Italian brand 1st PAT-RN gets into the way-way-back machine for their SS17 lookbook, channeling equal parts military situation room and Ivy League campus in their latest styles for men and women. Which isn’t so surprising when you learn that, believe it or not, this season was inspired by the Manhattan Project.

In the words of 1st PAT-RN themselves, it’s “an elegance made of decomposed and uncoordinated elements that are, in their recombination, full of a particular elegance,” and the brand notes that they’re not interested in the Manhattan Project objectives so much as the era and atmosphere. From this American writer’s perspective, it’s a dubious history on which to stake your fashion.

But, nuclear proliferation aside, 1st PAT-RN invested heavily into developing and deploying high-tech fabrics with heritage feels. Synthetic terital has been reimagined in a purely natural blend of cotton and linen, and the field jacket and work chino pants are made with a waterproof technical nylon that looks like cotton.