Balancing Act
At FIELDS HQ, Mikael Hanan and a dynamic team are creating world-class quality, functional South African fashion. Here’s how.
FASHION / CONVERSATION / 31.01.23
Read time / 10 mins
Mikael wears his take on an office t-shirt in a formal mid-weight cotton pique. On the blind behind him is the FIELDS brand totem, designed by Daniel Ting Chong.
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Creative Director
Writer
DANIËL GELDENHUYS
Photographer
IAN ENGELBREGHT
[01] Mikael wears his take on an office t-shirt in a formal mid-weight cotton piqué. On the blind behind him is the FIELDS brand mark, a totem designed by Daniel Ting Chong.
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Here’s the FIELDS x Kim Van Vuuren artist collaboration tote in cotton jacquard. Totes come free with an artist collaboration sweater or jacket, or can be purchased separately.
Mikael considers various scenarios when designing. Here, a travel-ready edit: “If you’ve got your check-in luggage, how can you have limited pieces that take you far?”
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“I’m a complete hoarder of all plastic,” says Bronwyn. She repurposes clear garment covers to store knitwear with waxed yarn, locking in moisture.
“I’m a complete hoarder of all plastic,” says Bronwyn. She repurposes clear garment covers to store knitwear with waxed yarn, locking in moisture.
“I’m a complete hoarder of all plastic,” says Bronwyn. She repurposes clear garment covers to store knitwear with waxed yarn, locking in moisture.
Clothing from the brand’s three lifestyle categories are designed with a minimalist utilitarian sensibility that allows them to bridge dress codes with ease. Mikael uses the FIELDS categories of Art (contemporary workwear), Soul (leisurely separates), and Outdoor (resilient pieces) as a guide for his designs and a personal philosophical framework. “Right now I’m very much in the Art world,” he says. “But this weekend I’ll be more in the Soul world with my family. I believe that there needs to be a space for multifaceted men.”
Mikael considers hiring an art form, of particular importance when a team consists of just four. A junior brand manager with a background in fashion design, Erin Maartens is a smart addition to the team.
“Unlike a lot of people in positions of power, Mikael’s incredibly interested in other perspectives and open to changing his mind,” Erin says. Her persistent personality prompts an ongoing dialogue in the name of improving designs. Every FIELDS product is the result of an open discourse where the team’s various ideas and perspectives have been vetted.
“80% of ideas are dropped,” says Mikael. “They kill my ideas, then I have to go home and drink some whiskey.”
And how many of his team’s ideas does Mikael veto?
“Probably the same amount,” he laughs bashfully.
Mikael’s production concept involves “going to the source and understanding the different [supply chain] elements: How people are being treated, how the land is being treated, what’s being used in terms of chemicals and processes, and then also, importantly, how can we improve quality?”
Mikael has a strong though unassuming presence. Efficient, focused, and stripped of artifice, he conducts himself with a sense of clarity and self-awareness. Perhaps because running and designing a contemporary menswear label is so conducive to his skill set, he pauses when asked why he chose it over other creatively adjacent ventures. “I think it was a development that came from the journey of Superbalist,” which is where he became particularly attuned to clothing. Interested in spacial and industrial design, Mikael studied hospitality with the aim of creating experiences for hotel guests. “I’ve always appreciated good design, been frustrated when you’re sitting somewhere and the table is poorly designed, or why is this leg in this position, or why am I wearing this garment that’s making me sweat, so the source has always been design.”
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Attention to detail is a FIELDS hallmark, down to the branded benches in their Old Biscuit Mill store.
[07] At the dressing rooms, Erin (on the left with a FIELDS x Themba Khumalo artist collaboration sweater) and Sindi take stock.
FIELDS HQ, a store and head office hybrid, capitalises on natural light streaming in through tall windows from the Biscuit Mill courtyard. Airy wooden shelving, the marble top dresser and a custom branded bench are offset with charmingly weathered pillars and industrial roofing. Meticulously curated without feeling pretentious, the store space has a calmness that’s conducive to the exploration and reinvention that defines a successful shopping experience.
Sindi Mkhabela calibrates the store space daily with product edits, playlists and scents, a core ritual in her role as Vibe Connoisseur. Authoring her job title was a starter perk Sindi particularly appreciated. Having studied business innovation and technology, Sindi’s interests are concentrated on spacial management and human experience. At the head of customer interaction, Sindi sells the brand to men and women from a variety of backgrounds, local and international. “People appreciate the quality, simplicity and fluidity of the clothes,” she says of the offering that’s aimed to address a multitude of climates and closet aesthetics. There’s a Swiss man who purchases ten pairs of the mohair, wool and bamboo blend socks every time he’s in South Africa: FIELDS-quality product is on a par with European standards. Hailing from Swaziland, Sindi vouches for the denim Weekend Trouser’s ergonomic design to customers also from hotter climates: “Human experience is the best way to sell something.”
