The draughty neck
Zip it all the way up and you've still got an inch of neck to the wind. A quick one about design shortcuts, zips that fail in month one, and what building for lifetime wear actually looks like from the inside.
How many times can you zip before it fails?
I'm obsessing about necks. Hoodies specifically. It's still cold, summer is theoretical at best, and I've been staring at a zip that stops at the collarbone.
That's right. Zip it all the way up and you've still got an inch of neck to the wind. Design shortcut, plain and simple.
Zip’s that fail in month one
I've owned garments that are ancient. The zip still works perfectly. I've owned branded hoodies, and no-name, but branded hurts- selling you hype and tribe hoodies where the zip gave up before the first month was out.
It's easy to fake quality on the hanger. Before the third wash. Before the 50th zip. After that, you find out what you actually bought.
A zip upgrade adds cost per unit. A stitch density change adds cost per unit. These decisions get made, quietly, in favour of margin. The sale is what matters and it ends there.
I get it. Getting things made well is genuinely hard. The entire manufacturing industry is, from a structural perspective, substandard. That's not an excuse, it's the problem. It’s just how it’s done. This is changing, fast.
So, what do you do with that?
You research. Zips that don't fail exist- you’ll find them in mountain wear, for example. Who makes them, who tests them, are they compatible with the garments you're building.
And then you think about everything else. Colours that are kind to sweat. Care and repair. Spares for the parts that can't manage 25 years. A 14-year-old People Tree (RIP) sweater in my cupboard with fraying sleeves tells me organic cotton can go the distance; the rest is just decisions.
That's what building for lifetime wear actually looks like from the inside. Whether it’s zips or fasteners, plastic or metal, recyclable or not, all these designs effect the cost and profit outcomes, do I believe it is possible for Mongrel Logic to change the world in this regard? No, I’m not that naïve. But I am determined to try anyway. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go change my underpants.
What it means to be early.
Being early in a space isn't a flex. It's a fact, and a bet. Here's what it means to build sustainable streetwear before the crowd arrives.
In a space that is arguably saturated, being early is a genuinely annoying problem to have. When I started this business, a single idea exploded into a full-blown world, system and vision.
One person. Infinite space.
Sustainable streetwear is born
There are people doing elements of what I'm building here, but not all of it together. And almost no one doing what I'm developing with the designer range. More on that soon.
Creating wearable art is the first expression of Mongrel Logic. I have never fit in boxes and I'm not about to start now. This is art for people like me, who listen to metal, hip-hop, Opera, acid jazz and R&B, who grew up on surf, skate and anarchy. Colour meets psychosis. But equally important is building something that endures, not just in the wardrobe, but in the world. Systems that are better than what exists today.
Being early is not an ego statement
It's just a fact. We have a long way to go before fashion stops adding to the problem. I'm trying to do things better. Build better, last longer, endure.
Fashion should be heirlooms
Not landfill. I'm the first of a very particular kind of thing, bringing circularity to everyday wear, wearable art and mythology to streetwear, and a designer range built to last a lifetime.
That’s Mongrel Logic
For those who see it before the rest.
Baaplrvlsrsppdtedpdspot.
A month of studio work doesn’t always have a name. This is an attempt to give one to everything that happens before a launch feels real.
Founder (me) drawing the latest design, Lilith’s Corsage
I know it’s not a word, but it’s the best one I have for everything I have been doing over the past month. Brand architecture and authorship, practice-led research, visual language systems, reflective studio practice, platform dynamics, threshold and entry design, process documentation, and sustaining practice over time.
Which all sounds very fancy for a fuck-ton of work.
And it has been. But every month that goes by, I refine this little system and fine tune it and it’s really starting to look like what I had in my head. It’s been hugely frustrating at times. Some research is still going nowhere due to the nature of what I am trying to build, I am early. Being early means I need to define, not copy. And do it in a way that I can stand by proudly. When you are the first to do a few things, there is no one else to ask.
Which is equally Great! And terrifying.
Luckily, I am that busy I don’t have a lot of time to think about the terrifying and just focus on the next thing, and the thing after that. It sounds cryptic, and it’s not meant to. Inside my little brain is everything that we are about to launch next. We have three upcoming projects, one of which is the designer range.
All the designs, web development, copy writing, trademarks, legal, fulfilment, packaging, that list above, are all juggling for top spot. I can only pick one thing at a time.
Not to mention Insta, which for the first time is starting to feel like a thing. I can’t tell you how much work has gone into that, far too many 2am finishes.
A strong finish to 2025.
We got our first orders through and our first reviews, I’m living in a world of firsts now. It’s quite fun. And we’re off to a hell of a start for 2026, having ironed out my Baaplrvlsrsppdtedpdspot.
What’s coming in 2026?
This year I’m planning to launch the designer range, where this all started, with Mongrel’s first design, before any of this was a thing, our signature cap. A cap isn’t really a winter thing. I have another two big projects lined up for the next month to three that are in the wider Mongrel universe but not linked to the designer range, more on that later.
Deep breathe and plunge.
As I stand here, right on the edge of the precipice, it’s a very cool place to pause. From this vantage point I can look back and still see everything I have built, to get me where I am now. And I am about to jump off the proverbial cliff (suited up) where I will lose this perspective and gain a new one. I can see everything laid out in front of me, or the possibility of it, and the hard solid ground behind me. It’s still quite peaceful, despite the noise in my head. All of that is about to change.