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void dog 01: dusk (jacket)

status: in development

our first offering is named in honor of dusk, who was a pal to everyone he met at least twice. with his health issues, he had no business lasting as long as he did. but better together, you know?

handsome, fast, moved easily in most environments (one exception: swimming). also, a weird lil' freak. was scared of the woods at night, but would go there with you anyway, and keep ya much warmer than you would be, otherwise.

that's the kinda dog he was, and the kinda jacket i'm making.

for the shell fabric, i've chosen a 14.5 oz black denim made in america, from american cotton, by cone. they have a whole thing on their site about being able to trace their cotton, to help ensure an ethical supply chain. cool. need more of that sorta thing in this world.

when i got my sample swatches from my supplier (pacific blue denims), i was torn between a few choices--two from cone, and a few from some of the japanese mills. at the time, i hadn't yet decided on a name for this jacket. once i did, the choice of fabric was easy. the swatch of this black denim showed little imperfections, sometimes referred to as nep. this is where fuzzy bits of the undyed weft threads poke through the dark warp threads on outer face of the fabric, appearing as specks of white fluff. it reminded me of sweet dusk coat: mostly black, with white hairs showing through here and there.

(the other option i was considering was a 15.5 oz indigo-dyed denim, also by cone. i really like the idea of the natural, traditional dye, but for this design, i couldn't resist picking the one that reminded me most of my bud.)

denim is by no means indestructible, but it is tough as hell, and it's not made of plastic. it'll age. it'll get a little f/cked up alongside you, just that way any good companion would. take care of it, patch it up when it needs, and it'll have your back for a long time.

production scheduled to begin in january, 2026.

i'm aiming to produce 10 units to start, and hope to have the first units of the batch ready some time in february.

follow the design and production process on instagram if ya wanna.

void dog?

it's 3:22 am, december 22, 2025.

thinkin about a jacket i used to have. it was an eddie bauer ski jacket that cost like $100 from an outlet store, back in.. '08 or '09 maybe? i wore that thing for almost 15 years. first for snowboarding. eventually i got another jacket that had a better cut for that. (longer, so it would cover my ass. i was on my ass a lot).

i kept wearing the eddie bauer as an around-town jacket, and to frisbee tournaments. for years it was my go-to any time i went on a trip. (the pockets were just right for managing boarding passes and ids and electronics while going through airport security.) when i started teaching a knifemaking class, i wore that jacket in the shop, too, whenever it was cold.

it got a few new holes, keeping sparks from the angle grinders off o' me.

eventually the pockets blew out.

patched and reinforced the pockets. left the holes (and started being more careful around the angle grinders).

an armpit seam gave out, and i stitched that back together.

at the end of 2023 i retired it. cut it apart along the seams, to learn how it was constructed, and the general shapes that comprise a jacket. i carefully cut the seams holding all the zippers in place, and saved them. took a moment to give thanks to this thing that had accompanied me through so much.

and then i took what i'd learned from it to draft a new jacket pattern, and make my first jacket. the 27" front zipper from the eddie bauer jacket became the front zipper for this new jacket, and it lasted another 1.5 years before becoming unreliable.

i finally replaced that zipper with a new one last month.

so as i prepare to produce new jackets for sale, i'm thinking about the one that lasted me a decade and a half. i'm also thinking about how something i make by hand will necessarily cost more to produce than something made elsewhere, using automation and other mass production techniques.

i'm hoping to be able to produce these efficiently enough that all my friends can afford them. i want them affordable enough that anyone who buys one will actually use it--but not so cheaply made that they could be mistaken as something disposable. i wanna design and build them so that, with some care, they'll hang on and accompany you through 15 years of whatever shenanigans you choose (and all the bullsh/t you don't).

the name of this first design, dusk, is a tribute to my friend. we put him to sleep in september. he was a good dog till the end.

not perfect, but good. and good enough. tough and warm, trusty and willing. the kind of companion i wanna be, through anything. (always learning how. a long way to go.)

and the name for this project, void dog, is about that ethos. making things intended to be seen and treated as companions.

while i work on this first design, the dusk jacket, i'm thinking about how each design choice might make repair annoying, or easy, or unnecessary. if in 5 years you have to replace a pocket bag, how hard would that be to do a "clean" job? might i make a concession and use synthetic fabric to construct the pockets, so they'll last until the shell disintegrates? or maybe there's a way to use natural fibers throughout, but reinforce the high wear parts, so they last as long as the rest of the garment. long enough, and then recycled or decomposed, rather turning into microplastics to live inside us until we're dead, or sitting for 8000 years somewhere in a landfill.

and i'm thinking about how each one will accompany its future wearer(s). (a good dog usually has many friends.) will it be warm enough? will it be fun and easy to wear? would you wanna run and jump in it? wear it riding your bicycle? sitting on a plane to iceland? would you be glad to have it wrapped around you when you're wandering the city at 3 am, looking for answers that don't exist?

and then, after so many years of going wherever, together, will you feel moved to give it your thanks, before letting it rest?

who are you?

the void dogs are designed and made by me, in baltimore, md.

you can call me cl.

i left a 15 year career in the software industry to make more of the kind of stuff i'd want to share, and to spend less time working in front of a computer screen. also (or maybe mostly) i just really wanted to see what would happen if i committed myself to something i was so scared of.

i've been sewing random crap since middle school, when a stern woman named something like mrs. crabtree showed me that it was possible to transform sheets of fabric into objects of utility, using just scissors, needle, and thread. (in high school i made a beltloop holster to hold my planner and graphing calculator. definitely also cosplayed once or twice. after college i started making bags for myself.)

i've always liked making things to meet a need. especially my own. this project started because i needed a practical winter jacket for everyday use, and because i wanted one that also satisfies my inner child’s desire to resemble a character in the sort of drama whose third act involves killing god.