The Idea That Became a Place
It has been a wild year in many respects, and despite the sense that some things might be heading in the wrong direction, we have embraced the perspective that nature provides. Rewilding at The Fields has reached an important milestone.
One key lesson we've learned — sometimes the hard way — is that nature is never truly complete. Its cyclical nature means it is always changing in ways beyond our full understanding. While we have many observations and data, the belief that we can fully control or predict nature is a fundamental misconception. Nonetheless, the conditions for rewilding at The Fields are now well established, and in many respects, nature has taken the lead. The wildflower meadows are thriving and developing a richer, more complex native ecosystem beyond our initial planting efforts or expectations.
Of nearly 2,000 trees and shrubs planted, many have successfully established, creating conditions for wild plants and animals to flourish. Large blackberry brambles are emerging naturally throughout the meadows and grasslands, signaling ongoing reforestation. Additionally, various native flowers, shrubs, herbs, and grasses are now appearing across the property, providing habitats that support the thriving of mammals, birds, insects, reptiles, and invertebrates without human interference. As the land's ecosystem expands beyond our original plantings, our role has evolved from initial establishment to actively facilitating and managing its healthy development to the best of our ability.
This year, the agenda has been to increase our targeted maintenance while layering in new plantings and activities. There have been several remediation projects, including multiple phases of targeted vine and invasive-species removal across more than half the property. We also completed a multistep process for our water-buffer and carbon-capture planting project, including removing tubes and re-staking newly established trees and shrubs. This year also brought deep work in the forest, managing weak trees and those that had fallen during storms to help ensure they did not take out healthy older-growth trees. We re-mulched paths and restored the walking trails through the forest, for a total trail loop of more than a mile and a half.
The seasonal cycles are becoming more extreme, and a long, robust fall was followed by a shorter, at times drastic, winter. Ice storms turned the land into weeklong glaciers, but the resulting snowpack protected root systems from sub-freezing temperatures and helped prepare the ground for new growth. An early-spring freeze caused a disruption, followed by a couple of months of warm, dry weather. Despite all this, new growth and buds were able to flourish and establish. Summer has been shorter and cooler overall, but the prolonged national, regional, and statewide drought — amid growing concern over the water demands of expanding data-center development — has been troubling. Regardless, we have received significant rainfall from heavy summer storms, helping sustain the land. While the shock between dry and saturated conditions is not good for older-growth forests, it remains preferable to an arid landscape. Overall, The Fields are as healthy and flourishing as they can be. Bees are busy, pollinators are prospering, birds are abundant, and conditions are as manageable as wild nature can be.
Despite climate change and another year of significant honeybee colony losses, The Fields apiary remains healthy and produced another successful annual yield. This year’s honey has a fresh flavor profile that is sweet from the florals, earthy from the tree nectars, and spicy from the herb pollens gathered by our worker bees. In addition to the progress and labor on the land, we have been busy crafting projects and products from it. Beginning this fall, we will launch The Fields Wicked Wildflower Honey Wine, produced by Silver Hand Meadery as the result of a two-year collaboration to develop a signature formula using The Fields honey and blackberries as its core ingredients. Join or Die knives and everyday-carry pieces continue to translate woods from the property into artisan tools and collectibles. At the same time, we are developing The Fields furniture collections to meet the standards of their old-growth, fallen-wood sources and surroundings.
The Fields began as an idea that became a place. As products and programming emerge from it and our desire to make the endeavor more widely accessible grows, we have begun developing a catalog of goods to carry its principles beyond the property. Through this challenging yet rewarding experience, we have learned how deeply nature wants to do its own thing — and that allowing it to remain wild is often the most valuable way to tend it. We want to share those lessons, practices, and results with a broader audience.
The Fields are a return to wild order, where things have been allowed to recover their natural complexity. It is a place where rhythms forgotten and stripped from much of our world can be rediscovered. Wildness and intention coexist here in a landscape shaped by patience, informed by failure, and built to last longer than we do. We designed it as an invitation to participate in the restoration of land, practice, and self through presence, attention, and the kind of time that does not rush.
The line between wild and kept is where The Fields live. On one side, native grasses return, creeks clear, pollinators multiply, and rewilding advances. On the other, invasive species are cleared, trails are maintained, trees are planted with intention, fallen timber is milled into tables, honey is harvested and jarred, and the work of keeping becomes something else entirely. The desire for The Fields has always been to create something accessible in spirit yet distinctive in execution, open to anyone willing to meet it where it is.
