Italodrill Hardhooded

A clean and crisp elevated workwear fabric. A 250gsm twill woven in Italy, this is quite frankly the nicest polycotton we’ve ever experienced. Polyester of course has quite a bad rep in this day and age, while poly-cotton blends are of course associated with workwear uniforms, but it’s in these sorts of overlooked terrains that the best stuff evolves. Polyester gets a bad rep because it’s easy to do it cheaply, but on the flip side it’s common in workwear because it’s so damn durable and easy to take care of. This particular blend features a quite common ratio of 65% polyester and 35% cotton, a well honed formula retains all of polyester’s easy to care for character, while tempering the heat reflectivity and static electric charge of pure poly.

Woven in a tight twill weave, aka a drill. At 250gsm it makes for relatively lightweight pants and jackets. The Italian touch really shines in the drape department, this stuff has a soft elegant flow that hides its workwear ruggedness.

Alpha 60 is a midweight insulation characterized by its extreme breathability, an absolute essential when trying to create warmth without overheating. Designed by Polartec for US Special Forces to use in cold wet conditions, it is a knit insulation created by splicing a spacer mesh into two faces. The result is a particular combination of warmth and openness but most importantly it is a non-migrating insulation, which means it can be paired with far more open face and lining fabrics than most traditional insulations.

For the Alpha60core setup we combine Alpha 60 with a 170gsm top capped, 17.5 micron nylon-core merino lining. Merino is nature's finest performance fabric, characterized by its ability to suck up humidity creating drier microclimates around the body. It also has a wider thermal comfort range than almost any other fiber, retains its insulation capabilities when wet and resists odors exceptionally well. The nylon core of the yarn adds strength, allowing it to be used as a liner.

The combination of the nylon core merino and Alpha 60 provides an excellent dryness and mid level insulation while still allowing lots of air flow away from the body. We find this combination pairs with a wide range of face fabrics making for wide range of exceptional midlayer and light outer layer insulation pieces.

A heavyweight(ish), 460gsm, emotional armor of a sweatshirt fabric with all the performance of merino inside. The high-density cotton knit on the outside gives this fabric real structure, toughness and weight. The structure means hoods hold their shape while the garment almost floats off the body, supported by itself as much as the person inside. The density gives it a nice wind resistance (but not proofness), making for hoodies that feel halfway to proper jackets. And the weight, well, to be honest this was super-heavyweight back in the day when we first made it, but these days it’s just modestly heavy compared to some of the beastly all cotton hoodies the streetwear dudes have been cooking up. Meanwhile on the inside the loose terry loops of merino mean it’s secretly soft against the skin and has all the capabilities you’d expect from nature’s finest performance fiber. The merino sucks moisture from around the wearer creating a dry body climate. It naturally thermoregulates as well, staying comfortable in a wider temperature range than most other materials, while staying naturally odor resistant for longer wear times.

Knit in Australia using Australian merino and starting from October 1, 2024, regenerative and traceable Good Earth Cotton [https://www.goodearthcotton.com]. The first Good Earth Cottons came from Australia, but the standard is not based around provenance, it is based around using regenerative agricultural practices and advanced traceability technology. (Versions of the fabric released before October 2024 used organic cotton from India).