The quintessentially British label, Hackett have launched their spring/summer 2011 collection. Comprised of four ranges, Hackett have tried to bring a classy sophisticated look to almost every summer event, whether it be a day in the country, a business engagement or just relaxing by the seaside. Although it is quite a traditional collection, I can’t help but love it. There are just so many timeless pieces worth the investment.
The four ranges include the Correspondent collection, which is inspired by “the globetrotting gentleman”, and incorporates light-weight, warm weather suiting and iconic travel garments, such as safari jackets, chinos and macs, with a contemporary cut and style. The Mayfair collection shows off the classic Hackett tailoring combined with knitwear in summery tones of fresh lilac, warm pink and mint green. The collection is a real blend of sophisticated, casual sportswear. The Caribbean collection continues a travel theme with bold colours and prints on cotton and linen trousers, shorts, polos, casual shirts, and swim wear. Finally the Nautical collection comprises of traditional maritime colours, and key pieces including a double-faced navy jacket with red lining, horizontal striped blazers, lightweight white suiting and nautical striped polo shirts.
For those of you who like the sounds of the collection your in luck because to celebrate the launch of the new season collection, Hackett is giving away an essential Hackett beach kit through their Facebook page. Check out their fan page here for all the details.
On a side note I absolutely love the photography for the collection. You can see more images on their Flickr page here
Love sneakers? So do we, so when the guys from Footlocker offered us 50 exclusive beta codes to access the new Sneakerpedia site we jumped at the chance.
Launching on April 4th, Sneakerpedia is one of the world’s first online digital sneaker archives. The aim of the site is to document every single sneaker, ever made…. Contributing to the site are some serious sneakerheads with the rarest, coolest sneakers on the planet, not to mention some of the all time classics. These unique codes will give you access to the site before anyone else in the world. You’ll have the chance to check out the cool collections and even upload your own.
Enter to win a beta code by leaving us a comment below or tweet at us here indicating your all time favourite sneaker.
We will select 50 winners at random on March 17th.
Usually when you hear the words sustainable shoes, images of hippy burlap sacks for the feet come to mind. However, Oat Shoes, prove that sustainable fashion can actually be fashionable.
Founder Christiaan Maats took on the seemingly-impossible challenge of designing and fabricating decomposable footwear as a continuation of his graduation project in product design. After over two years in development, the Amsterdam-based label finally introduced prototypes of its Virgin Collection, a brilliantly-conceived lineup of kicks constructed from hemp canvas, bio-cotton, cork and certified biodegradable plastic.
When you wear out a pair of Oats you can literally bury them in your backyard or toss them into the compost where they will decompose – not that you will want to do that for a some time. The Virgin Collection comes in four versatile yet laid-back styles. I love the subtly colourful soles and being made from hemp canvas, they are naturally antibacterial and a fantastic moisture-wicker, all which will extend the wearability of your kicks.
The Virgin Collection’s four styles, two high tops and two-low tops, will be available for purchase this spring on the Oat Shoes website for €140-150.
Oliver Peoples consistently impress me with their eyewear collections, and this latest is no different.
The company was founded in 1986 when opticians Larry and Dennis Leight opened an optical boutique on Sunset Boulevard, California. Earlier that year, they purchased an estate collection of vintage American-made eyewear. The assortment included thousands of beautifully filigreed rimless and metal frames, including clip-on metal sunglasses produced by iconic American companies, such as by Bausch & Lomb and American Optical. All the frames were unworn, in mint condition and in their original packaging.
The brothers purchased the entire lot, which included a receipt signed with the name “Oliver Peoples,” who they reasoned was the original owner or distributor. When they decided to sell the estate collection in their retail store, they decided to use this name in his honor.
Now years later, encouraged by loyal friends, family and customers Oliver Peoples founder Larry Leigh, has dug through his personal archive of original Oliver Peoples designs and decided to revive several iconic, brand-defining styles.
