The Space Hoodie

MQuan Studio x Pure Hart Collab

Earlier this year, we had this really cool idea: What if we built a creative project around a fellow artist’s dream — used that vision to collaborate with them on a design? And Michele Quan was the first person who came to mind.

We were first introduced to Michele through her work—which is so distinctive and enchanting, for us it has become intertwined with the feeling of Woodstock.

Speaking of which — there’s something special about this place. The visions seem a little deeper, more timely, more potent.

So we reached out to Michele with a question: Is there a dream you’ve had here that has been really powerful, has stayed with you?

And on an appropriately shimmery October day, we sat down in her studio,

and she told us about her dream.

It couldn’t have been more resonant.

The dream begins on Overlook Mountain,

Of course it does. Overlook is mythic. It’s a familiar hike for Michele, and something of a regular pilgrimage for Woodstock locals.

On this hike, Michele’s daughter Elsie, who has not yet been born, is just ahead of her — a young child, here. They pass wildflowers as they approach the overlook cliff itself; and then Elsie just runs right over the edge. “Right over,” Michele emphasizes.

Michele has no choice. There is no choice. She runs off the edge after Elsie. There is no hesitation. None.

But the edge does not lead down the mountainside — it opens up into the void. Pure, timeless uncertainty.

This leap was not a negative experience, she explains: “Not negative––necessary. What was I gonna do? Stay back?”

(Read Michele’s telling of the dream here.)

…I think that’s when we knew that this collaboration was going to click.

Michele sent us the above after our conversation. Over about three hours (which we recorded and will be releasing early next year), we covered:

* Happy accidents in the creative process
* How green and purple are similar
* Fishing With John featuring Tom Waits
* The Observer Effect
* The Heart Sutra
* The elusive mechanics of dream-swimming in the sky
* Maurice Sendak’s life advice
* Willy Wonka’s flying death elevator
* The Four Reminders
* The Ten Thousand Things
* Ten-minute coffee meditation
* Astral projecting into childhood memories that you don’t remember from photos
* Is it the abyss, or are there twin abysses?
* Doomscrolling as actual metaphysical descent
* Hawking Radiation energy that escapes black holes

That’s rich soil that could have led to any number of art projects. But we wanted to design a hoodie together.

This is the Space Hoodie.

We love it. It feels really good wearing it. We set out to design something that we would wear, but couldn’t find. Something meaningful but universal.

The concept is a true collaboration — inspired by our talk, Michele’s dream, many truly fun and inspiring follow up creative sessions, and the iconographythat speaks to us, individually and collectively.

It actually goes back to the very beginning of our conversation, when Michele talked about how difficult it is to describe a dream — it’s just a feeling. That’s what this hoodie is. The feeling of space, darkness, emptiness, slipperiness, uncertainty…

…the feeling of light — escaping, free, outside.

Space to just be, to just “live your life, live your life, live your life” (Maurice Sendak).

We found this feeling in the shapes, the placement, the contrast, the scale of the design, the hoodie itself.

There are simple but powerful energetics on the sleeve and hood — a crescent moon and a sunburst. You can feel them.

The back print turned out so nice. The portal shape is printed tone-on-tone against the charcoal garment. It quietly haunts, moving in and out of sharpness with the light.

We are offering a discounted pre-sale/ pre-order to newsletter subscribers, their friends and loved ones. So feel free to share the link!

Hoodies ship in early February!

PRE-ORDER HERE

We may fear the void. That makes sense. Uncertainty and the infinite are completely mind-boggling. But we also dive in head first to follow anything or anyone we care about. Wedecide what the void is. The void is us, in motion. And, if we let ourselves, we find each other there.

Maybe it’s the same place we found ourselves with Michele in this conversation — the dream space, the collective unconscious. Maybe we’re already in it together, right now.

–McKenzie + Elliott