Attention to detail in garment-making is perhaps nowhere more appreciated than in the wilds of the North Island’s National Park. Opus Fresh, Ohakune’s home-grown clothing brand, describe Seabreeze as the ‘engine room’ for their popular range of sustainable adventurewear.
Opus Fresh is a brand driven by quality, sustainability, and creativity. In their Ohakune studio they design timeless outdoor gear that hides technical fabrics and workmanship within style and aesthetics. For small batch production, they lovingly hand-make their garments in house. But when it comes to larger runs, problem-solving, and crafting highly technical garments, they rely on the industry capability and knowledge of the Seabreeze team.
From the start, getting the right New Zealand-based manufacturer to support Opus Fresh was critical to their ethos. Owner, Janelle Hinch, says how the relationship with Seabreeze has grown from a handful of samples and prototypes, to Malcolm and Graeme being like mentors – and how Seabreeze pattern-maker, Galina Toumar is “great at taking my random articulation and turning it into something beautiful.”
Seabreeze craft a range of apparel for Opus, from precision sewing through to screen printing, but one particular garment demands even more attention and industry know-how to bring it to market.
The Gosling Coat
The flagship garment at the core of the Opus Fresh concept is the Gosling Coat, gender-neutral duffle coat, which has multiple types of fabric including melton wool, cashmere and milled merino, fine twill lining, and a stack of other signature features – dubbed ‘one coat to rule them all’. Driven by ‘Kaizen’, a Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement, Opus Fresh evolves the Gosling Coat each season with new improvements and additions. This sometimes leads to small technical challenges, with pockets and zips needing a keen eye to ensure they sit and move just right. Janelle describes how it could take her quite some time to figure out solutions, but that the Seabreeze team knows exactly what to do to solve the problem straight away; ensuring every iteration of the Gosling Coat never fails to impress customers.
Take a look at Opus’ own video of the Gosling Coat in action, and you’ll get a sense of the complexity behind this artisan garment.
Next time you’re in Ohakune, drop in to the Opus Fresh retail store and see how a design vision and industry capability can fit beautifully together.
"On one of our new season additions to the coat, it was just a little bit tricky to get the zipper up. Seabreeze knew exactly what to do to solve that problem straight away, it could have taken me quite some time to figure it out."
Janelle
Founder, Opus Fresh
Product specs:
Seabreeze manufacture a range of garments for Opus Fresh, as well as providing screen printing and technical problem-solving.
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