This evolution arrives at a fitting point in our timeline. We are five years from the launch of Division Road at The Fields and ten years from the launch of Division Road itself. The time we have spent on a farm in Virginia now equals the time Division Road spent in Seattle. Wild.
There is still nothing in menswear quite like what we have built here. We are proud of it, and we know our clients value the connection and memories created when they visit. The only thing rarer these days than the goods we provide may be experiences that leave a lasting impression and are readily recalled.
The Fall-Winter Residency is a key component of what we do, and it does not exist elsewhere in retail. It remains a hallmark of what Division Road at The Fields is all about: connection, craft, and creation.
Last year, we were pleased to welcome a full house of vendors and clients to a three-day event. Partner brands and clients traveled from international destinations, and more than two-thirds of our visiting clients came from west of the Mississippi to engage with the unique made-to-order features and the Virginia craft-artisan fair we assembled. Fox Brothers arrived from Somerset, England, with six custom recipes and patterns developed in collaboration with and exclusively for Division Road, accompanied by a catalog of specialty cloths. Clients selected these fabrics for Fox x Division Road blankets and for a range of Dehen 1920 and Freenote Cloth styles, pairing them with custom details, thread colors, and trims.
Many Dehen 1920 Skyline and Crissman overshirts, along with Varsity and Winston jackets, were designed in collaboration with owner and operator Jim Artaiz, using Fox Brothers cloths and factory-found deadstock materials. The results were outstanding. Freenote Cloth founder Andrew Brodrick presented made-to-order Benson and Midway overshirts at the Fox Cloth shop, developing one-of-a-kind pieces and offering a complete custom leather jacket program. Clients could pair rare hides with a personally fitted, detailed jacket or shirt to create wardrobe grails for even the most discerning collectors. New to the Division Road fray at the time, Nicks Handmade Boots debuted on our roster, offering custom orders across its catalog of boot patterns, lasts, and leathers, along with sample hides and unreleased offerings. Shuyler, Lucas, and Abbey adapted seamlessly to the DR way, sizing clients and configuring a host of creations ranging from foundational staples to the wonderfully wild.
With last year’s added focus on regional craft, Brent Stubblefield gave forging demonstrations that offered a window into his artistry with hand, tool, and fire. Maja Sandvang exhibited her pure art forms during the reception evening, when everyone gathered to the sounds of Peter Richardson and to a food-and-wine pairing from Eastwood Farm and Winery. Throughout the event, Silver Hand Meadery offered tastings of early test batches of our Wicked Wildflower Honey Wine alongside its greatest hits, while Blenheim Vineyards poured wines to accompany Chef Matt Greene’s elevated cookout, creating a proper epicurean adventure.
To the Division Road Faithful, nothing marks the start of the heritage-goods season like our Fall-Winter Residency. This year, we are hosting an international assemblage of Fortela from Italy, Freenote Cloth from the United States, and Original Madras Trading Co. from India, via New York City. Together, they will create an exclusive custom-shopping experience at The Fields on October 10 and 11.
Additionally, we will offer an immersive living demonstration of our rewilding project and a preview of The Fields through educational walks, talks, and Ranger rides. The program will feature our own honey and Wicked Wildflower Honey Wine, produced by Silver Hand Meadery, along with gourmet food and wine tastings from Michael Shaps, one of the region's finest producers.
This rare lineup begins with Andrew Brodrick of Freenote Cloth, bringing the West’s best to the East and offering the chance to create a one-of-a-kind leather jacket from the company’s full catalog of styles in rare and signature hides. Joining the Division Road roster this season, third-generation owner Prasan Shah will bring Original Madras Trading Co. and a host of deadstock, hand-loomed cloths featuring never-before-seen combinations of color, yarn, and pattern. Clients will have the opportunity to design their own shirts, starting with the fabric itself. Menswear fixture Alessandro Squarzi will travel from Milan to The Fields for an exclusive presentation of the Fortela x Division Road capsule collection, accompanied by a personally curated selection from the Fortela archives and women’s collection.
Beyond the custom craft shop, this Residency will offer the first full view of The Fields as a living program. Our Master Beekeeper, Brooke Savage, will lead presentations and demonstrations centered on the apiary. Guests can walk The Fields with Brian Morse of Virginia Forestry and Wildlife on a guided tour exploring the work of restoring the land to its true nature, then return to a libation from that land with the launch of Wicked Wildflower Honey Wine, produced by Glenn Lavender and Silver Hand Meadery. It seems fitting to tell the fuller story of The Fields through the voices of the esteemed partners who have helped us make this wild wonderland a reality.