SYARD started with a coat. Specifically, the coat we kept asking after, in shop windows from Tokyo to Florence, and never quite found at a price that paid the people who made it. So we made it.
The first run was thirty Heritage Wool Coats, cut from a fourteen ounce British mill cloth that was woven slowly enough to keep the irregularities most modern looms iron out. It sold through in eleven days. We made the second run smaller, not larger.
What we make, and what we don't.
Six garments a season. Outerwear, knitwear, shirting, trousers, accessories. We don't release a seventh because a seventh would be filler. We don't restock because a small label that restocks becomes a medium label that compromises.
We name cloth and we name factories. The Heritage Wool Coat says "Loro Piana" not "premium materials." The Norfolk Cable says "Donegal lambswool" not "luxury yarn." The Oxford says "Japanese loomstate" because that is, specifically, the cloth we ordered.
On weight.
A coat carries a season. A heavy cloth holds a shape, a thin one chases the wind. The Heritage Wool Coat sits at fourteen ounces, which is roughly twice what most coats sold in cities sit at. The reason most modern coats are light is that light cloth is cheap and travels well in a container.
A coat that lasts ten winters is, finally, the cheap one.
We expect our garments to be worn for ten years. We've sold coats from the first run that came back for a relining and went out for another decade. That is the unit economics that makes sense, both for the wearer and for the planet that grew the wool.
Where we are.
The studio is in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in a warehouse that used to make brass fittings. Cutting tables, a small machine room, a steamer at the back. Four people most days, six when a release goes out. You can visit by appointment. We will probably make you a cup of coffee.