Designed by four hands
Ryan draws, Léo asks the questions. How a RITMEN piece goes from sketch to cut: proportions, weight, details, and one test before we say yes.
At RITMEN, no piece ever comes out of a single head. Ryan has a designer’s eye, Léo a marketer’s. The first looks for the right line, the second for the man who will wear it. Between the two there is a wooden table, fabric offcuts, a pencil, and a lot of eraser.
The sketch first
Everything starts in pencil. Ryan draws fast, several versions of the same piece: a higher hood, a shoulder that sits two centimetres lower, a wider rib at the wrist. Nothing is there for decoration. Every line answers a question: does it hang right standing, sitting, arms raised?
The fabric swatches stay next to the page. A sketch tells you nothing about weight: you need the fabric under your fingers to know whether the hood will hold its shape or collapse.
Then the questions
Léo takes the sketch and holds it up against real life. When do you wear this piece? Early morning, at the gym, on the commute, at home in the evening? Does it go with the rest of the range? Will you want to put it on again tomorrow?
That is where a lot of ideas stop. One pocket too many, one colour too many, a logo too big: out it goes.
What stays
- Relaxed volumes: a low shoulder line, a boxy cut for the tee, room to move without looking sloppy.
- Weight: a fabric that hangs straight and holds its shape, rather than one that floats.
- A discreet R: embroidered on the chest or the back of the neck, knitted into the back of the socks. The logo signs the piece; it doesn’t fill it.
- Pieces that answer each other: the top and bottom of each set are designed together, in a short palette of black, steel grey, charcoal, white and ecru.
The only test that counts
Before we sign off a piece, we ask the same question every time: would we wear it every day? If either of us hesitates, the pencil comes back out.