I’ve been watching videos about the creative process recently, and one idea really stood out to me: constraints don’t limit creativity—they encourage it.
For the sake of my ADHD brain, I’ve decided to give this project a clear framework. Gabardine will become my primary fabric, and the trench coat will be my main source of inspiration. Everything else in the archive will now be filtered through that lens.
Rather than treating jackets, skirts, culottes and other categories as separate ideas, I’ll be exploring how they can all become part of a single trench-inspired system.
Out of everything I collected, gabardine and trench coats were the references I was most excited to explore. I love the idea of turning outerwear into everyday clothing. There’s something about the strength of gabardine combined with its flexibility that continually draws me back to it. It’s a fabric that feels practical and protective, yet it can be transformed into almost anything.
I’m also fascinated by trench details being used in unexpected places. Belts, cuffs, epaulettes and storm flaps all have the potential to become design features rather than simply functional components.
This design has no centre-front fastening, but instead what appears to be a felled seam, so it becomes a raglan-style top while retaining trench details such as the epaulettes, cuffs and durable stitching.
The first design that really made me think about gabardine as something beyond outerwear was this beautiful Ferragamo trench style sweater.
It retains its utility through the front pocket while the off-shoulder storm flap references its military origins.
This Dior cropped trench jacket is another piece I’d love to reinterpret for the Recluse Collection.
Some designs, however, don’t need to resemble trench coats at all. A lot of the Recluse collection will be garments simply recreated in gabardine.
For example this halter-neck design would look incredible in the fabric. However gorgeous it is though, I might still find it a challenge deciding whether to keep it clean and minimal or introduce trench details in either a subtle or much more exaggerated way.
This Fendi leather shirt dress would also translate beautifully into gabardine. I would like to transform the separate side skirt panel into a detachable bag, although I also love it as a waist-cinching feature and charm holder.
Ideas come to me very quickly once I start looking through the references. What I find much harder is explaining how those ideas connect into a single garment.
Rather than trying to write elaborate origin stories for every design, I’m going to map the relationships between them instead, showing how one reference influences another.