STORY OF THE STYLE – SHEARLING COAT
Next in our ‘Story of the Style’ series is the luxurious Reversible Shearling Coat, the ultimate addition to any winter wardrobe.We take you behind the scenes of the intricate production process, to understand the hours of work (most of which is by hand) to make this must-have style.
WHAT WAS YOUR INSPIRATION?
The Reversible Shearling Coat was inspired by a vintage World War II pilots’ liner. Taking the function of shearling inside a coat for thermal insulation, Georgia wanted to incorporate this into a style that felt lightweight and modern. Instead of making a bulkier coat and liner, a water repellent nappa coating was applied to the back of the shearling to create a single layer with a clean and reversible construction, offering two very different and luxury ways of wearing.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE?
There is an extreme amount of skilled hand work involved in crafting this piece. The whole process takes around 26 hours - the hood alone takes around 6 hours to make!
HOW MANY ARTISANS WORK ON IT AND WHO ARE THEY?
It takes at least 12 different men and women in our family run factory, Magia, in Florence to produce the Reversible Shearling Coat.The process involves a pattern maker, two hand sewers, three machinists, another two people for finishing, hand stitching buttons and steaming, as well as two shearling specialists to match and finish the shearling. As always, each Marfa Stance style has at least two rounds of quality checks at the end of the whole process.
WHAT ARE THE KEY DESIGN ELEMENTS?
The ethically sourced Italian shearling is all hand cut, hand matched and stitched together by a shearling expert. A special fur stitch is used to sew the panels together to create a flat, even appearance and seamless result which keeps the style light and gives a modern feel.There are two types of shearling in this piece, both long and short hair which also need to be matched expertly for colour across the different skins. Each skin is then hand painted with a water-resistant finish for reversibility.As this is a reversible construction, it means there is a lot of hand finishing. This ensures it is functional and durable with a clean luxury finish. This particular style has contrast border details which is an intricate and time-consuming process. The garment is fully bound, making it a more expensive process, but it is the best way to achieve a clean finish and reinforces the seams. The cuffs are luxurious merino wool and have a cut away detail to allow the rib to stretch over gloves. All of the colour matching of fabrics, buttons and bindings from dead stock fabrics is also not a standard process and takes care and time to achieve a sustainable and ethically crafted product. There is an incredible amount of detail, including the finishing and buildable elements which take a lot of time and care to make. Each loop and buttonhole are made completely by hand and is extremely time consuming to neatly construct. Our artisanal factories even mark each buttonhole by hand before also stitching on by hand.
WHAT ARE THE MODULAR ELEMENTS?
The Reversible Shearling Coat is a truly unique, buildable, and luxurious coat that you can personalise and wear in multiple different ways. Wear on the pale jade green shearling side or reverse to the water-repellent coated leather side. Customise with the styles very own removable hood or play around with a choice of MARFA STANCE buildable collars and reversible hoods to create your own unique look.