Brand: WYTZE x The North Face
Editor's Notes: It's nice when a large corporation puts its coffers to good use and boosts the scope of a young creative. Fashion designer Wytze de Jong, fresh out of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute and a RÆBURN internship, got just such a boost from The North Face, and he put the co-sign to very good use.
As part of TNF's Renewed project, de Jong was given the opportunity to create a custom North Face piece using upcycled materials (the program also reunited him with mentor Christopher Raeburn). His resulting design, a transformable puffer vest, speaks to de Jong's patternmaking ingenuity.
When fully zipped up, de Jong's vest is already a sight to behold. It's got inflated seams and lines that both flow anatomically and gently warp the body. de Jong specifically took inspiration from The North Face's iconic Half Dome logo for these ribbed panels, which makes even more sense once the garments' various panels are unzipped.
When splayed out in fully detached form, de Jong's vest becomes a piece of art ready to be mounted. The Half Dome inspiration makes for a riotously cool collage of curves, complete with head-turning color-blocking.
de Jong's own niche is in experimental fashion built upon 3D-modeled shapes and shaped by technical fabrics. He doesn't have an eponymous label — yet — but if this nifty The North Face vest is any indication, he's got a bright future.
Naturally, this one-of-one garment won't ever be for sale — though if you ever decide to offload it, WYTZE, let us know! — but it could perhaps lead to greater things between WYTZE and TNF in the future.
