Taking their title and ethos from Hans Christian Andersen’s cautionary fairytale, Ten c, or The Emperor’s New Clothes, is a new label brought to us by Allesandro and Paul Harvey – formerly of C.P. Company and Stone Island.
Ten c is a specialist outerwear brand whose menswear pieces are designed to live long and prosper, eschewing fleeting fashion trends to uncover the superior value in quality garments.
Introducing their Forever collection this season, the brand uses fabrics developed by Japanese specialists and Italian manufacturing to create pieces that are crafted to be forever pieces, living and aging with their wearer.
The collection is made up exclusively of outerwear pieces, each style taking its cues from menswear classics, all originally designed for extreme conditions of weather or combat.
The Anorak for example: a water-resistant, hooded jacket that was first designed by the Caribou Inuit living in the Canadian arctic. Originally made from caribou or seal skins coated in fish oil, as a pull-over jacket, this classic archetype has been around in lighter weight fabrics with a zipper front since the 1950s. Ten c recreates as the Nastrato Anorak in neutrals or brights with buttons added to the look to seal up the neck.
Or the Snow Smock, which in its original white with an off grey splinter print, was designed primarily for winter camouflage. The original smocks were very lightweight and loose-fitting, to be worn over other garments and equipment. Later they were conceived as complete jackets for troops working constantly in winter conditions. The original is transformed by Ten c into their Mastrato Snow Smock with its belted silhouette and lined hood.
The fabric is common to all the pieces. OJJ is made in Japan and is a knitted nylon/polyestere micro-fibre finished exclusively in Italy by Ten c. The Japanese jersey will with time mould itself almost imperceptibly to you, and the fabric will develop its own unique patina becoming part of your own life story. A parable in true sustainability.
