5 menswear labels to look for
The obsessiveness Japanese streetwear generates renders anything I can say redundant so I’ll leave it to esteemed retailers Goodhood to do the honours for FPAR: ‘Instrumental in the 1980s Harajuku street scene, Tetsu Nishiyama went on to start WTaps, and his more personal project, FPAR (Forty Percents Against Rights), characterized by brilliant slogan T-Shirts and hoodys, as well as jackets and accessories. The brand’s manifesto is simple; to sabotage the fabricated information regulated by mass media using immediately effective forms of expression.’ ‘Nuff said. www.fparmg.com
Jerry Cohen grew up in Brooklyn, listening to his father’s stories about baseball from 1930s and 1950s and cultivating a quiet obsession with sports emblems and uniforms. Even today, he describes himself as a ‘historian by first love, apparel manufacturer by necessity.’ His label Ebbets Field Flannels makes vintage jerseys, jackets and caps with original materials and techniques, focusing on the retro graphics and evocative names - the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, Sacramento Solons, the Kansas City Katz - of long gone, non-major league teams. That includes Los Barbudos, a team of bearded players from revolutionary Cuba. Fans include a hefty contingent of DJs and rappers, Japanese hipsters and collaborators (including streetwear labels The Hundreds and AKOMPLICE as well as J Crew and Marc Jacobs). Sweet. www.ebbets.com
Founded 1996 in Salcombe, Quba Sails started life with nautical jackets handcut from retired boat sails and marked by the salt stains and rust marks of their history. Now approaching its 20th Anniversary, Quba’s range encompasses so much more, from cable crew neck jumpers, dour peacoats and immaculately cut trackpants, but the jackets are still there, alongside handmade-to-order sailcloth holdalls and deckchairs. This is nautical - but with all the technical detailing and outright love for the sea that a high street Breton top will never possess. www.quba.com
Ah, we do love a bit of Scandi fashion and Libertine-Libertine doesn’t disappoint. Founded in Copenhagen in 2009 by three Danish friends, the brand’s design ethos is informed by a contemporary Danish vision, one that combines a love of the land’s wild vistas with a contemporary sensibility: music, art, literature. The result are well crafted but effortless, off kilter responses to classic pieces. Sharp cuts, structured jackets and faux studious plaid shirts are a speciality. http://libertine-libertine.com/
Twenty years in development, BrandBlack is the lovechild of David Raysse. The sneaker maestro has spent the time refining his craft - as former director of adidas Basketball division, lead designer at FILA and as VP of performance design at Skechers. The aim of BrandBlack is to challenge conventionalism in the worlds of performance footwear and apparel, placing form and function at the heart of design. BrandBlack makes incredible shoes - sleek and futuristic with remarkable detail such as embossing, thermo-plastic shanks, traction blades - but the clothes are beautiful too: military-inspired running cloaks, vests and shorts that, as the slogan goes, will make you ‘look good winning.’ www.brandblack.com
