By: Gracia Ventus [ Instagram | Blog ]
Four years ago, the ROSEN-X Aeon Jacket was offered for sale as part of the line’s second collection. Since its release, it has remained consistently popular with customers and been one of the brand’s overall top sellers. The Aeon is a design that over time has come to represent a core aesthetic of ROSEN-X as a futuristic and dramatic, yet practical, piece that has evolved over time alongside the customers who have worn it. For that reason I wanted to provide a bit of background insight to this design that has become so strongly associated with ROSEN-X as a brand.
Ideation
Before any kind of design work at all is done, a potential product has its beginnings as a tenuous idea, or vision, that floats around in my mind. Some of these figments last only a few moments, and some press on me with growing urgency over time until finally I am compelled to act on them. The Aeon Jacket started as a lightly recurring image of a vintage 80’s ski jacket, one with a batwing silhouette that emphasised a slim waist and large shoulders. I have always associated this profile with power and strength. That intangible idea remained drifting between my subconscious and conscious mind for some time but had not manifested as anything concrete as a product or design.
Concept
After the overnight success of the first ROSEN-X collection (an honestly surprising success to me as I had up until then been very immersed in ROSEN’s avantgarde, luxurious-material collections), I realised that there was a genuine demand for this kind of futurist, technical fabric sportswear.
Taking a harder look at what garments I had put out for that first release, as a collection I felt there was a gap when it came to outerwear. I had no short jackets in the first launch at all; and the outerwear and tops I did have lacked the structure that many technical jackets are associated with. Ever the contrarian, I wanted things to be uniquely mine and I was not interested in releasing an A-line shell jacket, which seemed ubiquitous if not rather “played out” for the technical fashion genre. Almost right away, the 80’s power-silhouette ski jacket came to mind.
I pencilled in the concept:
- a cropped jacket with a strong silhouette, one that would work with the first collection’s Europa biker cargo pants, which were one of that release’s popular items.
Inspiration
I imagine that each designer has their own method of finding inspiration and starting the design process to move a concept into a physical product. I have always found a lot of visual stimulus in movies, particularly older films with their dramatic costumes and strong character archetypes. While the first ROSEN-X collection was me trying to translate a very Eastern luxury, oversized aesthetic into a sportswear equivalent, for the second collection I wanted to channel a cyberpunk visual aesthetic into performance-conscious military-derived clothing. I imagined a more robust and practical alternative to futurism-inspired fashion garments; something with all the drama and romance that good fashion should have, but with the wearability, comfort and utility of sportswear.
The original Ghost in the Shell (1995) anime, Akira (1988), Liquid Televisions’ Aeon Flux (1991), and Blade Runner (1982) were all re-watched paying special attention to the 3C’s: costumes, colours, and context. As has always been the case with me, I gravitate towards aviation and space-derived aesthetics in particular and these fused with the cyberpunk inspiration that I was considering for the collection. This encapsulated my thematic visual inspirations for ROSEN-X’s second collection.
The Materials
In my case, the actual design process almost always begins with the materials; and the Aeon Jacket was no different. Even with the ideas for various pieces kicking around in my mind and an aesthetic general impetus for the collection, the specific individual designs will not manifest until I’ve interacted with and selected a number of materials.
I travelled from Shanghai to Guangzhou, China’s textile hub, where I like browsing through, seeing and touching, thousands and thousands of materials over the course of the trip. I ventured into the fabric malls during the day and explored the city at night. The juxtaposition of vibrant slums and modern large scale multi-million dollar developments covered in overgrown foliage provided the perfect backdrop for curating materials for a cyberpunk-themed collection. I very much was impacted by the city itself during the fabric-seeking expedition.
With different products in mind, including jackets and coats, one fabric stood out to me. It was a beautiful wine red cotton face fabric that took on different hues depending on the light. I was drawn to that colour for the Akira reference; while not a primary red like Kaneda’s biker jacket, it presented as a futuristic kind of red that stood out from others in the stall. It was also available in black, amongst other colours, which frankly was important because the majority of ROSEN and ROSEN-X sales up to that point were made in all-black iterations of the designs.
This material I had found also had structure, something I wanted to try as ROSEN-X’s first collection was very “drapey”. The rigidity came from a membrane and poly tricot inner, with a 3-Layer design that was effectively waterproof. I always did like something unique for my clothing designs, and a membrane fabric with a cotton face fabric that was quieter than typical nylon-faced membranes such as GORE-TEX 3-Layer. Another benefit was that this cotton membrane would develop an attractive patina over time, something that most technical fabrics lack.
I cut enough of the fabric to make a sample and got the maker’s card, along with dozens of other materials – some of which ended up in the final collection.
