Robert Spangle has spent much of his life in motion.

Raised in Malibu, California, he served as a Force Reconnaissance Marine in Afghanistan before apprenticing as a tailor on Savile Row. He went on to build parallel careers as a fashion photographer, working for publications including British GQ, L’Officiel Hommes and The Rake, and as a journalist covering global conflicts for titles such as The New York Times, Esquire and Frontsight. Along the way, airports, train stations, hotel rooms and border crossings became less an interruption than a permanent condition.

It is perhaps inevitable that the jacket he would eventually design would emerge from that experience.

Presented during Pitti Uomo in Florence, the collaboration between Valstar and The Observer — the publication and design project founded by Spangle — centers on a travel jacket developed over more than a year alongside Valstar’s Creative Director, Luigi Fila. The result is a garment shaped not by trend forecasts or runway references, but by the practical realities of contemporary movement: long-haul flights, changing climates, professional meetings, daily commutes and the constant negotiation between comfort and presentation.

“From the beginning, the goal was simple: create a jacket I would genuinely want to live and travel in,” Spangle said. “Nearly two years of prototypes, testing and refinement went into every detail, from the freedom of movement to the comfort on long journeys. What I’m most proud of is that it performs exactly as intended—not just in theory, but in the real world.”

That real world became the project’s laboratory. The jacket accompanied Spangle across reporting assignments and professional commitments stretching from Ukraine to Milan, from Paris to Prague, from Seville to the United States. Rather than imagining the needs of a traveler, it was developed while traveling, evolving through repeated wear and continuous adjustment.

The design itself reflects this process. Drawing from Valstar’s historic outerwear vocabulary, the jacket reinterprets the familiar bomber silhouette through a cleaner and more contemporary lens. Soft suede sleeves are paired with a streamlined body, while technical solutions are integrated discreetly into the construction to enhance freedom of movement and comfort. 

Nothing appears overtly functional. There are no exaggerated utility references or visible performance cues. The emphasis remains on ease, proportion and versatility.

For Fila, that balance sits at the heart of the collaboration.

“With this collaboration, we wanted to reflect the way contemporary wardrobes need to move seamlessly between different worlds,” he said. “Functionality and elegance should never be opposing forces.”

The statement reflects a broader philosophy that has long informed Valstar’s approach to menswear. Since its founding in Milan, the house has built its reputation on garments that occupy a space between utility and refinement, where practicality is elevated through craftsmanship rather than decoration.

“At Valstar, there is a constant dialogue between volumes, proportions and ways of living,” Fila continued. “Designing garments that adapt to different rhythms and contexts while preserving a strong sense of identity. What gives power to clothing is this balance: an attitude that transforms practicality into sophistication, ensuring that even the most functional pieces retain an effortless elegance and a distinctive presence.”

The collaboration feels particularly fitting because both Valstar and The Observer share a similar understanding of clothing. Neither approaches garments as purely aesthetic objects. Instead, they are seen as companions to lived experience — items that acquire meaning through use, repetition and longevity.

For Spangle, whose first book Afghan Style explored clothing as a lens through which to understand identity and culture, that perspective has remained constant throughout his career. Whether documenting conflict zones, photographing menswear or designing products, his interest has consistently centered on how people inhabit what they wear.

Pitti Uomo offered a natural stage for the project’s debut. Florence’s biannual menswear gathering remains one of the few places where designers, journalists, buyers, stylists and entrepreneurs converge with a shared appreciation for craftsmanship and product. It is also an audience intimately familiar with travel, accustomed to navigating cities, climates and schedules with little time to change between them.

The Observer x Valstar jacket speaks directly to that reality. It is not designed for a particular destination, but for the movement between destinations; not for exceptional occasions, but for the routines that increasingly define contemporary life. Its appeal lies precisely in that restraint — a garment conceived to move quietly between contexts while retaining the confidence, elegance and practicality that both partners believe good design should provide.