How We Customised Our Badged Up Waistcoat

We love creating clothes that allow you to express your individuality. When it comes to designing our collections, we aim to make each piece even more unique than the last.

That's why customisation was such a huge influence for our spring summer menswear collection. Embellished with custom stitching, treated with stylish wash effects, and, finally, personalised with one-of-a-kind badges, our customised designs are brimming with distinctive style.

One of our most noteworthy pieces in this season's menswear range is the Badged Up Waistcoat. We had a chat with the talented designer to discover how we customised this statement leather jacket.

Our menswear collections are often influenced three of our favourite things- beats, bikes, and boards!- and our badged up waistcoat is no different.

Created off the back of one of our previous styles, the Badged Leather Jacket, we wanted to create a similar style that was suitable for the summer.

With a biker style in mind, we looked to some of the most anticipated biking events of the year for inspiration. Race the Waves is a unique vintage motering event, featuring classic vehicles and motorbikes racing along Bridlington South Beach.

We took style notes from the leather-clad bikers and motor enthusiasts and put them into the design of this unique leather waistcoat.

We started off with a plain leather waistcoat, shiny and new, but we wanted it to look as vintage as possible, "like it's got history to it." So, we gave the leather a special treatment to achieve that roughed-up retro aesthetic.

When it came to customisation, we gave the waistcoat a bit of Joe Browns history by diving into our archive and digging up all our badges from 10-15 years of collections.

We adorned the waistcoat with road-trip themed badges, to give a nod to where you might've been on your bike and the tours you might have taken. With biker styles, there's always a risk of going to aggressive, but the badges give this piece the fun, free-spirited feel we know you love.

Though we've already given this leather a Joe Browns twist, we've left room to add more. Choose some of our sew-on badges and make this style your own! 

The badged up waistcoat is a must-have for bikers and motor enthusiasts, and you can embrace the lived-in look by styling it with a Henley and finishing it off with some leather boots or brogues. Add a denim shirt to fend off that coastal breeze and you'll be all set for next years Race the Waves!

If bikes aren't really you're thing, you can still pull off this edgy style by giving it a more punk rock look. Style it with one of our guitar graphic tees and some bootcut denim jeans. Accessorise with a customisable leather belt for a festival ready outfit that'll take you through the season.

You could even take a more casual styling approach by softening the look a customised hoodie.