Fynch-Hatton

Fynch-Hatton was founded in 1998 by Roger Brandts, a young German designer who took the brand's name -- with a deliberately altered spelling -- from Denys Finch Hatton, the English-born big-game hunter and safari guide who lived in colonial-era Kenya in the early 20th century. Brandts encountered Finch Hatton's story while on a work placement in South Africa, around the same period that the film 'Out of Africa,' which centers partly on Finch Hatton's life, brought the figure to wider popular attention. Brandts was drawn to Finch Hatton's independence and adventurous reputation and built a clothing label around that image rather than any direct business connection to the historical figure. Denys Finch Hatton himself was born in England in 1887, the second son of an earl, educated at Eton and Oxford's Brasenose College, and traveled to British East Africa in 1911, where he became known as a professional hunter and safari guide before his death in a plane crash in 1931. The Fynch-Hatton label translates that safari-adventure image into contemporary men's casualwear -- knitwear, outerwear and separates positioned as relaxed rather than overtly rugged -- sold through its own stores and stockists across Germany and other European markets.