blazers in the mountains, but clearly another big inspiration point is the bike. Are there features of this season’s new design that draw on that, or that lend themselves particularly well to the bike?
Well, I’m on my bike all the time. So it’s just sort of a given that my design is influenced by the bike. You know, it’s so funny, it’s almost like I overlook that portion of it because it’s so inherent—it’s like the ‘go-to’ for me—that it becomes the other references that are more considered. But you’re right: it’s really crafted to be in the drops. It has the cross-over collar, it has the extra length in the sleeves. It’s cut for that bike-prone position, and that sense of movement.

So what’s changed for Fall 2011?
Because we really pioneered this ‘technical blazer’ category—or maybe the right terminology is a ‘useful’ blazer—we’ve had a lot of opportunity to explore other blazer silhouettes, like the Vice, or the Transporter, or the Shroud of Purrin. So what we’ve brought this season is really a more simplified, more stylish approach to the classic blazer that compliments all the other blazers that we have in the collection. And it updates a new sense of style too: the pocketing, the tailoring, the collar – it has all the same spirit but a little more modern style than the previous one.

And there’s one for women.
For sure. The intent was derived from the idea that women used to climb and ride in various “blazer like” jackets back in the day, not unlike men, but it was executed differently. The cut and silohuette was more fitting to a womens physique, and did not try to mimic the men’s style other then it being a jacket of sorts. The overall intent of the piece is about how the jacket fits and is styled , and what the fabrication is that makes it so easy to care for and use in a variety of situations. It’s meant to be flattering and very useful in ones wardrobe and also meant to blur the lines of performance and fashion.

When you say that designing for the bike is integral to your process, it reminds me of a lot of the thinking that Nau puts into sustainability: it’s not like you stop and say, ‘ok, now we’re going to do something different and make a sustainable jacket.’ You do it everyday, so it just becomes part of the design process, and how you define ‘quality.’
Exactly.

So if those are the givens, what do you focus on?
I love the process of minimizing. I love less-is-more. I love taking away as much as you can without subtracting the essence and the intent. It’s a subtractive process that I go through, and I think the Riding Jacket represents that; it’s a study in subtraction. It’s the perfect weight of fabrics, it’s the perfect pockets, it’s the perfect cut, it has the perfect number of buttons.

It lands gently in the wardrobe of a person who does a lot of things on the move; if they travel, or just for getting around the city, it’s a really great versatile piece that translates into your wardrobe that way.

So it’s not a piece that adds to their wardrobe, but that integrates with their life.
Yeah! It becomes a little heady, but it’s exactly that: it’s not just real estate in their closet.

This week in The Thought Kitchen, we sit down with Jamie, our Director of Textile Development and Sustainability, to get the inside scoop on her collaborative efforts on the Eco Index, a new tool that will take the BS out of “green” and set an industry-wide standard in sustainability. For Nau, it will give us—and many other companies—a deeper understanding of our environmental impact and how we can make it better. Sounds too good to be true, but it’s already happening.

There’s lots of buzz about the Eco Index, but I’m still not sure what it is or how it works.
Jamie Bainbridge: Basically, it’s a grassroots effort that was started about three-and-a-half years ago by the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) to help create a tool that would give companies a deeper understanding of the environmental impact of their products. About 100 member companies of OIA, Nau being one of them, came together in an industry-wide collaborative effort to build an open source, business-to-business tool that would evaluate a product’s overall environmental impact.

Wow. That sounds like a lot of work.
It is. But that’s not all. Last year, the world’s largest apparel companies—like Walmart and Target and others representing up to 50% of the apparel world—formed the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and approached OIA to join efforts in building a larger, more comprehensive tool that would be scalable for both small and large companies. So, ultimately, we had to find consensus from a long list of participants.

But, keep in mind, we are creating an industry-wide tool based on shared values of sustainability and conservation, the same values that have driven the outdoor industry since the beginning. And we are creating a common language across supply chains and manufacturing so that everyone is judged by the same standards.

It’s great in theory, but how does it work?
A product will be evaluated across its product lifecycles using the lenses of land use, water, waste, greenhouse gases and energy. Of course, this is a lot to think about, especially for companies just beginning the process, so we suggest starting with one aspect of your business, like packaging and integrating these small changes into your everyday business.

