Post-Mephisto Future
A chat with Body of Work
Is the future unknowable? Well, that depends. It depends on what you imagine the future to be. If you think of the future as being totally disconnected from the present, then — yes — it’s pretty unknowable. But suppose you believe that the future is made in the present, that it’s prospectively realized or prevented from happening in the here and now. Suddenly, it becomes much more knowable. To know a particular future now means to know what’s at stake in acting upon it.
We’re all future-makers, whether we like it or not. (It’s another question, of course, whether all futures we are making are livable.) And we’re all future literates, to a certain extent, able to “recognize that dominant futures are constructed, that they can be replaced, and that alternative futures are always waiting to be born.” This needn’t be a heavy existential burden, as some sociologists like us to believe. It can also be a way of looking at fashion, as I’ve brought myself to believe.
Most conversations about the future of fashion feel misguided. That’s not necessarily because they’re wrong. It’s because they’re premised on a specific, slightly dystopian vision of the future. They take a dominant aspect of the present — AI, meta-verses — exaggerate it, and project it onto a distant future that’s neither appealing nor, for some reason, avoidable. It makes much more sense to look at what kind of futures are actually there in fashion’s present, toppling the self-evidence of the highly visible ones and unearthing those existing beneath the surface.
The future of fashion’s present isn’t great news for everyone. And that’s great news for the rest of us. A focus on good clothes, on the quality of garments, rather than marketing, and on loyal followings rather than celebrity ambassadors is one thing. A strong sense of reality and presence — of creating this thing right here, right now — is another. And then there’s the power of constraint — of creating from a specific place, without access to boundless resources — in combination with a recognition of global specificity — of sourcing cotton from Japan, wool from Iceland, and cashmere from Italy.
No wonder, perhaps, that a disproportionate quantity of interesting brands exist and operate in fashion’s periphery. (Some not even travel to Paris this week — shout out to them!) The Netherlands is a case in point, and so is Canada, more specifically Toronto. This city’s home to Bexhill Court, Henry’s, Rosa Rugosa and to Body of Work, among others. Founded in 2020 by Dwayne Vatcher and Brittney MacKinnon, Body of Work is a small design studio, specializing in unisex artisanal sportswear, that recently rose to some online fame thanks to their collaboration with the master shoemakers from Mephisto.
A high-end walking shoe, the ‘Match’ is handcrafted in Sarrebourg, northwest France, from Italian suede in the brand’s signature ‘Loam Brown’. Like the rest of the AW25 collection, the picture of it circulating everywhere right now was shot in Tokyo by Ian Lanterman, whom Dwayne and Brittney met in Vancouver — incidentally also the photographer behind much of Neighbour’s incredible visual identity.
I reached out to Dwayne and Brittney, interested to hear about their post-’Match’ experiences as well as the process that led up to it and their plans for what’s next for the brand.
They’re on their way to Paris now, where they’ll meet with people from a few shops and showrooms that have expressed a desire to work with them. A more formal presentation at Paris will happen before too long. For now, Dwayne and Brittney — who both have a background in fashion, he at a company working with wings + horns and Reigning Champ, she at Canada Goose — are dedicating “as much of our time and energy to refining our design and production process,” which takes place entirely in Canada.
First things first: the Mephisto collaboration, how did that come to be?
My partner, Brittney and I deeply enjoy collaborative processes. We spend the majority of our time developing our bespoke knit fabrics and garments here in Toronto. When it comes to collaborations we are enthused to explore and expand outside of our current capabilities.
I had been wearing my pair of Matches into the ground and when the time came to purchase another pair, we simply thought about what updates we would want to make if we were designing a pair for ourselves.
Body of Work is just Brittney and I, and we work at a pretty small scale so we have to be particularly deliberate about what projects we would like to pursue. We were drawn to Mephisto because of our similarities: an understated perspective with a focus on quality. They have the capability to do small batch production in their facilities in Sarrebourg, and this resonated with us as our products are made within an hour of where we live. In speaking with their team, we were very pleased to feel their genuine enthusiasm about the perspective and attention to detail we brought.
And what did the collaborative process with Mephisto look like?
All of our products are very personal so we had a fairly clear idea of what we wanted to do from the start. We enjoy working with Italian leathers, particularly suede, in our signature ‘Loam Brown’, due to how well it wears over time. We also wanted to make the shoe our own from a branding perspective in a way that felt authentic to us. We prefer minimal branding, which led us to exploring the idea of embossing our logo on the tongue in place of the traditional Mephisto label. It’s a subtle change but it had not been done before which we found intriguing. There was a lot of back and forth in regards to the finer details but surprisingly, we were able to go into production based off of the very first sample.
How’ve you experienced the positive reception and media attention — from the likes of Highsnobiety, Blackbird Spyplane, and WWD — so far?
Honestly, we have been overwhelmed with the positive response to our Spring/Summer 2025 collection as a whole. We launched it with our friends at Colbo in New York and it was really special to experience all of the excitement in person.