He believes, and I’m inclined to agree, that these classic styles is just as strong today as it was twenty years ago. Since very few originals still exist, and because it is essential that the same attention to detail, craftsmanship and the integrity of the original styles be retained, the brand reached out to the same Japanese factory to reproduce these designs in a limited run. The frames will be made available to select customers.
Bespoken’s menswear collection was presented at New York’s Fashion Week and is creating quite the stir. “The pieces in this collection were inspired by the details of these soldiers’ attire, how they carried themselves through hardship and the natural wear of their tailored goods while working at sea,” they explain. The collection includes nautical pieces like a reversible seaman’s jacket, a sailor shirt and fisherman knits.
Headed by the Fayeds and the Goncalves, two sets of brothers, Bespoken draws from rich sartorial tradition. The Fayed family owns the British clothier Turnbull & Asser, and the brothers have clearly taken advantage of the archives available to them by pulling Victorian era patterns.
Bespoken is headquartered in New York, however the label remains absolutely British.
When Acne creative director Jonny Johansson was asked about the Men’s Fall 2011 collection he shrugged and stated “All the tailoring—I thought that was in the moment, something fresh. I’m tired of all this heritage, the older models or whatever. It’s time for something young.” Here at Brandish we completely agree!
The collection includes a series of overcoats paired with suit pants, as well as very sartorial two-piecers. With TV influences like Mad Men the suit is becoming increasingly popular amongst younger generations and it’s labels like Acne that they’ll turn to.
The collection over all is very youthful with slightly cropped pants and low-buttoning jackets in different styles all in Italian bonded wool. The pallet sees accents of raspberry, royal blue, or teal. Johansson stated that the clothing was made for “that moment when you’re not grown up and at the same time, not a kid. The kind of sexual energy that brings.”
See pictures from the star studded Acne Autumn 2011 show in the gallery below.
This morning for the 10th consecutive season Irish designer, Paul Costelloe, kicked off London Fashion week with his very sophisticated yet colorful collection for Fall/Winter 2011.
Costelloe cites ‘home grown fashion’ as the inspiration for the collection. From Harris tweed from Scotland, luxury plaids and herringbones from Ireland, and beautiful bright cashmere wool from England, this collection is truly reflective of UK style.
The menswear collection saw a lot of round collared shirts, suave velvet burgundy blazers and a smattering of olive and khaki. Overall both the men’s and women’s collection has a simple yet chic 60/70s feel that is very wearable.
The Paul Costelloe collection was the perfect way to kick off fashion week. I can’t wait to see more!
Bill Cunningham, the 81 year old New York Times photographer is arguably the greatest contemporary street photographer. For decades, this Schwinn-riding cultural anthropologist has been obsessively and inventively chronicling fashion trends and high society charity soirées for the Times Style section in his columns “On the Street” and “Evening Hours.” Documenting uptown fixtures (Wintour, Tom Wolfe, Brooke Astor, David Rockefeller—who all appear in the film out of their love for Bill), downtown eccentrics and everyone in between.
The film Bill Cunningham New York is set to come out next month and honors the streetstyle visionary offering a poignant portrait of a dedicated artist whose only wealth is his own humanity and unassuming grace.
Bill Cunningham New York opens in New York on March 16th. A UK theatrical release is imminent.
Topman has launched their Spring Utility collection, which offers a modern take on causal work wear.
The collection as it name suggest, draws upon utility styling and heritage influences to modernize classic shapes such as the mac, chino and shirt. The colour pallet is composed of rich tones of tobacco, burgundy and khaki, which gives the pieces a sophisticated feel. I love all the little details of this collection such as the geo-print smart scarf, which really dresses up an otherwise causal look. Check out some of my favourite pieces from the collection below.
This month one of our reviewers, Joe, kindly tested out the monthly box scheme for male grooming essentials – “Men Are Useless.” For about the same price as you would pay at the shops, Men are Useless will do all your essential toiletry shopping for you, box it up and deliver it through your letter box.
