C. Patricio x Border Co.
Exploring the story behind the first Border Co. collaboration.
It’s on a balmy late summer morning in September that the rental car rolls easily over the neighbourhood roads of Richardson, a popular suburb just north of Dallas. The vehicle weaves through residential roads lined with well-kept ranch-style homes bordered by manicured lawns. Sunbeams cut their path through the windshield and across the steering wheel with each lazy turn onto a new street. Tom Petty plays from the radio, the songs woven with the ebb and flow of lawnmower engines resonating from the yards of passing households on this quintessential Saturday in North Texas.
The journey to Richardson is the culmination of a dialogue that started in July of 2024 when, in the early stages of mapping out what exactly Border Co. was to be, I first reached out to the designer Crespatrick de los Reyes to explore a potential collaboration, merging his label’s design sensibilities with my desire to create a customised garment. That dialogue stretched out into a trans-Atlantic email chain lasting several months, discussing everything from fabric and dimensions, to pocket configuration and fastenings.
De los Reyes and I were introduced through a mutual friend at the tail end of 2022. It was at a time where I was working for a small retailer in Dallas, organising a number of store socials to meet independent makers local to the market. We bonded over a shared interest of clothing focused on longevity, not seasonal trends. The following year I invited de los Reyes back to the store for a pop-up showcasing his designs under his C. Patricio label, bringing together clients and friends from the community to explore his garments while we served drinks and generally made sure all attendees were having a good time.
Looking back, that event encapsulated a lot of the DNA I wanted to bring to Border Co., though I didn’t know it at the time. Bringing people together from different backgrounds with a shared interest in learning about each other’s stories and pursuits.
De los Reyes developed his design skills working in the denim industry of Los Angeles while dreaming of one day starting his own label. It was during his time in the industry that he would encounter the material his label would become most associated with: denim shrink blankets.
Shrink blankets are a cast off from the denim industry, large sheets of material that are washed to measure the shrinkage of each denim being evaluated for use in production. Once washed, these sheets become waste sent for disposal. It was in these blankets that de los Reyes saw an opportunity to utilise the material for his label, up-cycling them into his own designs and once again giving them purpose.
Obtaining pallets of wash blankets to experiment with for his first designs, de los Reyes found the confidence to officially launch his own label in 2017. A year later he relocated to Dallas, gradually developing his craft as a designer while working out of his garage studio in the city’s suburbs. Leveraging his professional experience and merging this with inspiration from his Filipino American heritage, de los Reyes established a reputation for unique takes on classic garments, combined with a recycle and reuse mentality not often championed in the clothing industry.
One of the pieces that has become a signature of the C. Patricio label is the Saddle Pocket Jacket. Inspired by the Texas landscape and the vision of his clothing existing in specific locations, de los Reyes envisioned the jacket as an ideal garment for the modern rancher, someone working on the land while backlit by the Texas sun.
Referencing the essentials outlined in the essay, The List: Collaborations at Border Co., the jacket seemed the perfect starting point for a custom design, bringing us back around to that fine September morning in Richardson where this essay starts.
After parking the rental car at the curb and heading up to the de los Reyes residence, the door opens and out bounds Corduroy the family dog to greet me. In the air-conditioned cool of the home the scent of incense lingers in the lounge. De los Reyes and I catch up on life as Corduroy circles, leaning against my legs for attention. Before long we step out and walk around to the garage studio, where almost every piece for the C. Patricio label is patterned, cut and sewn - the label’s jeans, launched in 2023, are manufactured in carefully chosen workshops in Los Angeles.
Several industrial sewing machines line a wall, shrink blankets of all shades are stacked high upon shelves and beneath the movable worktop where de los Reyes spreads the pattern for the C. Patricio x Border Co. Jacket we’ve worked on, unofficially referred to as the FM-Road Jacket after the farm-to-market roads that trace their way across the counties in and around my former home in Texas. Sometimes referred to as ranch-to-market roads, these roads can be found across Texas, connecting rural and agricultural areas to market towns. For a jacket designed for wear from ranch to road trips, bar hopping, campsites, and everything in between, the reference felt in-tune with the evocative landscape that inspired the jacket’s design, speaking to de los Reyes’ personal story and my own.
For the collaboration, we started with the basic design of the C. Patricio Saddle Pocket Jacket, a garment with an elegant simplicity, capable of blending into a variety of settings. A favourable shade of blue was selected from the many shrink blankets de los Reyes had available, then adjustments were made to the jacket’s measurements, slimming the dimensions down and adding side adjustor tabs to allow a wearer to choose between a boxier cut or cinched silhouette depending on their build, the weather, or working conditions. The finished adjustments gave the jacket a fitted look that still allowed for good range of motion.
Then came the fun stuff.
Keeping the original design’s iconic large, bellowed saddle pockets on the exterior, two internal drop pockets were added to accommodate notepads, work gloves, a camera, and generally all the stuff I want to carry without having to use a bag. There’s an added bonus that the pockets are big enough to stow a couple of cans of beer in should the need arise.
With the jacket’s front fastening already consisting of Talon snaps instead of buttons, a modern western-inspired yoke was added as a further homage to pearl snap shirts. Rear seams were also added to tailor the jacket’s shape and as a reference to classic denim jackets like the Lee 101J and the Wrangler 124MJ.
Finally, the most complicated customisation (logistically): the collar. Being a fan of the contrast collars found on the Carhartt Detroit Jacket, Lee Storm Rider and most ranch-ready outerwear, I knew I wanted something that would reference these designs and add character to the jacket, but didn’t want to go with the traditional corduroy used in other design. Having worked for a brand that sources leather from across the world, I was able to get in touch with a wholesaler in California and acquired a hide of American Bison Leather in a rustic tobacco shade. Once this hide arrived with de los Reyes it was reversed, using the rough side of the leather as the visible material for the collar. This type of leather is know as roughout leather and is used extensively in western wear for its durability. It’s not only a common material for cowboy boots, clothing and accessories, but is also favoured for use in wildland firefighters boots for the material’s ability to hold up in the toughest conditions.
Finally, thread was chosen for the jacket’s stitching that matched the tobacco colour of the roughout collar, completing the design. The finished garment, a merging of de los Reyes’ design principles and the Border Co. desire for versatility and durability in the garments worn when undertaking a journey, is an entirely custom piece, perfectly suited to heavy wear on the ranch or road.
Motivated by a passion for handcrafted goods, slow production, and a respect for de los Reyes’ design philosophy and craft driven by heritage, the first collaboration from Border Co. has been built on a solid foundation.
The C. Patricio x Border Co. Jacket (The FM-Road Jacket) is available in a limited production run of just six jackets, with the first made being the one collected from Richardson that September morn’ and worn throughout recent travels across the US and UK. Each jacket is patterned, cut, and sewn to order in Texas.
For jacket images, pricing and enquiries, please head to the Border Co. Instagram.