POLARIS

POLARIS began with Icelandic photographer Ragnar Axelsson's haunting The Last Days of the Arctic, documenting communities living within some of the world's most extreme environments. His images captured a disappearing world of craft, culture and community, but also something deeply relevant to RÆBURN: resourcefulness, resilience and an extraordinary understanding of how to prepare and protect.

Garments developed for extreme cold became a source of research into protection, layering, material and function; asking what contemporary design could learn from objects refined through necessity.

At the heart of POLARIS was a series of RÆMADE pieces constructed from original Siberian military sheepskin greatcoats. Heavy, oversized and engineered for severe conditions, the original garments were deconstructed and transformed into new bombers and outerwear while retaining the warmth, character and physical presence of the source material.

Elsewhere, German military sleeping bags became parkas, while lightweight technical outerwear took inspiration from the translucent seal-gut parkas historically worn by Arctic explorers. British Millerain waxed cotton brought weather protection to outerwear and tailoring, while experiments with rubberised wool explored how a familiar natural material could take on entirely new properties.

POLARIS also marked an important expansion of the RÆBURN wardrobe with the introduction of knitwear. Developed through an ongoing relationship with The Woolmark Company, Merino wool appeared in technical hybrids and heavier sweaters, including the polar bear motif that became a defining graphic of the season.

Across the collection, heavy protection was balanced by lightweight layers, traditional natural fibres sat alongside technical innovation, and RÆMADE experimentation became increasingly integrated into a complete contemporary wardrobe.