ACF Presents The COAL: Pack Essential

THE ACF

Sam Lambert and Shaka Maidoh founded the ACF in order to circulate sartorial nourishment,
oxygenating time-based projects through dynamic collaborations with di erent creatives in their network.
The ACF's network continues to both de ne and rede ne the real ACF with Lambert and Maidoh dedicated to pumping the day-to-day lifeblood through its ever expanding creative corpo partly by provoking their peers with speci c creative concepts.

The particular magnetism that binds together individual contributors to the ACF and its projects comes
directly from their shared admiration of craftsmanship's history and their dedication to its future.

THE ACF PRESENTS COAL
Coal, the ACF's latest undertaking.
The aim of the project is to examine the interplay between modern craftsmanship
and its accommodation of genuine function. The ACF have invited creatives within their network to help them explore this subject by collaborating on bespoke stylistic expressions of craft and function
as they relate to each contributor's individual design genre.

The tangible elements of the Coal program make-up a spartan but stylish quiver of sartorial staples
representing the building blocks of craft and function's natural intersection in menswear.
Together these designs tell a story of the creative man prepared for a life of terminal research and
wanderlust - a name we give both the malady and the cure when it comes to creatives seeking ever deeper
knowledge and to ignite the sparks and bolts of perenial inspiration.

The ACF's new travel staples :
These designs each endeavor to manifest the potential elegance that can be realized when a timeless balance
is negotiated between craftsmanship and function. -And this fundamental subject is one about which each
Coal participant is deeply passionate and ercely opinionated.

Eyewear created together with Lotho's Aroun Ducroix (Paris/Tokyo).
The heritage of early round-lens spectacle reading glasses transformed by the guitar-pick shape in uence
of military aviator frames to produce a hybridization of intellect and action worthy of Thelonius Monk.

Hats developed with Matteo Gioli from Super Duper Handmade Hats (Florence).
One universal hat-form given distinct stylistic and sub-cultural nuance by virtue of the shifting size and
shape of its brim across four variations.

Shirt & Tie produced with Sebastian Dollinger from Eton (Gaanghester).
A concept balancing a shirtmaker's craft with modern functionality by means of modularity.
Four separate classic collar-types attach or detach allowing a single shirt to rotate seamlessly and meet
the challenges of any sartorial challenge.

Shoes & Socks by the A.C.F. (London).
As important as the shoes are - and they are - tradition and logic both dictate that you put your socks on rst.
Knit ne in pure silk or natural cotton and detailed with rule-mark-stripes discreetly con rming where
your trouser hems should end. Our man knows the right break point between pant and shoe.

The shoes are brogues of course, the original fusion of re ned craft and rugged utility in service of sartorial travel. Built in Great Britain using a traditional goodyear construction complete with leather soles
laid over hand troweled cork-paste footbeds and stitched to the upper via a goodyear welt.
But tradition gives way to modern practicality as conventional laces are exchanged for the pull-on-and-go
convenience of a contemporary elastic gore assembly.

Scrapbook Journal crafted with Kalaf Angelo (Lisbon).
The scrapbook's power to inspire - with carefully curated drawings, photographs and fabrics embedded -
magni ed exponentially by the journal's power to harness ideas- within the limitless
potential of thick sheets of virgin white paper.

Travel Bag designed with T. Michael (Bergen).
This arsenal of creative tools needs a bespoke carrying case. A compartment for every concept but space to
add more; strips of texture, cuttings of color, totems of tonality, talismans of inspiration all picked up along the way.

To be inspired, to stay inspired, to inspire yourself, to inspire others.

  

- Written by Liam Maher 

- Picture by Bent René Synnevåg (www.notbent.com)