Makes sense, but what’s Nau got to do with this massive undertaking? And how is it going to affect the way things are run around here?
Well, I’ve been deep in the trenches of developing the content of the tool alongside my colleagues from REI, Patagonia, Timberland, Columbia, North Face and Mountain Equipment Co-op. And, essentially, it will allow us to have a deeper level of understanding of our products so that we’re always improving, progressing and evaluating the way thing are done. It’s going to allow us to make forward progress with our goals in sustainability, goals that we had no way to quantify before.

So we’re all going to be on the same playing field? Nau, Nike, REI and Walmart?
Yep, we will all be asking the same questions.

But this is a B2B tool, so what does it mean for the consumer?
For businesses, it will allow transparency in the way products are designed and built. For consumers, it’s a building block that allows them to trust our brand. And who knows, in time, it might just become a consumer-facing label.

And when is the debut of this ground-breaking tool?
Hopefully, we will pilot the tool in September using some of our own key products to evaluate the tool and give feedback before its official launch.

So this is really happening?
Oh yeah. You better believe it.

Next month, in part two of our three-part-series, we’ll take a deeper dive into the Eco Index and find out how a few of our key styles size up when put to the test.

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This week our textile guru, Jamie Bainbridge reveals the ingredients to the ultimate  “fabric sandwich” and dives deep into the knitty gritty of dot matrix lamination. As our fabric goddess (part scientist, part artiste), she has had a hand in every style we make.  Prepare to get smart…

For Spring, we have a few new fabrics that we’re introducing, like in the Gust Wind Shirt….

Jamie Bainbridge: That’s a 2-ply woven fabric that is actually two separate fabrics that are woven together in spots. So it’s a like a two-layer sandwich of fabric that is 100% recycled polyester. It has a yarn-dyed plaid on one side and a yarn-dyed check on the other side.

What about the Wafer Pullover? It’s so incredibly lightweight.

The fabric for our men’s and women’s Wafer Pullover is a very fine gauge knit recycled poly. In fact, the machinery that produces this knit probably came around about ten years ago. It’s the finest gauge knit you can do, making a very wind-resistant and tight face to the fabric. But you can still get a lot of stretch out of it – it’s a 4-way stretch – because it’s a knit. Read More »

This month, Peter talks about his inspirations behind the new spring line, and why it’s different from seasons past. We caught up with him just before he left for Project in Vegas…

Thought Kitchen: What were some of your main inspirations for the spring line?
Peter: In the spring, it’s more about crafting a minimal wardrobe. In a lot of ways, the spring offers even more personal pieces that blur the line between technical and sportswear. This season was about taking the time to look at items from a very minimal, how-they-fit-into-the-wardrobe kind of aspect.

How is this line different from previous spring seasons?
We have some incredible new fabrics that allow this expression of “less is more.” We have a 2.5 layer fabric that we are using in the Wafer Pullover. It’s so light and modular in its sense of movement. And there’s the Palm Pullover which uses the fabric that we’ve had in the line for awhile, with the Lightbeam series. But we revisited it and out of that came this simple pullover. Overall, this new line pays more attention to fabric and considers how someone can complete their wardrobe, as opposed to just having a few little items. It’s a more complete collection.

Would you say this collection has a theme?
Yeah, the whole collection has this sense of movement, whether it be physical or global movement. I think it reflects this sensibility of Read More »

Today in The Thought Kitchen, we sit down with our Director of Design Peter Kallen to talk about the new down jackets in the Fall ‘11 line. For the complete Design Eye series, click here.

The Thought Kitchen: How do you approach designing with down?

Peter Kallen: The main inspiration for working with down has always been that it’s this airy, cloud-like material. When designing around down, you just have to allow for that kind of soft volume, which is a great attribute to have since it makes things have a bit more presence to them. That can also be a negative a times if it can make you look like a Michelin man, but we’ve always prided ourselves in sculpting and tailoring the down so you get the benefit of the insulation, you get the sensation of the cloud-like experience where it surrounds you, but you don’t get this visual cue that you look like a stay-puff marshmallow.

The Men's Rheostat Down Jacket

TTK: What do you get about down that other designers miss?

