Summer season, upcoming collabs, shop clubs, and two waffle jackets

Katy knows this all too well, as I talk about it all the time, but this is the worst time of the year. The best time of the year is the shortest day of sunlight. Not because it’s dark so early, that sucks, but because the days are only going to get brighter. It’s a character defect that I can’t seem to enjoy the long, lovely days when I know they’re drawing shorter and shorter.

None of the above is relevant to Story mfg., and I’ve probably just thoroughly wasted your time, but given we live in an increasingly AI world, I think it’s wise for me to leave breadcrumbs of how I ACTUALLY feel, so in the future when AI SAEED 3000 is created it can be appropriately programmed.

Artist Series Restock

Everyone here wants me to let you know we have a restock of the original ‘artist series’ jackets. The ones that flew out the doors. It’s a really sweet and very Story-mfg thing to happen: we find a fabric made decades earlier and left to gather dust, then recontextualise it, find its audience, and now remake it.

Classic Saeed side story incoming, but it’s a good one. My friend works for a small music label and one of their artists is a band called Panchiko. They made an album in the late 90s/early 00s to little fanfare, gave up, and went off to live normal lives. Then a few years ago someone found a CD of theirs in a charity shop, uploaded it online, and they blew up. Now they’ve reformed and are touring.

That’s basically what’s happening with this fabric. It was given up on a long time ago, but it’s being made again because you loved it so much. It’s a beautiful story, and it gives the artist who made it their flowers.

As of writing this its up as ‘Coming Soon’ on the site if you want to sign up for notifications.

SS27

HOWEVER, it’s my favourite time of the year for work. I love the summer seasons, and we just ‘showed’ another: SS27.

Story mfg-ers will know we work in seasons, but don’t really ‘work in seasons’. We kind of HAVE to call things a season to make them digestible for stores. Every season is more like a mile-marker for us, which we use to try new things. I think it’s better to keep most of that quiet until January because most of it isn’t out until then, but we put up a bunch of lovely pics on IG.

The cat’s out of the bag, so to speak, with the next two collabs: PF Flyers and ASICS.

PF Flyers

These are out next month. I feel like we willed these into existence. We were trying for years, literally, to make our own homages to PF Flyers. I can’t tell you how many factories I spoke to, and was largely ghosted by, trying to find somewhere that would make shoes with OUR fabric. We were actually days away from signing a larger-than-we-could-afford production order when we got a message saying they wanted to work with us.

I remember being a bit hard-ass on the call, saying we would only consider it if certain demands were met. For example, people ALWAYS say we can use our handwoven fabric, then wind it back later. But PF Flyers have been amazing to work with, and they’re out next month!

The quickest way to get them will be to come to our studio. We’ll post the date soon, I think it’s the Sat 8th August? We’re having a little event for them. Then what remains of the stock will go on our site and to stockists shortly after.

ASICS

ASICS are coming out in November. This isn’t always gospel, as the world sometimes has other plans, but it’s what we’re working towards. I don’t think I’ll say much more about them until closer to the time, to avoid fatigue, but they are amazing. ASICS showed them in their showroom in Paris and I’ve heard nothing but praise. You’ll love them.

Shop in Full Swing & Schedule (COME MAKE A PERFUME!)

The store is in full swing and the not-so-surprise hit is the lovely clubs and meets we’ve had. Mending club is so lovely. Lola has been baking cake for it!

A really exciting one we have coming up is a perfume-making workshop with Joseph, who worked on our perfumes. I think the form is open now if you want to book in!

New for Me

Fuck, how good is this jacket? Not much else to say. Sometimes there’s just so much beautiful stuff that I forget to take the time to go through the rails and try things on again once they’re made. I spend more time with samples. I grabbed this because I needed to check something and it was instantly taken off sale, which is naughty. We aren’t meant to do that.

Wobbly Waffle Sundaes (coming this month)

Over the years, this has become a bit of a monster hit for us: the Wobbly Waffle Sundae. Of course, it’s also the most labour-intensive item to make and is debilitatingly expensive to make. Counter to how most of fashion works, we have to PAY people when they work.



I’ve had more Qs about this jacket restock than anything ever, and judging by how many people have signed up to be notified when it’s back in stock, there are a lot of people waiting.

We ordered more than we have ever ordered of a single thing before, so I hope we meet demand. But if I’m wrong, I like to always give people notice to set aside $$$.