Selling the antithesis of a fast fashion brand in a world that’s addicted to novelty, Mikael and Sindi must negotiate customers’ appetite for newness. Off the bat, every FIELDS piece offsets the familiarity of its design with what Mikael refers to as a five percent change: points of difference in colour, fabrication and detailing that elevate and differentiate. Since overhauling designs every season would be counterintuitive, the aim is to prompt customers to expand their FIELDS wardrobe as opposed to focusing on entirely new styles. “If they have a shirt that they’re wearing at work, perhaps they can buy into a box tee, which is more of a relaxed t-shirt for the weekend,” explains Mikael. With a growing return customer base, that theory is beginning to pay off.
“People are surprised sometimes, ‘Oh wow, I’m discovering art in a clothing space!’, which is amazing,” says Mikael.
[06] Attention to detail is a FIELDS hallmark, down to the branded benches in their Old Biscuit Mill store.
[07] At the dressing rooms, Erin (on the left with a FIELDS x Themba Khumalo artist collaboration sweater) and Sindi take stock.
[07] At the dressing rooms, Erin (on the left with a FIELDS x Themba Khumalo artist collaboration sweater) and Sindi take stock.
At the dressing rooms, Erin (on the left with a FIELDS x Themba Khumalo artist collaboration sweater) and Sindi take stock.
Attention to detail is a FIELDS hallmark, down to the branded benches in their Old Biscuit Mill store.
[07] At the dressing rooms, Erin (on the left with a FIELDS x Themba Khumalo artist collaboration sweater) and Sindi take stock.
[06] Attention to detail is a FIELDS hallmark, down to the branded benches in their Old Biscuit Mill store.
At the dressing rooms, Erin (on the left with a FIELDS x Themba Khumalo artist collaboration sweater) and Sindi take stock.
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When Mikael Hanan gets an idea, whether it’s on a walk or in the middle of the night, he adds it to his Google calendar to be reassessed and either scrapped or shared with his team the following morning. The son of an analytical father and creative mother, Mikael embodies an ideal duality for navigating South Africa’s unstructured fashion industry. With a legacy in e-commerce operations and management as co-founder of Superbalist and second hire at ARC, Mikael is focusing on building his independent label, addressing fashion’s unhealthy relationship with newness in a constructive way while showcasing world class product to a global community of shoppers.
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FIELDS sweaters are knitted from Responsible Wool Standard-certified fibres, meaning the sheep are ethically raised on farms that protect soil health and biodiversity.
[01] Mikael wears his take on an office t-shirt in a formal mid-weight cotton piqué. On the blind behind him is the FIELDS brand mark, a totem designed by Daniel Ting Chong.
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When Mikael Hanan gets an idea, whether it’s on a walk or in the middle of the night, he adds it to his Google calendar to be reassessed and either scrapped or shared with his team the following morning. The son of an analytical father and creative mother, Mikael embodies an ideal duality for navigating South Africa’s unstructured fashion industry. With a legacy in e-commerce operations and management as co-founder of Superbalist and second hire at ARC, Mikael is focusing on building his independent label, addressing fashion’s unhealthy relationship with newness in a constructive way while showcasing world-class product to a global community of shoppers.
FIELDS offers a thoroughly considered, locally milled and constructed rotation of quality masculine wardrobe staples from premium knitwear (the 1kg sweater is a sumptuous experience) to sturdy shirting and easy-wearing trousers (enthusiastically endorsed by this story’s photographer, Ian Engelbrecht). The brand’s philosophy, the field in which you locate yourself, is about where you find your flow as an individual. “Where do you forget about time, because you’re loving this moment so much?” Mikael explains over a long black americano outside Expresso Lab, a Capetonian-approved coffee shop in the Old Biscuit Mill next to FIELDS HQ. “For some people it’s when they’re hiking up a mountain or they’re playing soccer. For other people it’s maybe in the workspace: they’re in the zone and time just stands still. And for other people it’s perhaps when they are with their friends or family. So then the thought is, if you’re in that world, what do you need [to wear]?”
[02] FIELDS sweaters are knitted from Responsible Wool Standard-certified fibres, meaning the sheep are ethically raised on farms that protect soil health and biodiversity.
[01] Mikael wears his take on an office t-shirt in a formal mid-weight cotton piqué. On the blind behind him is the FIELDS brand mark, a totem designed by Daniel Ting Chong.
