Journal 16: An Interview with Ryan Mallinson

Ryan, owner of Mallin & Son & enthusiast of the wax jacket.

Welcome to the Bond Up North Newsletter.

A newsletter for the modern gentleman designed to be enjoyed with a morning coffee. We explore food, style, films, books and anything that generally sparks my interest. Naturally with an underlying theme of James Bond.

This week

An Interview With

Featuring Ryan, owner of Mallin & Son

Sadly, we live in a world of overconsumption. With a throwaway culture that sees fast fashion brands offering clothing and goods at a price so low that many people will just shrug their shoulders if the quality drops after a couple of wears. Within the last couple of years I feel like we have started to see a bit of a resurgence of repair and reuse. With a focus being on purchasing curated and versatile items that will last you years and never go out of style. The mantra of buy cheap buy twice is certainly a reality, but this doesn’t mean that you need to spend beyond your means. Just buying the best quality you can afford will give your wardrobe a longer lasting style and help the planet one shirt at a time. In the Bond Community I see this when we look at our ‘Bond On A Budget’ recreations, where I know many of us search eBay and Vinted to pick up a quality item at a bargain price.

Surprisingly, one of the biggest advocates for repair and resuse and investing in quality is the king.

Ok, so I know what you are thinking, he is the king and can afford anything he wants. But look a little closer. King Charles can regularly be seen in outfits from 30+ years ago, coats worn by his father and even a patched up and repaired jacket. Even for the Coronation, he used historic items rather than having everything made new for one days use.

King Charles III

Which leads me nicely onto this weeks interview.

I first discovered Ryan Mallinson whilst listening to the ‘Menswear Style Podcast’, hosted by the Bond Community’s very own Peter Brooker.

Ryan heads up his own brand, Mallon & Son, which offers a re-waxing service for jackets, as well as his own clothing and more recently jackets and bags that he has restored. His story really resonated with me due to his ethics and I thought his unique business was such a great idea, it also works in his favour that he is a fellow Yorkshireman.

Then a couple of years ago I was very lucky to be gifted a Barbour jacket from my wife. After plenty of use it was time to get it rewaxed so that I could start ensuring it would last me forever, naturally I messaged Ryan and sent it into his workshop. We have been chatting on instagram ever since.

Good Morning Ryan and welcome to the Bond Up North Journal. Thank you for joining me. As you know I have been a follower for quite some time and recently became a customer. How did the business come about?

The business started by accident. I bought an old Barbour Gamefair from eBay that arrived looking rather dry. A bit of research later and I found online that you can rewax them at home, which was a whole new concept to me.

My background is in User Centred Design which is essentially based around User Research, so with that hat on I soon came to find that many other people weren’t as aware of ‘rewaxing’ being a thing.

A fair bit of research later and I soon realised I’d found a gap. Better still that this was also just as sustainability in fashion was coming through to the mainstream. I’m still not sure why I was driven about such a silly idea but sitting here 7 years later, it seems to have paid off.

Your business centre’s around quality and sustainability with a real repair and reuse ethic. Why do you think it is important that we try to buy for life?

I get really fed up about this, probably more than I should do. I hate seeing people getting ripped off, especially in this day and age when finances are so difficult for so many.

The whole throwaway culture goes much deeper than fashion though. I was only talking last week with atalking last week with a bricklayer who says the materials they use these days are just not fit for purpose. It seems like every industry is racing to the bottom to maximise profits with those profits always ending up in the pockets of a chosen few. Yet the people who need the most help end up with the least in terms of money and quality.

Maybe it’s an intrinsic thing from where I grew up in Leeds where people walk around wearing their money in their clothing. I’m from a very hard working family and was given strong values around spending your money well and taking care of it, which have never disappeared.

There’s also millions of sources online to tell you about fashion’s impact on both the environment but also on communities. Towns and villages up and down the UK were built on industry before having the heart of it ripped out and sold abroad, again to maximise profits.

I also believe that the search for constant ‘newness’ isn’t good for our mental health. ‘Things’ should be bought to enhance our human experiences of getting outdoors etc but sadly we’re fed a constant cycle of consumption. I do think that people are wising up though!

My jacket before & after

Your social media presence has exploded recently since you put yourself front and centre more than before. Did that seem like a natural progression, or has it surprised you?

