LIKE most farm boys, Jonathan Ward has spent his fair share of hours sitting in a silo queue.
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But he was probably the only one in the truck reading Vogue.
"Everybody else was reading The Land," recalls the former Tottenham boy and well-known fashion designer.
It's now 12 years since Mr Ward took the design reins at R.M. Williams - an iconic Australian brand set for global growth with the sale of a stake to a private equity firm backed by luxury goods giant LVMH Moët Hennessy - Louis Vuitton last year.
While it already has stores in London and New York, and more than 900 other stockists worldwide, R.M. Williams is now making plans for eight new stores in Europe, and a push into growing luxury markets in Asia.
For Mr Ward, the brand's executive designer, it opens up opportunities to share his own spin on R.M.'s iconic Australian style with the world.
That will mean designing new collections for a new customer whose aspirations - not to mention climate and fit - differ from the traditional R.M. client, but not the brand's heritage.
"As we work on collections for Europe it's important we have things in there that are about what R.M. is about - and it's a chance to promote Australian products like Australian wool."
Mr Ward knows the traditional R.M. client well, having grown up with them.
His own ties to the brand stretch far beyond his time at the design helm to the first pair of boots he wore to pony club as a kid, the plaited belt he pinched from his father before he left for boarding school as a teenager, and a pair of hand-me-down stovepipe moleskins.
"It was part of my heritage, part of the uniform my family wore," he said.
He spent five years working on the family's mixed farming operation before pursuing a career in fashion.
Then, as now, he prided himself on mixing classics like moleskins with a more contemporary look.
"I liked to put my own spin on things. I remember I used to show a few sheep at the shows and I used to wear these skinny woollen knitted ties woven by a local lady."
When he left the farm for East Sydney Tech - at the urging of some local women keen to see him make use of his talent - his country look, moleskins and all, went with him.
"It was a look that I grew up with and that I wore at college and even when I lived overseas in New York, although I put my own spin on it.
"People loved the clipped down pockets on my moleskins."
In fact it's moleskins he names as the single piece of apparel that typifies how he's tried to reinterpret R.M.'s heritage for today's market.
Instead of a traditional 14-ounce moleskin, it's now a 10-ounce moleskin in a much younger cut - and with stretch.
"Ten years ago, you wouldn't have done stretch for men but it's comfy and it helps from a fit and look perspective," Mr Ward says.
After more than a decade in the job, he still draws inspiration from R.M.'s heritage and flicking back through old catalogues.
"There's not much R.M. hasn't done throughout the years. In one catalogue, I even found little leather shorts for men."
While unlikely to reappear on the rack any time soon, he says that's not to say they couldn't be reimagined for R.M.'s women's range.
With each collection, Mr Ward aims for a mix of classic pieces, more contemporary items and some he knows will excite and even push the more traditional client.
His 2014 autumn/winter collection for R.M. is punctuated with hints of ochre and bright blue - a palette he says was drawn from recent trips to the outback.