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[08] In the zone, Mikael uses Pantone colour swatches to ensure yarns are correctly dyed. FIELDS product colours are named after their official Pantone: tees come in a quotable variety including Zen Blue, Dusty Pink and Brilliant White.
[09] If you’re passing through Cape Town, it’s worth visiting the FIELDS store, if only to feel the ultra-soft cotton used to manufacture their Ecru Round Neck Sweater.
Artist collaboration knitwear and cotton totes, a pivotal calling card for the brand, is Mikael’s most visually compelling answer to the newness sustainability conundrum. Every season, FIELDS invites an artist to create a custom work which is then translated into a limited run of instant collector’s items. The concept elevates the idea of a printed sweater to its mindfully crafted ideal: by way of the Pantone cotton planner, yarn is dyed to match the hues of the collaboration artwork, then knitted to create either a sweater or the lining of a jacket for those who prefer a less overt form of wearable art.
“People are surprised sometimes, ‘Oh wow, I’m discovering art in a clothing space!’, which is amazing,” says Mikael. The FIELDS team facilitates shoppers’ discovery of the artists, referring them to galleries or Instagrams. These types of community building moments excite Mikael: “If we’re doing that, then that’s ten out of ten winning.”
Behind a Moroccan-style wooden double door, the only area invisible to shoppers is the storage and sample development room, immaculately organised by Head of Production and Quality, Bronwyn Nel. When Mikael introduces us, he mentions telling Bronwyn that she can only retire at the age of eighty-nine. “I did ask for a little bit more leave though,” she quips.
Mikael’s production concept involves “going to the source and understanding the different [supply chain] elements: How people are being treated, how the land is being treated, what’s being used in terms of chemicals and processes, and then also, importantly, how can we improve quality?” That’s where Bronwyn comes in, playing the pivotal role of facilitating FIELDS’s relationship with local manufacturers: the factories sewing the garments, as well as the ones producing the fabrics.
Bronwyn is particularly excited about the fabrication of a shirt that’s in development as this story goes live: It’s softer and lighter than the well-known shacket-weight Field Shirt. She explains the fabric is the result of a “quite technical” workshop with a weaving mill. Although the mill has the constructional expertise, Bronwyn is in a position to push them out of their comfort zone to develop something that is both novel and scalable for production. “That’s my dream: To empower the South African clothing industry, bring back that old school mill, and to see people get jobs back.”
As the mainstream retail narrative concentrates its focus on local production, large retailers are reserving South African clothing factory time for years in advance. “The smaller guys are getting pushed aside,” Mikael says. “Frustrating, but I get it.” Although FIELDS remains a small player in the local production game, their hands-on approach with suppliers provides a pivotal advantage. Working with FIELDS allows a factory to perfect certain garment construction techniques they hadn’t attempted before. “They’re getting it right with us,” he vouches. “And then, when the retailers come to them and say can you do A B C, they’re like yes we can, because we did something very similar with FIELDS.”
For Mikael, sustainability must play out environmentally and economically. “The two go in parallel,” he says. “If we focus on the one more than the other, something will give.” FIELDS is proof that a South African ready-to-wear label can build momentum with a healthy balance of artistic, environmental and business acumen.
Mikael is focused on success, and understands the value of community. In September 2022, he participated in an SA Fashion Week webinar aimed at helping designers understand how to prime their products for local retail, and FIELDS provides mentorship for the Design Academy of Fashion’s second year students. “I hope that there can be more of a space to share knowledge,” muses Mikael. “And then ultimately maybe there’s a little, kind of, grouping that’s formed. It’s gonna lift the tide—amazing.” —
In the zone, Mikael uses Pantone colour swatches to ensure yarns are correctly dyed. FIELDS product colours are named after their official Pantone: tees come in a quotable variety including Zen Blue, Dusty Pink and Brilliant White.
If you’re passing through Cape Town, it’s worth visiting the FIELDS store, if only to feel the ultra-soft cotton used to manufacture their Ecru Round Neck Sweater.
In the zone, Mikael uses Pantone colour swatches to ensure yarns are correctly dyed. FIELDS product colours are named after their official Pantone: tees come in a quotable variety including Zen Blue, Dusty Pink and Brilliant White.
If you’re passing through Cape Town, it’s worth visiting the FIELDS store, if only to feel the ultra-soft cotton used to manufacture their Ecru Round Neck Sweater.
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[06] Attention to detail is a FIELDS hallmark, down to the branded benches in their Old Biscuit Mill store.
[07] At the dressing rooms, Erin (on the left with a FIELDS x Themba Khumalo artist collaboration sweater) and Sindi take stock.