18 East Celebrates Its Vermont Roots With the “Homegrown” Project
The ongoing initiative will see 18 East collaborate with brands from founder Antonio Ciongoli’s home state of Vermont.
18 East may be a downtown New York staple — proudly housed on Elizabeth Street in Chinatown — but the brand’s roots come from Vermont, where founder Antonio Ciongoli grew up. Vermont’s unique outdoor culture has always served as one of 18 East’s brand pillars (second to only skateboarding), but now 18 East is providing its most direct salute to the Green Mountain State yet with a new “Homegrown” project.
An ongoing collaborative effort that’ll see 18 East work with a bevy of family-owned Vermont brands, “Homegrown” has kicked off with five partners for its first wave: Johnson Woolen Mills, Thuja, Muriel’s, Moriarty and Darn Tough, all of which were spotlighted in the above assemblages created by Vermont artist Formbark.
The Johnson Woolen Mills offering is a full-on capsule, consisting of two overshirts, a lined vest and pants, each crafted of deadstock vintage fabric — some of which features patterns based on vintage patterns developed by JWM for nanamica and NEPENTHES. Ciongoli notes that JWM was the first collaborative partner he reached out to when conceptualizing the initiative, and that there was a startling small-world moment. “Shortly after my inital cold email, I received a call from an unknown number with a Vermont area code,” he says. “‘Kenny?’ How does this person know I used to go by my middle name? ‘It’s Gene Richards.’ Mr. Richards lived across the street from me growing up and was the father of my childhood skate homie Eugene. ‘Got your email. We bought Johnson a month ago and we are wide open. Come home and let’s get to work.’”
In collaboration with Thuja, a small-batch gear company from Hinesburg, Vermont, 18 East has created a custom take on the former’s Burrow hooded pullover, cut from a heavy blend of 304g speckled cotton and wool boucle fleece. Muriel’s, a knitwear company based in rural Grand Isle, worked with 18 East on a fisherman’s pullover sweater built from undyed brown wool that was harvested from Vermont sheep and knit on Muriel’s in-house Japanese knitting machine. Stowe, Vermont-based Moriarty Hat Company created two beanies made from New England wool and lined with polar fleece, and Cabot, Vermont sock manufacturer Darn Tough created three different colors of merino wool socks.
The first drops from 18 East’s “Homegrown” initiative are available at the brand’s above-mentioned flagship store now, and will drop on the 18 East webstore March 7. More info on each collaborative partner is available via the 18 East Instagram as well.