PK: Most people think that if a little down is good, then more is better. For us, it’s about the quality of down that we use, and then using only as much as a silhouette needs. Finding that fine balance is what makes a down piece not overbearing or overwhelming visually. It goes back to how we tailor things and the quality of down that we use: we can use a smaller amount because the quality of the down we use is so high.

TTK: What’s unique about Nau’s new down jackets, the Rheostat and the Fathom?

PK: In the case of the Rheostat we baffled the inside of it and left the outside completely unstitched so that it could be completely waterproof, and it didn’t make you feel like you were in a traditional down jacket. It’s like putting a three layer waterproof jacket on top of a down jacket, but in one silhouette. For women, the Fathom has this stylish, sexy silhouette, but designed so that it doesn’t take away from providing the insulation that women—who are just so much more susceptible to the cold—really need. So the Fathom represents the best of the down world, combined with this very sleek and sculpted vibe that doesn’t look like a down piece, but warms like one.

The Women's Fathom Down Jacket

TTK: What have you learned about down through designing at Nau?

PK: At Nau, we work with the highest quality down, which has this somewhat unpredictable quality: you can squish it down flat as a pancake, and it will just loft itself back into this airy volume. So the key has been to understand how that volume translates onto the human body. But once you understand that, you see that the quality of down that is used in a jacket is the key to a great silhouette. That’s what we aim for.

Today in The Thought Kitchen, we sit down with our Director of Design Peter Kallen to talk about the new Shroud of Purrin jackets and blazers. For the complete Design Eye series, click here. [http://blog.nau.com/?s=design+eye+peter]

The Thought Kitchen: Nau has a lot of unique fabrics, but the Shroud Of Purrin is particularly special. What were the design goals you had in making it?

Peter Kallen: We created this fabric to up the ante of the softshell world by merging the softshell concept with a beautiful, ‘luxxy’ interior—The Shroud of Purrin has this soft, kitten-like fur feel on the inside. So it’s ideal to take that fabric and apply it to these two new styles, which definitely blur the boundaries between urban and outdoor.

TTK: What makes this fabric appropriate for an urban, fashion forward style?

PK: The intent behind softshell is just that: a soft shell. What was rigid and hard and crunchy about a hardshell wasn’t very approachable; it was always treated as something for protection first. What this does is to soften that; it just becomes this much more refined jacket with a softer hand and a much more refined drape to it, as opposed to the crunch bend that a hardshell would have. The combination of softshell technology and distinct tailoring make these styles the perfect application of beauty and performance.

Read More »

Forget cooking shows with their charismatic chefs, studio audiences and book-deal tie ins. I wouldn’t want to eat with those people. Studio lighting is just way too bright.

William Hereford shows us that, if you’re going to make a cooking video, you might as well make the bocca as buttery as the duck breast. Delicious.

(via A Photo Editor)

[For this, the third installment of The Thought Kitchen's ongoing conversation about design, we sat down with Nau designer Peter Kallen to look deeper into the Fluent Traveler. For More of The Design Eye, check out the previous posts on the Succinct Trench and Lightbeam Jacket. —Ed]

The Thought Kitchen: So in designing Nau’s first line of bags, where did you look for inspiration?

Peter Kallen: Well, the Fluent Traveler was conceived to be the perfect long weekend getaway bag. It’s carry-on size, but we looked to those old doctors bags, the classic leather ones that have a great long zip and open up so you can get into their depths. I’m kind of a bag freak, and for whatever reason I think it’s important to have a series of bags that fit a variety of needs. This bag is perfect for the three- to four-day trip. It has ample room the main compartment, isolated pockets on each end, and a separate interior side pouch pocket that you can use to segregate stuff. As much as I don’t believe in segregation in most situations, I think it’s important in a bag to keep things organized when you travel. For the Fluent Traveler we built in those simple interior pockets, along with this great zip security pocket on the outside where you can put magazines, travel documents, snacks; the kinds of things you need to access in transit mode.

