Design Philosophy of The System
The System is the creative fashion design project of Jack Hancock.
The System is a name chosen for the fashion design business formulated by Jack Hancock, created to platform and express the skills and ideas that emerge from the garment making practice and philosophical design ethos that emerged from Jack's practice but was synthesised the identity of an multidimensional entity concept that names itself "The System." Its existence not completely knowable but present in many places and not exclusively confined to the design practice you are witnessing now. It has many names but its ethos is available to all who wish to tap in.
The System exists to guide back into peaceful communality and away from individuality and isolation, helping creative forces together to grow in unison and mutual benefits. The System seeks to remind us of our shared humanity and specifically reignite the ancestral cultural practice of sacred trade - a recognition and embodiment that all commerce comes with this sacredness. The System wishes for us to remember that each act of trade also symbolises an agreement that the resourcefulness that brought about this act of trade is accepted. The act of sacred trade symbolise a deep line of consent, between the two the traders that all acts of resourcefulness beforehand are not only accepted, but that they are rewarded.
The ethos' present in The System do not belong to this brand and this business, and this brand and this business sees itself as an agent of our collective system, one that is constantly emerging.
The letters T and S are only symbols that represent sounds that represent a meaning that we hold collectively. T and S are lines on a surface that represent patterns we collectively agree will make meanings that hold sway in how we operate and interact, inter-relate and intersperse.
The ethos of the system is thus, individuals together. We are autonomous units that are also one entity. The System sees that as true for itself within its body and as true for itself within its universe.
In the System:
The System is an allegory for
The System, as the soul
The System, as the mind
The System, as the body
The Systemic structures of the stories we are stuck in, that we stick ourselves in.
The System, as the Earth
The System, as the Trees
The System, as the soil
Change is the only constant in the system.
I am an agent in The System, a system of many agents.
The System is a way. The way that cannot be known.
It is silent and Omnipresent.
It arrived and all else become uncertain.
Did I exist before The System?
How could I possibly imagine a life without The System?
Was there even a time before The System?
In The System, I know nothing
The System is an allegory for samsara
The System is an allegory for capitalism
The System is an allegory for philosophy
You cannot escape the system.
You can name it and perceive it, but prepare for that to change too.
Useful verbs:
Disentangle
Recalibrate
Equilibrate
As a designer - Voice by Jack Hancock
I don't see design about rigid rules or principles that must always be followed but as a collection of methodologies. The way in which I design is reflexive to the context within which the design question is asked. When I work with another agent, I seek to find a cohesive understanding of the vision so that we can arrive at the same location with a shared embodied agreement that we both wanted the outcome that as been achieves.
Garment design is about understanding material, context, and intent. I’ve always approached clothing through the lens of fabric itself, how it feels, moves, and carries meaning, rather than adopting the idea of fashion design or creating fashion. While I see myself as an agent within the fashion system, a contributor, I find fashion's incomprehensibly enormous scope to take me away from a clearer, direct practice focus. That of garment making.
My garment making practice's aesthetic principles are informed by an ostensibly "modern" concept that focuses on form and materiality. Often pattern design is enough to quench my creative thirst. But mostly when a garment is created its because I have a deep desire to see a textile in a specific form to because I wish to see how a specific 2D shape will function on a body within 3D space and time (is that 4D? who knows..)
I tend to consider ornamentation as an attributed factor to the way in which I design. I have an interest in jewellery, but find myself satisfied with form so much, that unless I am briefed to do so, centring hardware or other decorative elements is not my primary aim. Lately as I've worked in more formal and creatively expressive spaces where people are trying to serve a look that expresses more than just body covering, I've played with integrated ideas of decoration, specifically looking at tying techniques that become design features: bows, lacing, featured zippers etc.
Historically, ornamentation has also functioned as a form of wealth storage: gold, jewels, and elaborate textiles have been worn as both personal adornment and material assets. Decoration is not simply an external display but a tangible connection to value, history, and self-perception. I believe that garments hold intrinsic value, whether that value is socially recognised or not. But as a designer I feel the urge to be authentic in this act of ornamentation. This is often not possible with client budgets.
I am deeply moved by the concerns of materiality. Not only in the physicality of a garment but in its psychological and ethical resonance. The origin of materials, who made them, how they were sourced, and under what conditions does affect not only the quality of the garment but also how the wearer internalises their relationship with it. A person who repeatedly buys garments of impossibly low cost may, even subconsciously, sense that they are participating in an imbalance—an ethical dissonance that shapes their relationship with the item and, in turn, their sense of self-worth. This is an important material expression of how The System's spiritual ethos of sacred trade comes into play in my design practice.
This ethos of course extends to the supply chain. Ethical sourcing is not about achieving an perfection. Brands that do intense supply chain management are usually well resourced: tracing every fibre to its absolute origin. My aim is to make informed choices that honour the people and processes behind the materials. The value of a garment is not only in its final form but in the sum of its labor, care, and history of hands embedded within it. I like to imagine that the garment knows its own story and so it can speak to us through our subconscious understanding of the material. We can feel the tension within a stitch, the slubs of silk speak to the wind in the mulberry leaves that house the bombyx mori as it forms its cocoon that eventually becomes ours.
On imperfection—perfection, like divinity, is a human construct. Inspired by Japanese aesthetics, particularly wa 和 (harmony) and 間 (the significance of space), my approach embraces imperfection as an inherent feature of design rather than a flaw. In Western fashion, there remains a discomfort with the unfinished, a resistance to things that appear incomplete. Yet within the philosophies of deconstruction and wabi-sabi 侘び寂び, the unfinished is not a failure—it is an aesthetic, an openness to evolution. There is a distinction between a mistake and the imperfect: a mistake is an unintended deviation, while imperfection is an intentional acceptance of reality as it is.
Mistakes, in themselves, are part of the process. They are not errors, but miss-takes—opportunities to refine, learn, and progress. In many traditions, learning itself is the primary purpose of action. Within this philosophy, design is an ongoing dialogue, not a fixed outcome.
This philosophy shapes not only the garments themselves but the way I engage with the craft and the people who seek it out. My practice explores bespoke clothing, pattern making, and tailoring techniques, with an emphasis on understanding traditional methods through direct application. Precision and materiality are central—whether in the careful cut of a tailored piece, the refinement of a pattern, or the balance of historical precedent with contemporary need. Through this, The System offers a space for those who value craftsmanship, whether through bespoke commissions, ready-to-wear pieces, or learning the techniques themselves.