We decide a jacket needs cuff adjusters.
We don't just think "Whack on the cheap stuff, they'll never notice."
WE will notice. And that bothers us. And if WE notice, YOU will notice.
We want to be proud of what we do, and in turn you to love what we make.
So in this case (it's always case by case, design by design) we chose oversized, soft burnished taped on buttons from Louropel in Portugal.
Tape on, because it's so damned hard for them to ever fall off. Because it's a nod to military kit - the ultimate test of utility design.
The look rather cool too.
(FYI, check out those stitch lines. They're twinned, not single lines, perfectly straight....)
We've never had a zip fail. Ever.
We use YKK & RiRi zips, the two best brands in the business.
We graduate towards oversize zips too, as more chunk is more strength. and they have that utility (that word again) chunk that makes a jacket more masculine.
The zips on our jackets are often more expensive than the fabric. They're intricate little buggers. Buy cheap, buy crap.
On this image you can see the loop of a Shimada Japanese rubber zip pull. We researched hundreds of pulls before loving this one.
Why? It's easy to grip in all conditions. It's subtle, without being weedy. It's exceptional quality. We've not had a broken one yet.
There's a theme here...
You know that feeling when you slam a luxury car door, and it goes THUNK, satisfyingly? That.
Not PLINK, or CLACK, nor TINK. No, we want THUNK or CLUNK.
FRAHM jackets should THUNK. That just-so feeling. Snaps are a great showcase for this.
We use Cobrax (same parent company as RiRi in Italy) snaps, of various types.
An F3 is lighter, for ease of opening.
A B:Lock is an absolute beast, you can't open by mistake. Its used by special forces and extreme sports folk, because it will only disengage if you want it to. It won't break (god knows we've tried). One B:Lock costs as much as a great YKK zip.
We don't mess about.
Taped on buttons work on some designs and not others.
They're not as 'classic' a choice as buttons, so we use both.
A Lightweight Ripstop Chore gets taped on, this Waxed Lightweight Workers gets buttons.
What we then do is stitch each one on with a rear reinforcement button, as shown.
Thus the stitching is very securely bound on both sides.
We then triple wind and seal the thread around the core, so it's even strong.
These processes are not cheap or quick.
We're not here to cut corners. We're here to make amazing things that you love to, for many many years...
Enjoy.
