Finding MA Strum in Beijing

I returned from Beijing on Monday and found that I was included in GQ Italy’s list of best fashion bloggers in 2011 and received an honorable mention at The Sig Other’s “Best of 2011” list. I’m really surprised, to say the least. Heck, I’m still surprised that I’m writing at Put This On, one of my favorite menswear blogs, and I was invited there nine months ago. Really honored by all of it.

So while I was in China, I came across this Western (I believe Italian?) outerwear company called MA Strum. It’s a collaborative project between Donrad Duncan and the Massimo Osti Archive. Duncan, a former designer for Victorinox, takes his influences from the navy and military. His designs have lots of pockets and uniquely paneled constructions, and they come in military-inspired color combinations such as white and silver grey, or brown and safety orange.

His collaborators manage the archived work of one of Italy’s best menswear designers, Massimo Osti. Osti is probably best known for his work at CP Company and Stone Island, two of the most innovative companies in the 20th century. The archive is huge. It contains over 5,000 garments and 50,000 fabric samples from 300 different textile mills and garment finishing companies around the world.

If you’re familiar with CP Company and Stone Island, you can probably guess what kind of things are in that archive. Osti was a real innovator and liked working with techno fabrics such as rubberized wool, textiles that changed color with temperature variations, and pressed microfibers. This Stone Island collection came out after Osti passed away, but you can get a sense of what I mean by techno fabrics.

The MA Strum collections, therefore, are these really uniquely designed, military-inspired jackets made out of very innovative textiles. Unfortunately, the pieces I saw in the store aren’t featured on the company’s website right now, but many of the details are the same (though I like what I saw in person better). Much of this stuff is really something you have to handle to appreciate. When you do, you’ll notice things like hidden drawstrings, innovatively designed pockets both inside and outside the coat, and button snaps backed with thick rubber seals. The logos you see are all printed on a strip of woven black fabric that you can snap off, which is also nice.

MA Strum currently has a sale going on at their site, but most of the smaller sizes are sold out. If you have a chance to check out their stuff in person any time soon, you should definitely take advantage of the opportunity.



  1. thelovewhisperingfox reblogged this from dieworkwear
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    widest knowledge...still super humble about it. That’s why he remains my favorite blogger
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  5. tigercow said: Going to Beijing in February. Gonna be on the lookout for this. Thanks for the info!
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