You can tell a lot about an apparel brand by how vague their landscape is.
"Inspired by California." "Made for the outdoors." "Built for the modern man." The vaguer the place, the more interchangeable the clothes. STILLWEST went the other direction on purpose. Rancho Mission Viejo is a real place. San Onofre is a real place. The single-track north of Trabuco Canyon is a real place. The clothes were designed for them specifically — for the dust on the truck after a morning ride, for the salt that gets into everything when you surf at the same break for fifteen years, for the wool layer you only need from about November through February but absolutely need then.
The Field is the chapter where we write about those places. Not as backdrop. As source material. The morning fog at San Onofre and how it changes the way you suit up. Why the Trabuco trails empty out at noon and what to do with that. The dirt roads that loop south from the ranch. The diners where everyone knows the local order.
Some pieces will read like guides. Some will read like field journals. Some will be short photo essays. Some will document trips we took specifically to find something out — what does the coast look like a hundred miles from where we surf, what does the high desert do in May, what gear actually held up when we got serious about it.
The thread is that place is not decoration. Place is what the clothes are for.
More to come.