To be honest, for every collection the inspiration—and therefore the process—is slightly different. It varies: from things I’ve seen on my travels, art, design, a fabric I’ve come across, a colourful building I stumbled upon, or simply a product I would love to wear on the bike but isn’t out there yet. Sometimes the inspiration comes flying in, and it feels like the designs almost find their way to my drawing board themselves. Other times, it’s a lot of work, sweat, and tears before there’s something I’m truly happy with.

From the initial design idea until the products arrive at the warehouse ready for launch, the process usually takes 14 to 17 months. So that means I need to start thinking about a new collection a year and a half in advance—which might be the hardest part!

So, 1.5 years ago I was struggling to find any inspiration for the Wilditude collection. That’s why I decided to approach it a little differently than usual. Instead of staring at my computer screen, I walked around my garden, took pictures, and then got out paper and scissors. Together with a friend, we cut out different shapes from colourful paper and made various flowery compositions, which we photographed. It felt so good to stay away from the digital world for a bit longer than usual!

Next, I imported the photos and traced the shapes. After my usual process of experimenting with different colour combinations (believe me, this takes days!), I brought the drawings into Adobe Photoshop, where I tested different ‘displacements’. With displacements, you determine how you ‘distort’ an image. This created the fractured effect that makes the Wilditude designs feel so dreamy. I then composed the resulting graphics into different layouts on the jerseys.

An important aspect of all the collections is that I want them to match previous releases as much as possible. This way, you can wear items from different collections together over the years, and no piece becomes redundant. Because I don’t focus on other cycling apparel brands or their trends—and I design everything myself (aside from art collaborations)—it’s easier and more natural to maintain a consistent style over time. And therefore, more ‘matchable’!

The final part of the process is the samples. First, colour swatches are made—these are basically test prints to see how the colours look on the fabric. These go back and forth multiple times. Especially for the Wilditude collection, I had many tests done before I was finally happy with all of the colour tones. Once approved, the final samples are made. And then it’s a GO for production!

This is just the design process for the colours and graphics—the fit and fabric are a whole separate story, which I’ll save for another time. Although I have to say, developing the Escape Weekender Coord Set was one of the most fun parts of this collection. These are pieces I’ve wanted to develop for years, because they’re exactly what I’d love to wear on my gravel and bikepacking adventures. So I hope you love them too!