"Warum in die Ferne schweifen, sieh das Gute liegt so nah!" - Try to say this old german proverb three times fast. Loosely translated, it means something like "but why look far when everything good is so near?" and that is just what Thomas Barnett does. The founder of Sheffield based clothing and accessory brand Mamnick gets his inspiration from trips around the peak district national park in Derbyshire, located just a few miles west from his hometown. Leaving Hope Valley, there is a road towards the Mam Tor ("Mother Hill"), that is called Mamnick. Voilà.
And if you are familiar with some of the products Thom has produced so far, you will easily recognize some of their names like "Edale", "Hassop", "Monyash" or "Wheston", all coming from roads, areas or small towns in this district. As passionate as he is about the splendor of nature on the door-step of Sheffield, Thom is about the manufacturing process of his gear. Besides that small range of products produced by the Black Label Tokio branch, the "entire inventory is made in South Yorkshire", he proudly says. Barnett founded Mamnick in 2012 after he failed to find clothes the type and quality he was looking for and then decided to design and create his own. Two japanese friends he knew from dealing with vintage UK clothing stocked his first designs in their Tokyo store and off it went.
Since then, Mamnick has not just produced beautiful clothes of highest quality but useful handy accessoires made with equal passion for style, detail and perfection such as the iconic chippie fork and bottle opener cut from finest Sheffield steel. Speaking of passion: being a dedicated cyclist, Thom has even got his own lightweight bicycle frame handmade under the Mamnick label in limited numbers. This in mind, you already know that this man definitely does things a little differently than others before you even got a peek at the newest additions to the Mamnick range. Needless to say, that you don't get any seasonal collections from this label. They are putting out new stuff when they think there is a need to. Just like that Royal Marine slogan they have put on their T-Shirts: YOMP, which means: Do things you own, in "Your Own Marching Pace"!
If you take a closer look at whats new at Mamnick, you will easily see that Thom and his team are smashing it once again with variations of earlier designs and some absolutely stunning new pieces. The "Edale"-Smock for example now comes in a grey pinstriped cotton fabric and is accompanied by another approach on the smock-silhouette with the "Pindale", based on a WW2 British Army smock made from linen that is, as you might have guessed, hand woven in the UK. The "Wheston" overshirt, made in Japan for the Mamnick Black Label, is one of my all-time-favourite items (read more about it here) and is now available through the website, too - just like the "Wetton" Jacket that covers Mamnick's first attempt to work with synthetic fibres for a garment. The result is a mix-match composition of different check patterns, coming in the shape of a work jacket with a stand up collar and a three button front. Certainly not the kind of jacket you'd wear on the first meeting with your new lady's parents - for that occasion you rather might choose the Holme Jacket instead, a take on a traditional Chesterfield style jacket but made from a warm microfibre fleece.
Every shirt or jacket comes with engraved PNS buttons made in Sheffield (quel surprise!) showing the Mamnick logo. You also get french seams on the inside, which means that all the raw cutting edges are hidden in an elegant finished seam ... or something like that. Go and ask mom. New accessoires feature the impressively simple and stylish key ring and the shackler knife that includes all the features for a sailing knife including a shackler tool and marine spike for rope work. The knife is strictly limited to ten pieces. So hurry up if you are looking for an extraordinary christmas gift. BTW: With the "Baslow" cape available in gingerbread herringbone wool and soft marbel cashmere Mamnick even has something in stock for the ladies.
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