The news reported that this summer’s unrelenting heat is the result of the El Niño phenomenon coming to an end and La Niña beginning. In Spanish, El Niño means “the boy,” while La Niña means “the girl.” When the heat is this intense, it feels almost impossible to imagine that the peaks of Japan’s Northern Alps, walked just last year, remain cool; that somewhere in the world snow is falling; or that off the coast of Peru—where El Niño begins—it is the Christmas season. It all feels like a story from a distant world.

The act of thinking about “somewhere else” often slips away unless we make a conscious effort. Yet once that awareness arises, the depth of the world we perceive changes completely. Even picking up a piece of clothing can become such an act. Whether that awareness exists or not can alter how we connect with what we wear—our affection, our understanding, even, to an extreme degree, the value that object holds for us. Perhaps that sounds exaggerated, but it was while developing two new leather jackets—AUTHUR and MACLEAN—that such thoughts resurfaced.

Both AUTHUR and MACLEAN take inspiration from 1970s trucker denim jackets, yet they are made from leathers with entirely different characters. AUTHUR uses deerskin from white-tailed deer—around 2 mm thick, substantial, and ruggedly masculine in impression. White-tailed deer usually inhabit the mountains but, when winter deepens and the cold grows severe, they sometimes descend toward towns. One can almost picture them coming down the slopes with gentle expressions. The leather’s soft, supple touch seems to embody that temperament.

MACLEAN, in contrast, is crafted from entrefino—the world’s finest lambskin—sourced from Spanish lambs raised high in the Pyrenees along the border between France and Spain. In these elevated regions, known for ski resorts and hiking trails, the lambs grow fine, delicate wool, resulting in hides of extraordinary smoothness and refined grain.

It may not always be possible to visit such places and experience them firsthand. Still, beyond the endless information typed or spoken into the devices in our hands, there is another way to expand our world—by imagining the distinct origins of AUTHUR and MACLEAN, and letting the mind wander elsewhere. In doing so, the world feels suddenly deeper and wider.