It has always been odd to us, just how far the outdoor clothing and equipment designs and fashions have separated people from the natural environments they seek to enjoy. Mountaineering tents and gear, designed and used for activities that most of us don't even come close to trying. We're all left feeling like a Neil Armstrong stepping out onto the moon from some alien craft, when all we're doing is camping out by a river streaming off a nice mountain in spring!

We can't even pronounce its name, that's how beastly this thing is. We're scared of it! Its foot stamps down, and it punches through layers of canvas like it were butter. When its on, the lights dim and flicker, and it growls. And that's just the girl in the picture! We don't even have words to describe how frightening the sewing machine is!

Waves In Jervis Bay

Road approaching Himalaya Range from Tibet - Image by CoolbeiRe

At last, we had the opportunity to test the 2 prototype jackets in snow and blizzard conditions out back of Mount Hotham Victoria. Here's a video we made on phones, from the 2 days skiing testing:

A short film: One of the Missing. By Tony Scott, 1968.

Very much with the philosophy we hope to develop, Tim Adams of Portland Oregon makes Bags for Everyone, keeping them ultra simple, easy to modify and repair, and nice looking. Thanks for the inspiration Tim. We'll be buying one from you real soon.

Our quest for ultra simple design continues. We're working on a jacket top made from a single square of cloth, two cuts and three lines of sewing. It'll go nicely with the pants that follow the remarkable design of the traditional Chinese pants.

The hunt is a pursuit of balance, while searching for the unknown. The balance that death has struck with life, the one sustaining the other.

On A Steady Diet of Hash, Bread, & Salt. From the Free Music Archive. We are loving this album, over and over again.

The Ventile Shirt is a collared, pull over shirt made from fine cotton Ventile. It breaths as cotton, but repels water and wind like a rain coat.

Zippo say they're bringing out a 4 in 1 multi tool. An axe, saw, hammer and puller. A standard axe could probably be modified to take a saw though... a good idea.

We have developed a range of products that are almost final concepts, but still need a little tweaking. We've really shaved the weight off the jacket and it allows all range of movement now. The oilskin outer and Ventile lining makes this a really tough yet comfortable foul weather jacket.

A remarkable old post from the sadly discontinued PingMag, on the fashion conciousness of Japanese construction workers. Of particular interest to us are the pants worn by Tobi workers, and the wrist protections.

A few of us own Thai Fisherman's Pants, and while we rarely, if ever, wear them out in public, we can agree they are by far the most comfortable pants we own.

Wax Converters is probably Australia's best known producer of cotton and polyester canvas. In our bid to use Australian products in Peak Oil designs, we headed out to Rutherford to meet Jim and learn more about the products and processes at WaxCon.

These past few months, we've been designing a jacket, working with Julio Valdes in Sydney to develop a pattern, and get a prototype made up, ready for on-demand making. Here's photos of prototype 001.

We'd like to pay our respects to Nigel Cabourn's work, who we discovered earlier this year when searching for current makers of old school outdoors wear.