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We’ve made a small collection of yacht-friendly garb with the great Danes at Norse Projects. It all goes on sale online and in our Manchester and Soho shops from 10:00 on Thursday the 18th of October, but for those who crave words to read and photos to look at — here’s some chat courtesy of Oi Polloi main-man Nigel, and some cracking snaps courtesy of Scottish camera-master Richard Gaston…
“It’s an homage to the stuff worn by the Paninaro and the acid casuals in the late 80s. Back then you’d wear a rugby shirt, some Timberlands, some jeans and a white sailing coat – so I wanted to put together a little collection of things that went together nicely then, and still go together now.
When I was at college in Liverpool, we went down to London for the day, and I remember seeing these sailing jackets – I’d never seen anything like them before. I’d seen Best Company and I’d seen Ralph, and I knew about Berghaus and Sprayway – but these sailing jackets were something new.
They were similar to Berghaus in the way they were deluxe, waterproof jackets… but they were white! It was obnoxious – it was like a white RS1800 or a white Porsche.
In the late 80s I had a market stall in Affleck’s – but all I had was a big pile of cords, these weird lacrosse jackets and a some vintage trainers in weird sizes. I’d basically just about manage to pay my rent and get by each month, but then I managed to get these sailing jackets, and I was set – people started stuff buying off me and I could start stocking the other bits I wanted to sell.
And that’s why the white sailing jacket means so much to me. The design of ours went to-ing and fro-ing between us and Norse for quite a while. It was like chipping away at a bit of marble until it was just right. Norse have done what they do so well - making it all good quality and really crisp. They’ve done us proud.”
The Norse Projects Oi Polloi gear goes on sale at 10:00 on Thursday the 18th of October (BST). The night before, we're having a party to celebrate - find out more about that here.