and wander, when fashion meets nature

Fashion and nature are two worlds that are difficult to unite, often perceived as poles apart. But there are those who have decided to try, like the two Japanese designers Keita Ikeuchi and Mihoko Mori .

Their brand, And Wander, winner of the Tokyo Fashion Award in 2016, chose and won this challenge, demonstrating that seemingly distant fields can actually coexist naturally if you study them in depth and pay attention to detail.

A girl wears an And Wander cape in the mountains Ⓒ And Wander

And Wander was born in 2011 from a strong yet simple passion of the two founders: the mountains. The two, already colleagues at Issei Miyake, a prestigious and original Japanese fashion brand, realized a structural difficulty in finding hiking clothing that was not limited to standard colors and that harmonized with the context in which it was worn. The natural one, in fact.

Hence, the idea of ​​creating garments strongly connected to the natural sphere , making the mountains a context in which fashion can enter, offering sophisticated and trendy items for consumers, while remaining practical and functional for excursions .

Mount Fuji Ⓒ Akira Deng via Unsplash

Understanding firsthand the pleasure of hiking and the importance of moving easily in an environment as fascinating as it is difficult like the mountains, Keita and Mihoko spent a lot of time studying the materials to ensure they were durable and light, resistant to water and wind, with unique, harmonious colors and spectacular attention to detail .

The first garments therefore arrived after countless tests - also conducted in the field , both in Japan and abroad - until arriving at quality final products, through precise cutting techniques and practical design details: small "fashionable gems", which however, they guaranteed total comfort.

For And Wander, even now, every collection is a test , a challenge to always push a little further, playing with fashion, always creating something that is at the same time slightly "out of place" but never out of place among the limits of the mountain and the context of nature .

Two items from the Autumn/Winter 2021 collection Ⓒ And Wander

Fun and pleasure to play. These, therefore, have been the driving forces behind the brand since day one. And not just in clothes: the brand is committed to actual participation in many users' hiking clubs, up to the creation of its own Hiking Club with which to organize excursions, camping events and, above all, workshops, also with the aim of bringing people closer to nature and the importance of its conservation , creating awareness on sustainability issues.

The word "wander", wandering, wants to convey precisely this concept: knowing nature and incorporating the pleasure that it can offer into one's life, just for the fun of it, without necessarily having to be a high-level hiker. A brand within everyone's reach.

And there's more. Thanks to its growth and its "inclusive" approach, And Wander is one of the brands responsible for creating the so-called "gorpcore", a movement that sees utilitarian clothing enter everyday fashion , to the point of becoming a must have in the urban context.

The style, which includes down jackets, rain jackets, windproof jackets and technical clothing , describes an approach to clothing but also a style of thought, a desire to stand out that has even reached the catwalks of the fashion capitals.
Starting from respect for nature and its consumers, And Wander has therefore managed to unite two worlds , intersecting them, bringing a bit of one into the other and clearing the idea that fashion is only that of big fashion shows, but also a movement capable of starting "from the bottom" .

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