Fancy giving up the ghost and retreating into the woods for a life of nomadic bliss? With Small Talk Studios’ new Carhartt WIP collaboration, you can have a piece of the ‘off-grid’ pie without even leaving Zone 2. Pretty good deal, right?

Inspired by the materials of the great outdoors – less leaves and tree bark, more vintage garden mags, seed packets and travelling guidebooks –  the New York-based creative studio’s DIY Spirit comes to life across fascinating storybook graphic prints, taken from the Utah Outdoor Research and Monroe Gardens archives, and ornate embroidery, imbibing Carhartt’s classic workwear staples with a few touches of vintage charm.

With unfettered access to the rare and out-of-print publications housed by these institutions, think vintage food ads and spellbinding illustrations, the Small Talk team got to work fast, breathing new life into baggy canvas totes embroidered with flying bird motifs, giving Mallard ducks new homes on baggy beige t-shirts and collaging carpenter trousers with striking prints of old soup cans, frogs, sprawling poppy’s and ethereal rooted entities. 

Working in tandem with photographer Christian Michale Filardo, the trio have created a lookbook that embraces all the great outdoors has to offer: taking refuge in the sunny creeks and fresh, green expanses in the North Woods of Central Park, and Small Talk’s backyard in Brooklyn. Their models, friends of the Small Talk family, are clad in tie-dyed beanies and thick workwear jackets as they forage bird nests, speak to faces carved into gargantuan stones, scratch their names into ancient trees and take it easy away from the rest of the world. Where the hell do we sign up?

Carhartt WIP x Small Talk is exclusively available at Browns from August 25th