Read Joe’s full review of the service below:
My box came with:
1 x KoS Razor (w/ 2 heads)
1 x KoS Face balm
1 x KoS Shave Gel
1 x Moose Head Grime Blasting Face Wash
1 x Original Source Hair & Body Wash
2 x OrganicHomme active fix Repair Serum sachets
Menareuseless mints and selection of sweets
Overall I was extremely impressed with the packaging and layout of the products within the box. It felt like getting a treat, despite the fact that it’s full of things you’d normally just get at the supermarket/chemist. That said, its a great idea as these are the kinds of things I tend to forget to buy, so this service would ensure I’m not having to steal from my flatmates. Oh and the sweets were a nice touch too!
It arrived quickly and fit through the letter box with no problems. My favourite product from the box is probably the shower gel. The shaving products were all great too. I would definitely buy Kings of Shaves as opposed to Gillette now.
I would definitely consider this option for myself each month, especially because the pricing is so reasonable. However, I am not sure I would buy it as a gift as there are no luxury brands included, but as a monthly service its great.
Overall we thought that this was an excellent service and would definitely recommend it to our readers.
Joe received “The Works” Box available for £16.99. They also offer an “Essentials” box for £14.99.
*Disclaimer Brandish was given The Works Box by Men Are Useless to demo. This however in no way influenced our review.
We love this latest backpack from Epperson Mountaineering.
Constructed in their Libby, Montana workshop, they have been making functional, yet stylish backpacks for over 30 years. The ballistic nylon combined with a more progressive color-blocked design makes this bag look good on or off the mountain. We particularly love the tribal patterned straps.
The bag is available for € 169.86 at Oi Polloi.
Tonight I had the chance to go to an exclusive acoustic set by Justin Townes Earle an exclusive acoustic set at Liberty department store in London’s west end, to celebrate the opening of the new Nudie Jeans shop.
While there I caught a glimpse of this amazing over sized bag. Made from 10 oz Turkish denim with a black coating, it would make an absolutely perfect weekend bag. The Handles, sides and bottom are made of leather, and the bottom is reinforced with six bag feet. This bag also features the jeans pocket embroidery made with an indigo thread and a customized gunmetal zip puller.
Unfortunately it was quite busy so I wasn’t able to check out some of the other bags Nudie had on offer. However, if this bag is anything to go off of, it will definitely be worth the trip back to take a look.
While back in Canada over the holidays I discovered this amazing Vancouver-based label, Blanc & Noir. The brain child of Saskatoon-raised Jean Claude LeBlanc, the label focuses on creating timeless looks with a dedication to high-quality production. In fact with the exception of the Italian-made footwear and Japanese selvedge denim, the collection is made almost entirely in Canada.
Their debut collection will be out Fall/Winter 2011so make sure to keep an eye out for it.
Over the past year Eastpak has collaborated with the likes of Raf Simons, Rick Owens, Christopher Shannon and Gaspard Yurkievich. The latest of these high end collaborations, sees the backpack maker working with Kris Van Assche.
The Belgian designer first established himself in the fashion world as Hedi Slimane’s assistant on the Rive Gauche Homme line for Yves Saint Laurent. He continued to collaborate with Slimane at Christian Dior for the launch and development of the Dior Homme collection. In January 2005, Assche presented his own men’s collection for the first time in Paris during Men’s Fashion Week. Today he heads his own label, KRIS VAN ASSCHE, and is the artistic director for Dior Homme
The collaboration with Eastpak see’s Assche bringing his expertise to the line of bags set for release in June. Based on early promo shots we can expect backpacks and oversized shoulder bags in materials such as parachute cloth, leather and rough cotton.
As any cyclist will know it is important to have a durable bag to carry your things around with you. In recent years the Barbican bag has certainly lead the trend, becoming a familiar sight on the shoulders of cyclists everywhere. The bag was made popular because of its tough materials, and large storage capacities.
Now Brooks, the English saddle maker, have released their version to the masses. Made from their saddle-grade leather, the Barbican is made with immaculate quality as you’d expect from the English company.
No release date yet, but it should be announced soon through their website Brooks England
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