The Safari Short has been a staple of the Rogue Territory collection for a few seasons now. It was originally inspired by standard issue military trousers for the infantry personnel stationed in Vietnam. When designing, our approach is always one of pulling inspiration from many references, combining them and then simplifying. The Safari Short is a perfect example of this. The gusseted back pockets, the defining detail of the short, were pulled from a 1930s work shirt chest pocket. We mixed that gusseted pocket with the distinct front patch pocket of the infantry pant. When combined, the 2 details make for a super functional and very subtle design.

When we started talking to the guys (Jesse and Jay) of the Coveted Man about their trip to Marfa, Texas and how they wanted to collaborate on a product inspired by that trip, we immediately started talking about shorts. Marfa in June can be hot, shorts are a must. The Safari Short was an obvious choice, but we wanted to do something to make it special — to incorporate something that could be pulled from the Texan landscape. So we started talking patterns and how to incorporate them into the shorts. The end result was a custom pattern inspired by the traditional Navajo woven blankets that are a huge part of the mid-western culture and have been produced in Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Texas for over 200 years.

To keep the clean aesthetic of the short we decided that the print was not going to be the main focus but used more as an accent. Applying the mid-western print is not easy. To print the 4 colors in the pattern, each color had to be lined up and screen printed separately. To have the pattern pop, we used a plastisol ink which is pretty bright initially, but after a few wears starts to fade perfectly. We’re really excited with the final product and feel that it fit in perfectly with the Marfa adventure.

Photos by The Coveted Man