ROWING BLAZERS FOR GUCCI VAULT

We are proud to present the inaugural Rowing Blazers for Gucci Vault capsule. Inspired by a quirky, colorful take on the sporting and social clubs at Oxford and Cambridge that are central to the Rowing Blazers story and the younger years of Rowing Blazers founder and creative director Jack Carlson, the pieces range all the way from a formal evening tailcoat to gym shorts.

A motif featured throughout the collection is the dodo (an animal that has been associated with the Rowing Blazers brand since its inception and with Oxford since before its appearance in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland). Carlson explains, "The dodo is at once noble and tragic. I’ve been fascinated by them since I was very young. I imagined our dodo motif rendered in hand-embroidered bullion wire goldwork. I had a vision for the texture of the feathers -- and it has turned out brilliantly."

"For me," Carlson continues, "the hero piece of the collection is a formal tailcoat with mismatched grosgrain lapel facings in red and sky blue — along with the complementary trousers. There is a rowing club in the Netherlands where all the members wear stripey blazers. But the club president has a formal tailcoat instead, with mismatched lapel facings in the clubs colors, orange and green. I’ve wanted to make a tailcoat like this since I saw it. I’ve worked on this for some time, and the opportunity to work on a capsule for Gucci Vault provided the perfect opportunity to bring it to life."

The formalwear is complemented by dodo-motif bowties and neckties, and by a tuxedo-shirt version of Rowing Blazers’ best-selling “fun shirt” — a preppy classic pieced with red-and-white, blue-and-white, green-and-white, and yellow-and-white striped panels. The tuxedo version for Gucci Vault features a wing collar and a white tuxedo bib.

The collection also includes a "fun" version of the Rowing Blazers sherpa "jockey" fleece, made from upcycled pieces of fabric in various harlequin-pattern colorways, a tee, and gym shorts emblazoned with Rowing Blazers’ bubble-letters motif, as well as an embroidered dodo hat.

Created exclusively for Gucci Vault, this limited-edition capsule is available online at Gucci.com.