Avre Friday Briefing #83
Battledress in a box (worth keeping)
Last week Pete visited a fifth-generation box maker in London to sign off the packaging for Batch No. 4. We put a lot of thought into packaging - for all our products. We wrote about unboxing layers for Batch No. 3 back in #56, and the Battledress gets the same treatment here, with one difference. This box is designed to store the blouse, not just get it to your door.
A Battledress isn’t something most people will wear every week. And with WWII parachute silk in the collar, it needs to be kept properly between outings. So we wanted to give owners somewhere beautiful to keep it.
Left: Sizing the box around a calico toile. Right: Colour matching paper samples
It has cost us some time. We were already behind after a delay getting the fabric, and finalising the box has pushed things back again. We’ve emailed everyone affected this week. If you’re waiting on your Batch No. 4, thank you for bearing with us. We’re now aiming to ship all current orders in early November.
#FreeOurSamples
Last week we told the story of the Hawkstone collab that never happened, and asked for our samples back. The Instagram reel has now had over 80,000 views and 566 comments. Thank you to everyone who watched, shared and weighed in. The #freeoursamples mission is ongoing.
Batch No. 5 - The Avre Windak
Quiet-ish week on the Windak front. We're currently waiting for the real camo to arrive next month, then it's all systems go to create samples, get them photographed, get pre-orders into work and ramp up to the launch at the end of November.
We're also working on a Re-invented version. It'll be the exact same pattern and construction as the Original but made in a neutral colour, designed for those of you who'd prefer to not wear camo. More details soon.
On this day: 16 October 1939 - Battle of the River Forth
On this day in 1939, the Luftwaffe made its first air raid on Britain. Junkers Ju 88s crossed the North Sea to attack Royal Navy ships in the Firth of Forth, near the naval base at Rosyth.
A Junkers Ju 88 of LG1 over the Eastern Front, 25 September 1941
They were met by Spitfires of 602 (City of Glasgow) and 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadrons. These were Auxiliary Air Force units whose pilots mostly had civilian day jobs. The men who brought down the first two bombers included a solicitor, a fruit farmer and a plasterer. They were the first enemy aircraft shot down by Spitfires.
Around 16 sailors were killed in the raid, most of them aboard the destroyer HMS Mohawk.