It was never really a conscious thing to begin with but the stats around engagement started to show a massive increase when I did so. It’s still pretty alien to me and I find it incredibly awkward but the work we get from offers a massive income stream. It’s also opened the door to some amazing opportunities to work with brands I never used to be able to afford to buy!

I think maybe people find me relatable. I am a dad, I try my best to be honest and not uber pretentious and I really don’t take myself too seriously. There’s a massive irony in that I am awful at smiling in front of the camera so often portray a ‘moody’ persona yet I spend far too much of my time away from that being a bit of an idiot trying to make people laugh.

In the world of watches there is always talk about the grail watch, the dream or long term target. Is there a jacket, or piece from the past that would be your grail?

I’m quite new to watches and still learning. It’s a really nice place to be in as with jackets I can often get a little blind to what others see as an amazing jacket say. I like objects that tell a story and show the marks of life. I was recently bought a book that showed Paul Newman’s beat up Rolex Daytona and yes, it’s an obvious and easy choice but the condition says so much about how much that watch has been loved and worn.

I have sought after many grail jackets but then I’ve always ended up selling them. I’ve owned pretty much every Barbour that someone would consider a grail and I sought after 1950’s Filson jackets for a while but once they arrived, they were unwearable. I guess the one I have kept is my vintage Barbour Solway which many (including me) consider as being one of Barbour’s best jackets. As I write this I must tell you it’s sat in the back of my car for when the weather is truly terrible. It’s perfect for that. So I wouldn’t really wear a grail like many people do, being scared to get it wet or dirty!

We can’t not talk about Bond. For the sake of the reader, we have been chatting for a couple of years now on instagram and from time to time it goes to Bond. In the last year or so your son has been introduced to Bond. Is he still enjoying the franchise?

I was really late to Bond and still must admit that I’ve no desire to venture into anything pre-Daniel Craig. I did the Brosnan films when they came out and will have seen most of the others across various bank holidays and Christmases. I realise how offensive that may be to Bond lovers, so I do apologise!

For years, I had customers and followers telling me to watch Skyfall having worked on so many of the famous jackets and their variations. I ended up buying the Craig collection on DvD and did them all over a long weekend and can say that I loved them.

Mentioning my son too, we both really enjoyed them all and I do think they’re a great watch that we could all enjoy.

What is your go to franchise, or favourite film and what draws you to it?

The one that springs to mind is Drive. Gosling is just amazing throughout and everything about that film from the soundtrack to the cars is simply ace. I’ve recently gone down a Steve McQueen rabbit hole too as I’m finding myself obsessed with Hollywood from that era. I can’t ignore some of the horror stories that came to fruition about pretty much everyone but the romance and glamour around the real birth of Hollywood just look so co

As you know, 007 famously wore the Barbour Beacon in Skyfall. It is a look that is incredibly iconic now, I do try to create then whole look myself. GQ wrote an article about the overall outfit by asking ‘is this the most influential menswear outfit in movie history’.

Two parts to this really, to start what would you say if the most influential outfit in movie history?

I adore Steve McQueen’s outfit in the Great Escape and think that is certainly up there. If Craig’s Tom Ford ‘suiting’ in NTTD was a little looser then I’d add that though his Matera get up is pretty iconic. The Talented Mr Ripley is another iconic film for the outfits. As my son starts jumping into early 90s films, I realise there’s so many cool fits I’d never even consider. Like Kevin McAllister’s dad in Home Alone wearing the iconic Burberry duffle!

Secondly, if you could create a look for a Bond 26, what would you choose?

I’m not sure where Bond goes next but I read a few bits on him being younger and I also imagine that they will in turn want to bring on a new generation of people to the Bond franchise. I honestly don’t know. I’d love it if they stuck to some of the original principles and went deep on some old school tailoring from Savile Row but then I am also massively into the unstructured Italian style of tailoring. So in other words, I have no idea…

What’s next for Mallin & Son?

Topically, we’ll be appearing on the screen very very soon as I spent a fair bit of last year working with some amazing people on some amazing projects. I can’t share anymore but follow our socials as you’ll hear about it first there or likely on a Netflix ad but I’ve already said too much…

Thank you to Ryan for agreeing to the interview, and as always to you for reading. The Bond Up North Journal will return…

• Sam