There are times where power lies in immobility, in the ages where style tends to lead to spectacles. In Absent Finding, the clothes are not a broadcast in their concept; they are a response to the lifestyle. The clothes are listeners, which arrive slowly, transmitting itself into use and presence. The Draped shoulder Hoodie is an embodiment of what can occur when the design does not start with form, but rather with the experienced materiality of the body itself which wears it.
The starting point of this hoodie is familiarity. Similar to all good necessities, it provides ease of the first touch. The fabric is created out of deadstock cotton-poly fleece, a fabric that is not trendy but rather has a feel that makes it rather welcoming almost second hand. It has a softness that one desires to feel and move around, but at the same time it has structure to maintain its form as the wearer passes through space.
Familiarity is of course only the beginning. The sculptural lines of the draped shoulders are the difference that makes this piece unique. They address a design language that is listening to gesture and not solid form. The shoulders are not flat, but move in accordance with the movement of the body, bending, following, changing position at each step, at each turn. Through this, they have turned a hoodie into a covert examination of movement.
The hoodie here echoes one of the principles of design of Absent Findings the belief that clothes should not disrupt the life rhythm but rather follow it. In all too many cases, clothes are tailored to impress. This is an internal statement: it is in the manner bending of fabric with a shoulder, in the manner a pocket takes a hand without coercion and in the manner a neckline frames not limits. This deliberate daintiness is reinforced by the loose figure. It is not rigid, does not have an overt structure that delimits or defines. Rather, it is a free-flowing comfort reflecting soul of an item that embraces life in its different forms. The hoodie can be easily adjusted whether it is paired with a jacket and worn on a cold evening or it is just thrown over the shoulders during the morning. It does not insist; it only accepts.
The brand also respects material memory in a subtle manner in picking deadstock fleece. Garment is never neutral, it has remnants of its former life, and in this hoodie, that life possibility is integrated into the narrative of the garment. As time passes, and the piece becomes even softer and the creases form natural creases, it captures the moments as opposed to opposing them. These alterations are not regarded as wear, they are signs of living.
This is a humble way of doing things. The building is not aimed at outrunning the time instead it welcomes the time in. It believes that beauty may be cultivated through gentleness, that one cannot be in the presence without being loud, and that being comfortable and thinking may not be opposites. This kind of garment, such as a hoodie, does not beg to be looked at, but begs to be inhabited.
