cufflinks: chains versus fixed back
The AW15 collection introduced two new Alice Made This processes that are usually used to make Military uniforms and both tehir hardware and tailoring. The Military Hardware manufacturing process is a deep draw stamping process and led to a change in the customary Alice Made This cufflink; for the first time, a chain link was designed, instead of a solid stem.
Our designer Alice has always focused on the manufacturing process first and foremost, with the production dictating and influencing the designs. When it came to investigating the Military Hardware process, it became clear that a chain link would be the obvious choice. In previous collections, our cufflinks have been formed using a precision turned metal process from a solid bar of metal, which meant that the cufflink has a solid stem.
The Military Hardware factory, however, works with buttons and a deep draw stamping process, and so the chain links are an adaptation of the button shanks. The use of the chain link has resulted in the first reversible pair of cufflinks for Alice Made This; for this reason, the Military Hardware collection includes a variety of geometrical shapes, including a circle, a square, and a diamond, so that the wearer can have two different styles of cufflink in one pair. Each shape is named individually. For example, the square is Benedict, and so the combination cufflinks are named according to the two shapes.
The chain link is the traditional form of cufflink, favoured by older generations, whilst a younger customer prefers the solid stem, but both styles are equally precise and refined.
Another type of cufflink is the silk knot cufflink, the effect of which is emulated in the Marine collection, but the rope is connected to a turned metal barrel so that the cufflink is easier to insert.
The question of stem versus links is one of modernity versus tradition, but the Military Hardware collection maintains the polished, clean look that epitomises Alice Made This, whilst also returning to the traditional form of the cufflink.
