RVLT hoody from Limitees

If you’ve got a couple of hours to spare and a lot of patience, you might want to make your way over to Danish label Revolution’s website to check out their collection. In fact I think it might be collections, plural but I can’t be sure as I lost interest after getting stuck in a flashy Flash loop. Hrumph.
Far simpler, would be to look at the collection at Limitees. They don’t have everything, but the do have this ‘Simon’ hoody in grey. I like the simple block print, I like the colour combination, I like the way the zip comes up onto the neck for extra warmth. It’s great.

Marc Jacobs leather jacket

Whilst pea
and trench coats are great for dressing up and down, sometimes I don’t want to
look even slightly smart. When I go to a slightly rougher side of town, I want
to dress extremely casual and wearing a pea/trench coat of any kind instantly
smartens you up. Leather jackets are perfect for times like this.

Marc
Jacobs leather biker jacket is one of those jackets that will never go out
of fashion, even though it’s quite trendy right now. The website also has it
for the amazing price of $0! Although when you try to buy you’ll see the actual
price is the not-so-free price of $2120.

Do lambswool the right way with APC

A couple of years back, a friend of mine bought a jumper from a high street store which should remain nameless. The jumper was lambswool and polyester blend. Now, for me, there’s no excuse for mixing soft lambswool with harsh polyester in the first place, but this was such a high content and loose knit, you could actually see little shards of polyester fibres nestling in it just waiting to act like a cheese grater on the delicate lambs wool. It was lambswool to the slaughter – before he’d even got the jumper home there were bobbles forming on it.

But I digress. APC commit no such crime. Their gorgeous grey lambswool jumper pictured is 100% pure softest lambswool. It also has a lovely blue and grey diamond pattern which is very understated and has a wholesome 1940s feel to it. If you’re going to bother with lambswool, this is really how you should do it.

Artful Dodger hoodie

Artful Dodger have been a huge part of the
streetwear renaissance along with LRG and a few other brands. The market had
reached saturation point after rappers flooded the market with cheaply made,
uninspiring pieces, leaving space for streetwear aficionados who wanted
something of quality.

From the autumn/winter collection there are
many great pieces but this embroidered
hoodie  is the most eye-catching. It’s
available for $200 from Zoovillage.

Something to distract Heather Mills-McCartney

As reported in a fab photo shoot by Mario Testino for Men’s Vogue, furs are back on the catwalk this season – but this time it’s for men.
Before we go any further, I want to make a couple of things clear: I’m a vegetarian and so would never wear fur. I think its cruel and unnecessary and would never promote it. Quite apart from its cruelty, I think it’s ostentatious and in the case of men makes you look like a pimp.
However. I think it’s up to each person to make up their own mind and I feel no need to get preachy about it. In fact, I think that the sanctimonious antics of organisations like Peta generate more recruits for the opposition than for their own cause. I’m sure many people only wear fur out of stubbornness – especially in an arena like fashion where people like to think of themselves as rebellious agents provocateur.
I can’t imagine people think it looks good, so what other reason is there? Continues after jump…

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Spiewak double breasted pea coat

Pea coats are the coat of choice this winter.
They had a bit of a scuffle with trench coats, but consumers seem to have
decided that the trench coat is too much of a fad. This had led to a rise of designers making
pea coats, with streetwear designers Spiewak getting in on the act with this brown
double-breasted pea coat. The mere fact that it’s brown sets it apart from the  usual grey crowd, allowing you to stand out in a subtle way.

You can even get $8 off shipping if you enter CHILLD
as a discount on Karmaloop.com

Be your own light show with Henrik Vibskov’s Disco Jacket

OK, I know what you’re going to say, but come on, this is fun! By some strange alchemy, Mr. Henrik Vibskov, has managed to combine a mirrorball and a bomber jacket and this is the result.
Imagine wearing this down the roller-rink – you’d be the talk of the town! In fact, just put it on, pump up the music, pop a cork, dance in front of your bedroom mirror and this jacket is a night out in itself. You don’t even need the roller-rink!
I wanted to show you the close-up because I think that from far away it could be a little scary, but then I realized the close-up doesn’t really help, it’s still quite scary. Still, you’ve can’t take yourself seriously all the time, can you?
Snap it up at Refinery 29 and Aloha Rag.

Your Eyes Lie Black and White Tees

There’s no denying it. Sometimes your eyes do lie to you. Sometimes you just can’t be sure if you’re seeing a candlestick or two faces looking at each other.

However you can be sure that what you’re looking at on Your Eyes Lie‘s website is the real deal, as these guys not only design the hottest, wittiest, smart(Alec)est T-shirts, they’ve also selected the finest T-shirt designs and jewellery from a range of other labels.

YEL tees tend to be simple black designs on a white background which lets their quirky designs and wry slogans speak for themselves. Here’s three of my top picks, but there’s plenty to choose from.

