a look behind the scenes at our design process for drop:two
We start planning for our spring:summer drops almost a year ahead. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s signed off a year ahead, and in general, there are always delays. But it does mean we work closely to our launch dates, and with our suppliers, to design products outside of the typical fashion-selling window.
It can be a very iterative process, involving many hands behind the scenes to bring forward a collection as well as analysis of what has worked from previous seasons. SS25 drop:two is no different. For this drop, we present some new knitted pieces, jackets, overshirts, gilets and legwear.
Take a read below to see what’s dropping Thursday 27th February at 4pm GMT for a:b | members - and remember, the only way to become a member is to sign up.
In March last year, we launched a knitted football shirt that went viral. We shot on location in a pie and mash shop in East London, right next to our new studio. It began our interest in making contemporary knitted versions of archive sports attire with our signature fits and elevated materials.
For drop:two of SS25, we’re launching knitted cycling tops in two different colourways - black and pink, and ecru and estate blue. These are made in our signature wool and nylon blend reverse knitted rib fabric. These feature a quarter zip chest detail with a detailed ribbed collar and cuffs, as well as AB stylised branding.
There are a hundred no’s for every yes internally regarding product decisions. We over-sample and then only choose the pieces that we absolutely love every season. It means we have a bit of an archive of 1-of-1 samples and products, some of which we offered at our sample sale last year.
We often raid the archive and wear it around town, and from the archive comes these wool overshirts. We wore these out last summer and as everybody loved them so much we decided to pull them out of the archive and launch them as the perfect transitional piece for spring. They have a heavy 100% wool construction and detail to give them a real crafted feel.
We’re launching these overshirts in two colourways, grey and sand. These are not to be missed.
We’re always working on new ways to have our logo on pieces that amplify the design work in a subtle way. Through many iterations, we’ve created a new high-build embroidery technique that creates a really clean logo representation on our new big pocket jacket.
This jacket is satin lined with a light fill that's designed for spring. We’ve focussed on broader design strokes in our pieces for SS25 - how we can provide additional detail to hero pieces. Here, we’re debuting a new pocket detail on the front that features long-line pockets.
The big pocket jacket launches in charcoal on February 27th.
We launched a black colourway of our reversible gilet in AW24 and it sold out on launch day. The gilet features an onion reversible inside - the onion comes from the quilt pattern’s circular design, which unsurprisingly resembles the layers of an onion. Unlike traditional square or diamond quilting, onion quilting has wavy, organic shapes that can vary in size and placement, giving it the distinct look and feel we’ve achieved with this one.
The reversible gilet will launch in two additional colourways next week alongside black; khaki and ecru.
The mohair knitted hoodie was a sleeper hit last season - we have products that sell out on launch day, and others that we back more heavily into because they are less seasonal so can sell throughout the year. The knitted hoodie was one of those and sold out in both charcoal and black.
It’s also one of those products that people stop us on the street when they see it because they didn’t realise it had launched. It's hard to convey the quality construction and detail of these online, but they are arguably the best hoodie we've ever made.
Dropping on February 27th is the mohair hoodie in black/ecru and charcoal/ecru. One not to be slept on.
The monogram was a massive success for us last year when we launched it. We had a slight refocusing and repositioning of how we designed our brand detailing last year, aligning on building longer-term hero logo placements rather than launching too many and moving on too quickly.
The monogram was the first to get this treatment as we built it out as a brand sign-off - initially on some of our more premium styles before cascading down into our t-shirt and headwear categories.
We love the monogram - and you all do as well. We launched the monogram knit originally as part of our AW24 offering, and here we are launching it in a new grey colourway.
The tailored wide-leg trouser is an updated version of last year's style that sold out on drop:day. These feature a new self-fabric two-button side adjustor, and we’re launching these in black, charcoal and grey.
They're designed with a structured, oversized silhoutte and sit higher on the waist. They are made from a viscose-blend yarn, the trousers include slanted front pockets, pleated detailing, and blind-stitched hems, allowing for custom length adjustments via our complimentary tailoring programme.
drop:two of our spring:summer '25 collection launches February 27th at 4pm GMT for a:b | members.
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