Alexander Leathers and Edwin Make Perfect Bedfellows

Alexander Leathers and Edwin Denim’s love child is truly amazing

There are a couple of staples hanging on my clothes rail; a pair of Edwin Nashvilles and my Alexander Leathers jacket. And man, do they go well together. Apparently, I was not the only one to think so – the guys at Edwin had the same notion. Working together with the guys from Blitz Motorcycles, Alexander Leathers and Edwin created a range of jacket representing the best of what all parties are about.

Form the Horse’s Mouth

Rey Gautier, then creative director of Edwin Europe, had come across Alexander Leathers and recognized it as a kindred spirit of Edwin. He contacted the Scottish leather maker to discuss the possibility of a collaboration project.

Curious to know more about how it all happened, we got in touch with Alexander’s managing director, Steve Toohey, who has been a good mate of Rope Dye since we first discovered the brand, to get the full tale behind the collaboration.

Open Doors, Always

It was not long before Rey and Edwin’s creative consultant Dean Webster were on a plane to Scotland, the home of Alexander Leathers. As Rope Dye have already found out, the doors are always open at their factory. When there, they dove right in to creating the line, as Steve explains:

“We spent the day sitting on the floor with leather, linings, hardware, and jackets scattered all around us, discussing the possibilities. It was a great chilled day and, as you can see, very positive and productive.”

Edwin and Blitz worked together with Steve to craft their concepts and ideas with functionality at the core to the collection. Recognizing the knowledge and skill present at Alexander Leathers, Rey was happy to give Steve free reign on a couple of the styles.

Key To the Collection’s Success

The greatest strength of the collection as a whole is the way in which the core elements of both brands are combined into one coherent collection of garments. Leather and denim have always been the perfect bedfellows, but it is unusual to see the two materials combined in such an articulate manner.

Edwin’s Granite denim and the leather elements are combined in such a way that the nature of the separate materials ages and evolves to perfectly complement one another. This was kept in mind at every stage in the design and production process.

“The materials we used were chosen with functionality in mind but also their individual characteristics and how they will look, feel and age through time and wear,” Steve argues.

One To Watch

Personally, I can’t wait to see aged examples of these jackets popping up in the future; this will certainly be something Rope Dye will be keeping an eye on.

For a full list of places where you can check out these incredible jackets in real life, head over to Edwin’s collaboration page.