Uniqlo double breasted pea coat

Regular readers may have noticed that I like Uniqlo. A lot. Whilst their cashmere
range is uninspiring, they have a great range of coats in store, including
their own take on the overexposed trench coat. more interesting than the already passé trench
is this double
breasted pea coat.

With this
pea coat, Uniqlo have managed to copy higher end coats down to a tee, rather
than just taking out crucial design quirks and using acrylic as a material for
clothing. They cost £70 and are available from Uniqlo’s website.

Wood Wood Pixel Print

I was in Paris recently and saw a guy in the street wearing a T-shirt with little pixelated Space Invader-style designs all over it. It was sooooo cool, but stricken with shyness all my French word became like crumbs of baguette in my throat and I couldn’t ask him where he got it. Boy did I kick myself.

But the gods must’ve been smiling down on me on my return because I happened upon a the very ceefax-inspired prints at on-line store, End. They’re designed by Danish label Wood Wood, who recently collaborated with Nike, as regular readers will know.

The prints adorn T-shirts and hoodies as well as scarves. They bear the legend ‘The Joy of Repetition’, a joy which Wood Wood will help you discover.

Unconditional Ghost Hoody

Unconditional is one of my favourite labels. Actually, it might be my favourite. I love their fine gauge knits, which are always in the best colours; I love their tees, with their deep chest-flashing necklines; and I love Concrete, their shop off Carnaby Street which always smells gorgeous.

This “Ghost” hoody is a bit of a staple for the label. It can be worn in a number of ways, which is always a good thing in my book. It’s got these clever little straps which are attached to the inside seam of the shoulder and loop round to be buttoned on the shoulder like epaulettes. You can either button the straps and wear the hood as a hood, or unbutton them and the hood drapes round your neck in a pleasing cowl effect.

I bought one a couple of years ago and it’s paid for itself in the attention its garnered. I would have had to buy a lot of alcohol to make myself feel that good.

Laundry Room have a grey and black version.

Ethical Shopping (yawn!) from Howie’s

It’s difficult trying to be maintain a moral sensibility in today’s consumerist society. You want to do your bit for the environment, but you don’t want to seem like a self-righteous miserablist.

Howie’s is a label who can help. They do as much as they can to lessen the impact of their clothing production, but they’re quite realistic about it, pledging only to do their best, not to be entirely guilt-free. Most of their T-shirts are made from organic cotton and they try to use less harmful dyes, but they don’t claim the cotton is fair trade because they’re not entirely convinced that the trade is fair.

They’re refreshingly self aware about their moral excellence, as this “do fucking gooder” T-shirt attests (read after the jump for the entire slogan if you can’t make it out). Their “Train not Plane” tee (pictured right) from the current collection, is a witty and timely reminder.

This approach of doing what you can but not setting yourself up for failure seems like the right one to me. More power to their elbow.

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Che Big Poppa Biggie from Nossa

This T-shirt from Nossa throws up interesting issues about popular culture and those who populate it.
Che Guevarra has stopped being a person and is now an icon. Many people know nothing about his life or what he was fighting for but everyone knows the famous image of him on a red background which is used as a shorthand for grass-roots rebellion and political dissent.
The same thing has happened with Tupac and Biggie. For many they were role models, their lyrics expressing a dissatisfaction with the world and with the place of young, particularly black, people in society. Since being cut off in their prime, like latter day martyrs, images of the pair have adorned everything from T-shirts, to walls, to tattoos. Their likenesses have come to symbolise a society which ignores young people but at the same time pits them against each other, cancelling out the very voices which are calling for change.

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Shades of Greige bomber jacket hotness

You’ve got to hand it to those Shades of Greige guys: they’ve got a great line in plain, honest, no nonsense everyday wear, which always manages to look effortlessly cool. Their lines have an almost folky feel to them, as if the Amish have commissioned them to update their wardrobe. This commitment to simplicity is reflected in their name – “greige” is a term to describe the warm grey of untreated fabrics.
Their plaid bomber jacket, pictured here, is the perfect example of their aesthetic – a traditional fabric reworked with no great fanfare into a modern classic. Sweet.
Don’t forget, as a loyal Brandish reader, you can get 10% off when you order this, or anything else, from Brigade, by quoting “brandish!!” when checking out.

Trend Watch – Puffer Jackets from All Saints

We’ve already discussed how puffer jackets have been called back from the fashion dustbin where they’ve been languishing, unloved for a long time. This one is from All Saints and is available from their on-line store.

I’ve not been that into All Saints for a long time but now I’m revising my opinion. I still think a lot of their stuff is over-designed but I think they do a good job of translating catwalk trends for the high street.

This jacket is ‘rave-inspired’ apparently, but despite that, it’s bang on trend with its pared down puffs and light-weight nylon. It also has a double zip which makes you look like you’re wearing two jackets. Only you will know that you’ve only paid for one. Genius!