The Design
Back in Shanghai, it was time to start sampling the first draft of the collection. The initial design started as a modern military field jacket, and then I changed its silhouette significantly with a tapering waist, large shoulders and enormous arms. Pockets were added. Many, many pockets. The zippers on the main body were reversed to go from up to down so that the zippered openings could remain very large but could be worn with the zipper lowered. The collar was increased in height because I like the drama and to match movie inspirations. Large cuff straps were used to create adjustable taper with 80’s inspired hook and loop closure for black strips of contrast.
Half-lined with bound seams, I was especially proud of how intricate and complex the interior of the jacket looked. I used complementary colours to suit the outer shell’s colour and contrast with the grey tricot inner. Chunky YKK Vislon zippers, graphic in appearance, robust and made to last with a satisfying pull action were proliferated throughout the design.
Sometimes a design needs sampled in several materials, has to undergo multiple changes in fit, adjustments in details and so on until its final form is reached. The Aeon Jacket was an outlier in that my first prototype sample came out so good that it essentially was unchanged from the final that was shot in the editorial and sold.
The Use Case
The Aeon Jacket was an immediate success with the release of ROSEN-X’s second collection and people from all over the world ordered and received their custom-made jackets. One aspect that I’ve always found interesting in making such highly specialised garments for a diverse range of customers is how the styling and use case of a design can end up so varied from what I originally imagined.
While there’s a lot of me in the design, and other influences, the fact that these pieces are all made-to-order not just with custom sizing and colours but often detail tweaks here and there has put a bit of each customer into the Aeon Jacket over time too. I mean that not just literally in the customisation of each specific garment, but also in the development of the design’s aesthetic as its known to audiences over time. Here was my 80’s power-shoulder ski jacket design re-imagined as a futuristic Akira-style biker jacket, designed to be worn with slim if not high waisted biker cargos like the Europa pants. From ideation to a complete product, I had released it. But that was not the end of the Aeon Jacket’s development.
It’s not possible for me to wear all the designs I make to the extent that customers will wear them given I am almost always in the process of designing and testing new items that may or may not be products in future collections. Over time, especially for longstanding designs like the Aeon, the customers will begin to appreciate and find new ways to wear and style the clothes than I had intended or imagined.
Some enjoyed the Aeon as a modern interpretation of the classic denim trucker jacket. With its cotton face fabric that took on patina, it would fade and wear over time in ways unique to the wearer. Being so light as a non-insulated membrane, it could be stowed in a bag, left in the back seat of a car and taken with someone as a light jacket for those just-in-case times.
Another interesting application was as a lightweight bomber jacket. The Aeon’s cropped fit, tapered hem and large arms also give a bomber-like silhouette. MA-1 and similar bombers rely on often heavy insulation to create their bulk and silhouettes, which necessitates that they are worn in cold weather. As the Aeon is made in a fairly rigid cotton membrane, it can sustain large arms without the need for insulation. This has meant that the Aeon Jacket can provide a bomber look that is also wearable in warmer months.
The ROSEN-X AEON in 2023
Roughly four years after its release, the Aeon design has continued to sell well. While other earlier designs had been retired over time, the Aeon and its strong silhouette and unique material remained as something I felt happy representing the brand. There were a few aspects I did want to address though to necessitate a re-release. The first was the product photography. I’m always trying to improve and do things better and the product photos for the original Aeon looked weak compared to the studio shot images that were used for newer items. I needed a new jacket to shoot this and decided to include an Aeon Jacket in the recent Europa Maria collection.
While I was very impressed with the material and silhouette, aspects of the pattern were tweaked to improve range of motion and make for a more ergonomic design without changing the jacket visually. The interior pockets were also revamped to something more refined simply because I had learned new techniques and methods that I didn’t have access to originally. Finally, the hook and loop cuff straps, while functional were a very dated design, and as I had taken the time to revise new cuff straps for various ROSEN-X jackets, including the new Ares and Artemis hooded shells that use the same material as the Aeon Jacket, I thought it would be good to have consistency across the designs and modernise that cuff strap on the Aeon as well.
The result is a new Aeon Jacket that very much embodies all the qualities that made the original so popular, just with subtle refinements and a new presentation on the store to bring it up to date with the rest of the brand’s garments.
Closing
The Aeon Jacket design and success were equal parts luck and the result of my method of inspiration and design with a keen focus on genre media and unique textiles. If cyberpunk existed as a relatively short genre fad in the 1980’s we are surely living in some remnant of that aesthetic today in 2023 – and I can think of no better garment that I’ve designed to date that represents that than the Aeon Jacket.