ROAD TRIP: Fay Archive, which celebrates the outerwear brand’s workwear heritage, has unveiled a new chapter and collection as part of its roving campaign format.
The brand embarked on a trip to the Pacific Northwest, touching down in Seattle, Orcas Island, Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, Beacon Rock and Hood River, photographing workers wearing its pieces as they go about their daily lives.
“These trips have allowed us to establish a clear identity and message for Fay, which are now clearly recognized,” said Michele Lupi, head of special projects at Tod’s Group, the brand’s parent.
In the latest trip, Fay’s signature 4 Ganci jacket, inspired by the American firefighter uniforms and characterized by metal-hook fastening, is tested by a range of individuals from the area, photographed by James Mollison for campaign imagery and video.
Blacksmith and artist Zacharya Leck dons an ikat-printed version as he builds a wooden apple sculpture; Katie Loboda, from oyster farming business Wescott Bay Shellfish Co., sports a woolen version with leather details as she enters the water to tend to the oyster beds; Seattle shipyard worker Robb Lyons is seen in a gray nylon version of the outerwear piece repairing an old boat; Luca Lezzi, a craftsman and kayak builder, is outfitted in a padded vest while carving wood, and Jocelyn Akins, a wolverine researcher, wears a Fay Archive shearling jacket while installing a camera to track the mammal.
Overall, the new collection, for fall 2027, includes eight styles and is already available on the brand’s e-commerce site retailing between $1,600 and $2,000.
Lupi said the Fay Archive project is also benefiting from the popularity of workwear and utilitarian fashion as staples of the urban and fashion-savvy wardrobe.
While acknowledging that Fay’s primary male consumer base is composed of professionals living in the big cities, he emphasized the growing resonance with younger consumers. The line contributes to 30 percent of Fay’s menswear sales and 20 percent of overall revenues.
Launched in 2019, Fay Archive formally debuted its traveling series a year later with images shot in Russia by Davide Monteleone.
The project has since taken the brand on daring and adventurous trips to the most remote locations around the world, all documented by Mollison. These include Chile, Alaska, Japan, Nepal, Canada, Norway’s Svalbard and Lofoten islands, Gotland in the Baltic Sea, and Lanzarote, Spain.
Fay was acquired by Tod’s Group in 1987. The brand’s history dates back to the ‘60s, when a Maine entrepreneur created a workwear jacket with four metal-plated hooks that was quickly adopted by fishermen and then firemen.