It’s encouraging to see how our genuine interest in Mephisto and mutual appreciation have resulted in something that resonated with people so organically. That said, we have our hands full in keeping up with the production of our apparel so we are going to continue to approach our partnerships with a level of discernment.
Let’s zoom out a bit. About three years ago, in an interview with Jake Silbert for Highsnobiety, you said that with Body of Work you’re aiming at a customer that — I quote — “doesn’t even exist yet.” Fast forward to today, do you feel that non-existent customer has come into being?
When we first spoke with Jake we had only existed for around a year, so we were very early in the creation of Body of Work. Artisanal sportswear was not a new concept in and of itself but we have brought a sense of ease and elegance into what we do. When you are very small with few resources, it can be difficult to fully express your vision. You need to be able to imagine what it could be years before you are actually able to communicate it through products. That said, I think people have a better understanding of where we want to take Body of Work and, as a result, we have built a small but devoted following.
In that same interview, you mentioned that Japan was where Body of Work was first picked up. How has that changed? And what does this tell you about Body of Work and the small knook of the clothing market it’s part of?
We have been pleased to see that the interest from Japan continues to grow. I think a lot of this is driven by our design philosophy and how our love for nature is manifested through our design and visual language.
We wanted to bridge our connection with Japan in a more tangible way so last November, we hosted our first pop-up in Tokyo to a great response. It was really interesting to connect with people who have supported Body of Work from the very beginning. One of the first journalists to speak with us, a writer from GRIND magazine, back in 2021, unexpectedly came to meet us in person and it was special to see that he still shared the same enthusiasm for Body of Work as he did years ago. Although Japan has been so supportive, we have also seen a large increase in interest from the US since the early days.
I find it difficult to speak to the concept of the niche clothing market because it’s not something we are actively thinking about. You could say we have our blinders on a bit. I think our dedication to building something uniquely our own is a part of our appeal, so we try not to think about the wider marketplace. As two non-business people, it has been interesting to find the right balance to say the least.
Let’s move from your customers abroad, in Japan and the US, to your own local community in Canada. I read on your website that all Body of Work items are designed, knit, dyed, cut and sewn within an hour from where you live and work. Could you tell me more about the clothing manufacturing/production landscape in and around Toronto, and how you’ve been able to build working relationships with your production partners?
The local garment industry here in Toronto is a small community of family-owned fabric mills and factories and the relationships we have has taken years to build.
When we first started, Brittney and I would drive around between the mills and factories with a book of sketches asking them to take a chance on us. We had to overextend ourselves to meet production minimums but we believed in our dedication to craft and our commitment to local garment making.
Fast-forward to today, we are still very small but there is great comfort in growing with the people who helped us make our first t-shirt. It is a deeply personal relationships that feels more like a friendship. We visit their facilities weekly, working on new fabric developments and garment construction which is a very rewarding process.
Were they surprised that, with you, they’d be working on sportswear?
Approaching sportswear from a craft-driven perspective is uncommon because developing bespoke knit fabrics and working with factories here in Canada requires a tremendous amount of resources and patience. Along the way, we have faced a number of obstacles from having to commit to producing more product than we could handle to receiving products so late that the season had already passed. It has not been a seamless process by any means but we feel the products we have been able to create have a truly unique spirit to them, an intangible quality that cannot be replicated.
And how have the people around you responded to Body of Work?
We’re available here in Toronto at Lost & Found, our earliest supporters, and Grays. It is still quite rare to catch someone wearing our clothing in the streets but every time we do it feels quite special. Funny enough, we have actually seen more of our products while walking around in New York.
Although we have backgrounds in the fashion industry, our products are casual in nature because we design them to work with how we live. Brittney has always been active in one way or another, playing football has recently taken over all of her free time, and I grew up driving across Ontario playing Junior A hockey five or more days a week with the goal of going professional. Our clothing is designed to be practical for an active lifestyle yet aesthetically pleasing.
A final question. Brittney and yourself have backgrounds in fashion, as you said. I’m curious to hear how this has either helped and supported or formed a challenge, or even an obstacle, to creating Body of Work. I could imagine, for instance, that working for larger brands not just offers valuable experiences. It may also instill an expectation of rapid growth and global reach that doesn’t fit the development of a smaller label like Body of Work.
During my time at CYC Design Corporation working with wings + horns and Reigning Champ, I learned a lot from a very talented group of people. This was 10 years ago now, though. We were not actually too big at the time so very similarly to how we work now, I had to wear many hats. Brittney has had experience working with larger brands which we find particularly helpful in terms of organization. But generally speaking, nothing can truly prepare you for going off on your own!
Our ambitions to grow are only as big as our ability to genuinely resonate with people. We have set out to work on Body of Work indefinitely, so we really feel no need at all to rush things.
Great read! Their new collection is beautiful.