In terms of design, it’s all very integrated. We took the broad concept of a weekend bag, but stepped back from everything that was out there. We looked at some classic old luggage designs, dissected the doctors’ bag, then mixed up those ideas, sanded them down, and came out with this concept for our bag. Everything’s ‘grown-on’ to it: the handles come right off of the bag itself, kind of exoskeleton-like or frame-like; the snap-handle pads are like butterfly wings that are built into the handle. Even the zipper was considered: it’s a high quality YKK  Excella zip, so it has a really nice glide and finish to it for a metal zip.

TTK: How does the Fluent reflect the application of Nau’s design aesthetic?

PK: There have been a lot of design  considerations for this bag. You know, you think ‘it’s just a bag, and it holds so much stuff,’ but in designing the Fluent we wanted to make sure you could seamlessly interact with it.  The scale of a bag is so important—when you’re in motion, and the bag is swinging and you’re moving— the scale, shape and weight distribution all needs to work together. So the shape of the bag itself has an organic feel to it, almost like a water droplet falling off a leaf. The footprint of the bag is narrower than the waist or the girth of it, so you won’t overweight the bottom, but you can fill the volume up in the center, and then it narrows up toward the top. That allows for more of a comfortable carrying profile, too, so when you have it against your body it kind of fits naturally. If you’re carrying it by your side, it’s not so massive that it keeps knocking you off of your stride.

TTK: So what makes this bag different from all the other bags in the overhead bin?

PK: It’s different because it has a frame made from soft materials that creates a soft structure, which I like. There are seams,  and layers, and this exoskeletal detail that forms the handles, but it also adds this soft, structural element. It molds and melds with what’s inside of it. I think that this is a day and age when that style and sensibility is coming back to life.  This bag represents that. It doesn’t have so specific an intention and vibe as a rolling bag; it just feels like a soft, more approachable bag that’s more malleable in all sorts of ways: to your look, to how you’re wearing things, to what you need to carry. It can be very casual, it can be very sophisticated. It ebbs and flows to meet your attitude and intent for that moment.  It’s versatile, which ultimately creates more room for personal interpretation.

It’s spring, and, according to The Sartorialist, the accessory of the moment is…the bicycle.

(via The Sartorialist)

This berm was built from river rocks, broken concrete and pieces of wood. It is planted with a mixture of ornamentals and edibles.

It’s planting season here in the PNW and on my travels through Portland I’ve been seeing raised beds popping up like dandelions. This trend makes me very happy—the fewer lawns and more tomatoes, the better.

This curved raised bed is constructed of “urbanite” (found broken concrete) and holds asparagus, onion, lettuce, chard and sugar snap peas which are grown up an old cyclone fence gate.

Wooden raised beds are neat in appearance and function well, but the expense of a raised bed constructed of cedar or teak can be a roadblock for some people wishing to grow vegetables. But it need not be. The primary purpose of a raised bed is to increase drainage and to help heat the soil. If the aesthetic of a wooden bed isn’t necessary to your landscape design, mounding soil up about 6 inches (called an “open mound” or “unconstructed bed”) or using found materials—rocks, old broken concrete, large wooden branches etc.— to create a raised bed does the job just as well. (Treated, painted or stained wood should never be used due to the danger of chemicals like arsenic leaching into your soil). Freeing yourself of lumber also allows for more interesting and sometimes more efficient bed shapes, such as a keyhole bed.

A keyhole bed takes up less room in your yard than rectangular beds that require more space for the rows between the beds. I find keyhole beds and curved beds to be a nice fit in many gardens and their shapes flow and guide the garden visitor through your yard more naturally. People tend to plant rectangular raised beds in monoculture rows — all corn in one bed, all tomatoes in another and so on. Adding a curve to your bed and treating your vegetables as ornamentals or planting them with ornamentals is both beautiful and better for pollination and pest control since the pollinators and other beneficial insects will be drawn to you food crops because they are adjacent to a wider variety of flowers. You can find a good list of ornamental plants that benefit your vegetable garden here.

This is a keyhole style mounded bed. The branches used as a structure for the beans have been in the ground for 4 seasons and are still sound.

I have nothing against rectangular wooden raised beds. I have five of them myself and if tall enough they can make gardening more accessible for people with mobility limitations. To me, though, the blurred lines between food production and ornamental plantings are where my garden is the most interesting. After all, it’s not what you plant in that matters, it’s what you plant — and thay can be achieved in any kind of bed.