The Making of the Shackleton Jeans

When I began designing the Endurance collection, I knew it couldn't be knitwear alone.

The collection is rooted in endurance, exploration and making garments that are built to last, so it felt natural to explore woven fabrics that could sit alongside the knitwear without competing with it.

That search led me to reclaimed denim.

I'd admired beautifully worn vintage Levi's for years. Every crease, fade and repair tells part of the story of the person who wore them before. It seemed fitting that garments inspired by endurance should begin with materials that had already lived a life of their own.

Working alongside Koo Style and the team at LaundRe in London, I began exploring what was possible. Those early conversations weren't about making fashion jeans; they were about finding a way for reclaimed denim and knitwear to become part of the same collection, sharing the same values of longevity and craftsmanship.

The artwork became a project in itself, and fashion emerged.

By this point I had spent months researching Ernest Shackleton, Tom Crean and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. My bibliography had grown into books, expedition journals, museum & knitwear archives, historic newspapers, maps and hundreds of photographs. Alongside those references sat pages from my own sketchbooks, observational drawings and design development.

Rather than lifting one image, I wanted to build a visual narrative. The final artwork became a collage of original drawings, archive photography, newspaper clippings and expedition imagery, layered together to reflect the research behind the collection. Every element earned its place and every revision brought it a little closer to what I had imagined.

Once the artwork was complete, I travelled to London, firstly to visit a warehouse full to the brim of vintage denim, and chose key pieces to work with the LaundRe team on refining the design for laser production.

Seeing months of research transferred onto reclaimed denim was one of those moments where everything suddenly came together. The laser gently removes indigo from the surface of the denim, revealing the imagery with incredible precision while preserving the character of the fabric beneath.

The jeans then went through washing and finishing, softening the laser work and allowing the artwork to settle naturally into the denim. I wanted them to look as though the graphics had evolved with the jeans over time, rather than appearing freshly applied.

Working with reclaimed denim wasn't simply an aesthetic choice.

The fashion industry generates around 92 million tonnes of textile waste every year, with the equivalent of a refuse truck full of textiles being sent to landfill or incinerated every second. Denim forms a significant part of that waste, despite being one of the most durable fabrics ever produced.

Reclaiming existing garments felt entirely in keeping with the values behind the Endurance collection. Rather than creating something new from new materials, these jeans celebrate what already exists, giving each pair another chapter while preserving the marks and character that make vintage denim so special.

The Shackleton Jeans are, in many ways, the woven companion to the knitwear. They bring together historical research, traditional craftsmanship, modern laser technology and reclaimed materials into one garment that tells the story of endurance from start to finish.