Following its debut on February 11 and 12 at a pop-up event in New York City, REESE COOPER unveiled a new project-based collection, RCI Reserve, as well as its long-awaited collaboration with Merrell 1 TRL.
What is RCI Reserve?
In Cooper’s own words: “RCI Reserve is short for the REESE COOPER Reserve Program.
It’s a new but ongoing project in which, simply put, we transform everything we’ve been storing in the office over the past few years into new garments.
Each season, samples are taken and produced—both processes result in fabric scraps.
These can include fabrics, linings, snaps, zippers, ribbons, eyelets, netting, yarns, cords, and so on—the list goes on.
Over the past 5 years, we’ve made it our mission not to throw anything away, with the goal of finding a new home for it later.
When we designed the first “Reserve” pieces, we set a few rules for ourselves:
- A fabric may not be used for the same purpose for which it was originally intended
- No new patterns may be created
- All pieces must find a way to incorporate a patch pocket made of raw, natural canvas.
Once you set these parameters, it becomes surprisingly liberating to have fun with new ideas.
The hooded leather jacket, unveiled earlier this month, is a good summary of the project. The leather was leftover from the production of the AW22 varsity jacket and the development of the handbag.
The zipper comes from the SS22 sampling period, and the hardware is leftover from various production cycles. Each piece is affixed with the special Reserve label, which is hand-applied on the day of completion.
In conjunction with the launch of RCI Reserve, REESE COOPER will release a limited number of pairs from its collaboration with Merrell 1TRL.
The RCI x 1TRL partnership has been in place since Spring/Summer 22 and now continues with the release of 3 silhouettes, each available in 2 colorways, from the REESE COOPER x Merrell 1TRL collection.
The full retail release of the RCI Reserve collection and the collaboration with Merrell 1TRL will take place this month. We’ll keep you updated—please keep an eye on our sneaker release calendar.
Detailed images of each model follow...
Photos via Merrell/Bradley J. Calder
