SWEET HEART SWEET LIGHT: Spring Summer 22 Collection

Author: Mike Christensen

26 Jul 2022

Category: Lookbooks

Introducing: Sweet Heart, Sweet Light. HAULIER's debut Ready-To-Wear Collection.

For HAULIER’s SS22 collection, founder Jeremy Hershan is interested in taking down fashion’s traditional dress codes. 

“I like the idea of not caring too much about how you throw clothes together, because they all work,” he says. Much like the tote bags from the brand’s launch collection, HAULIER’s first line of clothing is rooted in utility, it’s unisex and it demonstrates the brand’s enduring goods philosophy and appreciation of traditional manufacturing techniques.

Building the HAULIER wardrobe, Hershan sees the tote bags as the centrepiece utilitarian product – elevated through the lens of luxury craftsmanship – that anyone can use, and his idea is to layer in key everyday pieces that are timeless, but do so with an equal eye for detail and an elevated approach.

“For example, a blazer looks equally as good with a mesh Motocross T-shirt as it does with a dress shirt,” says Hershan. Whether it’s a cross-pollination of sportswear or military, they’re each rooted in utility and function, which is the underlying thread of HAULIER’s SS22 collection. “I really like the results of when you fuse these influences of the wardrobe together with this transcendental feeling of travel and wandering. You might start your day on the beach, then layer on a shirt and a jacket too. And all of a sudden, it's the evening and you have this natural fusion of styles going on,” he adds.

Despite there being a carefree nature to how the wardrobe works, Hershan has approached everything through a very detailed lens, as he is a designer who is all about finding the best way to make things, with the best materials and the best craftsmanship to make a product that really lasts. Indeed, there’s a natural fibre focus to the collection, with Hershan either developing fabrications from scratch as exclusive applications to the brand or going to great lengths to source the finest denim from, say, Okayama in Japan and the blazer fabrics from Yorkshire. For the Motocross T-shirt, Hershan went through six months of development to create a 100 per cent mercerised cotton mesh because he loved old sportswear from the '70s but it’s inevitably made from manmade fibres, which from a personal and an environmental standpoint, aren’t preferable to wear.

 

The trans-seasonal collection includes sportswear-inspired pieces reminiscent of college athletes’ style on and off the track in the middle of the 20th century and there is also a modern take on a sailing twinset in plush cotton velour and washed Japanese canvas. Shirting – taking cues from military surplus and sleepwear – is crafted from fine Italian cotton poplins, silk blends in exclusive stripes and refined Japanese textures. HAULIER denim is a collage of Hershan’s favourite references and details from the ’70s and cut from Japanese selvedge denim, while tailoring provides a rich contrast and a nod to Hershan’s time spent working on Savile Row.

 

“Once you know all the rules, you have the authority to break them and I think it’s nice to be less strict in the way people interpret dress codes,” summaries Hershan. “It’s very much part of the Australian outlook and DNA to disregard style traditions and naturally just be informed by the environment, which I love.”

Available Online and Instore August 2022.