Clothes for the garden, and everything else. This is where Johnny and I started, but the space that asked more of us was figuring out how to express Plant Vision from two very different perspectives: how we lived our day-to-day, what we enjoyed out of the things we wore, and balancing that with the knowledge that we’re ultimately both detail-obsessed.
Brainstorming was easy, actually. We knew we wanted to do it with the boys over at Léon Denim: the right machines, the right mindset and approach to cutting and sewing, and everything fell into place from there. In retrospect, I always think of the process as grafting.
First was the use case:
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Pockets for gardening tools, plant samples, whatever else.
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Enough room to move, but not so much that you’d get fabric snagging on bramble or branches.
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Reinforced knees and a crotch gusset.
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Textiles that you could comfortably wear in the sun.
We focused on the trousers first: painter pants, mostly, with the leg pockets cut for secateurs. We thought about moving the pocket placements but realized the standard tool pockets on the back of the legs made more sense when kneeling and squatting. The crotch gusset was non-negotiable. We talked about the fit: a very soft taper, not too billowy, with room to spare and hems that could sit over a boot. Before I knew it, I was referencing a more rounded knee patch shape from memory, and then thinking about the rise and waistband: too high and it’d feel odd for the motions, but too low and you’d lose coverage and get the dreaded plumber’s crack. So we made the back higher. Then we rounded all the pockets for softness—organics, that kind of idea—then I wanted at least one of the front pockets to have a fold, making a dedicated inner pocket to fit most phones, and then suddenly the outseams—only the outseams—twisted forward and cut into the knee panel to remove seam pressure and change the drape. Like I said: grafting.
While the ideas for the pants kept moving, we were also talking about textile. Indigo could be nice, but Johnny liked the idea of natural or undyed colors—you could always garment-dye it yourself at another point—and it’d be good under the sun, while taking on a patina that would reflect the garden use: grass stains, mud splatters, signs of a pant well worn. We settled on two fabrics: a neppy, slightly lighter weight duck canvas, and a similarly-toned ripstop. One would be used more on the trousers and another more on the shirt—the trousers are mostly canvas, with ripstop for the pocketing and other details.
The shirt took a little longer, with a design anchored on three rectangular pockets at the back; inspired by vintage cycling jerseys. These close with pearl snaps, and then we rounded off the corners to match the trouser detailing. By this point, we’d decided it would be a popover with a slightly longer placket for easier wear, and I’d staggered the vented hem to have a longer, rounded tail—again, coverage—and kept the front pretty clear. A single chest pocket and a pen pocket on the right sleeve. We actually decided on the snaps because we wanted western shirt detailing, which shows up on the yoke. All of this, of course, in the opposite fabrication: mostly ripstop, canvas detailing.
So we had the designs pretty much set, and the details came together in a way that felt like an expression of Plant Vision’s perspective on use case and lifestyle: so now we needed a way to really drive the identity home, and properly put our stamp on it. The most obvious is the collaborative patch on the back pocket of the trousers. This is the only real, strong brand hit, in a nice and vivid green that looks great on the material. In the same vein, we put green bartacks on everything—echoing the brand palette, and doing two things I’ve always liked about bartacks: some visual interest, and proof of utility; really reinforcing a stress point.
All of this is some of what went into the full process. The production took a lot of refining and testing: Johnny recently took his first sample trousers to other parts of the world, with nothing but good things to say, and I can’t stress enough how happy I am to have been a part of this. We’re always extending our thanks to the team at Léon Denim—Iver, Jake, the boys in the workshop—because they put a lot of time and care into making this the way we all wanted it, and have landed at what I feel is the ideal midpoint of our Venn diagrams. I’m still giddy about the twisted outseams, perfectly canting into a straight line to account for hemming.
Wear them well, however you like—whether you’re gardening, hiking, or out for a coffee: they’ll take all of these things equally well, and we look forward to wearing ours for a long time to come. The fabric has some shrink in the length, and in the length only, so wear and wash as-is for a while before you decide on a length. We suggest hemming to a soft break at most, but have no qualms if you go a touch shorter.
- Julio
Leon Denim x Plant Vision is now available.
Photographed by Jason Mariano