🌱Renewal: why there’s so much more life in things that have been reborn 🌍
Bespoke Nike Air Waffles, an electric Ford Bronco and embroidered vintage workwear
We’re almost half way through January already and, if you’re anything like us, you’re still feeling… pretty full, actually.
Still sort of hungover from Christmas.
Now suffering a little whiplash from the return to work.
Surrounded by new stuff you’ve yet to find a permanent home for, or old stuff that’s got a bit wild and chaotic during the festive thrash-up.
This ‘fullness’ feels particularly poignant, and uncomfortable, during a week when we’re seeing people close to us suddenly lose all their stuff thanks to wild fires made worse, if not caused by, humans everywhere taking more than their fair share of the world’s stuff.
So maybe 2025 isn’t about amassing new things. It’s about discovering the joy of older things, made so much better you almost don't recognise them. About feeling that same hit from discovering something new, fresh, the very latest in design, the best and most beautiful it can be – except it’s still all those things apart from the first one.
Like we said a few weeks ago when we explored the power of tales, objects become more valuable the more lives they lead, and the more stories sewn into them. Which is the literal case with several of our link reccos this time.
From how the magical team at Loom can resew and reshape things previously stowed even in the darkest corners of your wardrobe.
To where to buy things made using or inspired by the ancient Japanese stitching skill of Sashiko and Boro (we still can’t quite get over these JunAle Sashiko Studio sneakers out of Osaka, pictured above).
To the mad skills of the startup making it even possible to dream of owning an electric Ford Bronco.
Thinking about all these utterly re-energised creations has left us feeling so hyped, refreshed and, yes, renewed – that we’ve gone and got a whole Part Two ready for you next week, about a very well-connected but different and just-as-inspiring topic.
So how’s that for a cliffhanger? We told you it’s all about the storytelling…
Tune in, team up and let's turn the tide.
Team BRiMM
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GQ blew our minds a couple of months ago with this deep-dive into the San Fran startup that’s tenderly taking out the old innards of Ford Broncos and replacing them with slick electric ones instead. The cost might be outrageous right now (*expect to take an involuntarily sharp breath when you read it*), but the fact the idea is born and out there is making our own hearts beat faster. We’re calling shotgun.
Translated as ‘Little stabs’ onto ‘rags’, Sashiko and Boro is a Japanese ‘decorative mending’ embroidery method: its reinforcing stitching leaves clothes both stronger and way more interesting. Learn how to do it yourself on denim at one of these London classes, or, for similar looks, browse off-the-chain Thai jean upcyclers Farmer Rangers or vintage denim workwear specialists, The Wolves Workshop, based in Brixton.
On 30 September 2024, the UK’s last coal-fired power station, Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire, stopped burning forever. If you didn’t know this cheery fact already, that in itself is a wonderful thing to find out on a Sunday morning. Another spirit-lifting piece of info is that one of the things it may well become next is a giant battery, to store up renewable energy for whenever it’s most needed, as is happening at another defunct plant in West Yorkshire, and at many former fossil fuel power plants around the world.
Resuscitate your favourite-but-faded or long-forgotten clothes and shoes with the help of the design squad at super-smart site, Loom. Post your piece and the team there will brainstorm how they could transform it then suggest a quote. An app is launching early this year, too – join the waitlist now to be among the first to download it.
→ TRY THIS
This Insta reel from the Bosh! boys made us hungry, so we gave the protein-rich recipe a whirl this week. It might not look like much – chopped tomatoes, harissa, hummus, pine nuts and a helluva lot of chickpeas – and does need to be scooped up with a spoon, but add a dash of hot sauce and some tiny toast to mop it all up and it’s surprisingly satisfying.
MUSIC FOR CLIMATE OPTIMISTS
We made actual DJ Andy Buchan sad by asking him to take out Fontaines DC’s ‘Favourite’ from this list of 2024’s best indie (Joe had it in his collection of the year’s most uplifting beats a few weeks back). It was his actual favourite. Help us make it up to him by spinning the playlist (and then checking out his own music, over on Soundcloud, after).
FROM THE COLLECTIVE
This week Sam got us onto Anya Hindmarch’s new Chelsea concept store, The Village Bike, a space dedicated to cycling and all its bits until 5 Feb // Chris flagged phia.com, a just-live, new-versus-second-hand product comparison site that could be a bit of a game-changer // A different Sam has a new Creative Quest kicking off on 21 Jan – it's a month where people around the world immerse their curiosity in a theme together, which then ultimately ends up shifting the way they think about the world in some way. You won't be able to say you haven't tried something different in 2025…
WHAT’S BRiMM AGAIN?
We’re building a shop, journal and collective to prove that living within limits isn’t living less – and to put the profit to work for the planet.
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