Beams Plus AW22 Collection At HIP
This AW22 Beams Plus return with an expansive collection that perfectly meshes the best of American menswear with Japan’s famed tailoring and craftsmanship, harking back to the golden era of American clothing refined with modern cuts and materials crafted with a Japanese attention to detail.
To showcase the collection, HIP drew inspiration from the Beams ‘Uniform Crest’ which represents the four pillars of formalwear, workwear, sportswear and military wear which combined create the philosophy of Beams Plus – highlighting each sub-category of Beams Plus DNA across 4 nostalgic locations to highlight the versatility of this staple brand at HIP.
Explore the Beams Plus AW22 Collection at HIP – Online now.
HIP AW22 Outdoors With Advanced Rock & Athene Club
A curation of technical outdoors garments for AW22 at HIP – worn by photographer and stylist Liam Furneaux of outdoors community page Advanced Rock and Zaineb Abelque of Athene Club – a female orientated space for exploration and conversation surrounding the outdoors.
Tech forward outdoor clothing offers technical garments just as suitable for everyday city life as on the mountains. The genre includes the most modern fabric technology and boundary-breaking designs, creating elevated pieces that will stand the test of time and offer functionality within any environment.
Highlights in our curation at HIP include selections from Italian footwear and apparel label ROA, versatile and performance-built silhouettes from footwear labels Salomon and HOKA, alongside and wander’s made in Japan multifunctional garments inspired by the merging of outdoors and city life.
Explore the latest technical outdoors garments for AW22 at HIP. Online now.
Introducing: ANOTHER ASPECT
Born in 2019, the Copenhagen-based label ANOTHER ASPECT reinterprets classic forms to present timeless menswear pieces. ANOTHER ASPECT takes pride in each minute detail of design and consumption, striving to use responsibly sourced and long-lasting materials at every turn. With its collections designed to find meaning within our everyday journey – whether this be on familiar paths or in new adventures – the label creates seasonless staples that serve our modern needs across “activity, personality and environment”.
In line with our first collection from ANOTHER ASPECT at HIP, we spoke to co-founder and brand director Daniel Brondt about brand origins, designing each collection with longevity in mind and more.
Please introduce yourself, what you do and where you are based?
I’m Daniel Brondt one of three co-founders and Brand Director of Copenhagen-based brand ANOTHER ASPECT. We are still a relatively small team consisting of only six people, so I’m wearing a lot of different hats in the day-to-day operation, but trying to stick to communicating our story and expanding the awareness of our brand.
What does an average day in the life look like currently working on the brand?
No two days are the same, and we have a lot of fun building the brand and working with the most creative people from around the world.
Tell us about Another Aspect – how did the brand originally start and what’s your mission plan?
ANOTHER ASPECT is founded by three friends, me, Anders & Nicolaj on the belief that we have an inherent obligation to consider each singular step of our operations and even beyond that; from how we source our raw materials to how it is processed and sewn, how we package it and the ways that we ship our product to how our consumer can best care for the product, how it can be reused and, in the grand scheme of things, how we consume clothing. Our collections grow from an appreciation of going about one’s daily routines while making space for new adventures. By building on archetypal forms and classic elements, we want to create clothes that can complement wherever our everyday journey may take us, be it towards familiar paths or along unknown routes.
Explain the process when designing each collection from start to finish?
From the beginning, we knew that we didn’t want to invent the wheels every 6 months, so instead, we decided to create and continue to perfect, a single, complete, core range of classic menswear elements. So that’s why 60% of our collection is the same again and again. The process of achieving that is just as important as the result. For every product category in our collection, we have carefully sourced the most innovative, talented, and specialized makers.
Ideas of everyday elements, designed with longevity at its heart – can you expand on this concept and how it encompasses each collection?
We wanted to make an alternative to the fast-paced fashion industry, not designing multiple collections to satisfy the increasing demand for ever-evolving trends. And we looked at ourselves and found out that our wardrobe never seemed to change. Certain styles always captured our interest, the classic and iconic pieces. This is everyday elements and what we want to create with ANOTHER ASPECT.
Can you further explain the brands stance against thoughtless products and thoughtless consumption?
There’s a lot of talk about sustainability at the moment, using all responsible fabrics, and so on. For us, the most responsible you could do is to make clothing that people want to wear again and again and not make multiple items of the same silhouette to make people buy something they don’t need.
What’s keeping you inspired outside of creating collections for Another Aspect?
We are very much inspired by working and connecting with creative people from all around the world and have been grateful for all the help that we received from day one. We also find a lot of inspiration in our trips going to visit our skilled Italian makers twice a year.
What’s next for you and Another Aspect?
We are very aware of not growing too fast and more on a pace so we can control our time and projects. With that said, we of course want to make a difference in the world and help inspire people to be a bit more responsible.
Keep up to date with ANOTHER ASPECT here.
New to HIP for AW22 – ANOTHER ASPECT. Online now.
Introducing: W’menswear
Based in Bangkok, Thailand, W’menswear shares founder Lauren Yates’ love of all things vintage – exploring authentic textiles from local cultures, each telling their own story. W’menswear presents “hard-hitting” garments that cover a breadth of historical references and women’s styles, with every piece filled with sentiment.
In conjunction with our first collection from W’menswear at HIP, we caught up the brand’s founder and designer Lauren Yates to talk early beginnings, studio life, working with fabric mills across the globe and more.
Firstly, please introduce yourself and your role within W’menswear?
I am Lauren, founder and designer of W’menswear. I am responsible for establishing the creative and conceptual direction of the brand. We are a pretty small set up, so I also oversee production, which means working with both small and medium scale artisan producers, mostly within a 10km radius of our Bangkok studio.
Can you tell us about the beginnings of W’menswear and how it started?
My good friend and mentor figure, Nigel Cabourn, was a big factor in the brand’s beginnings. At the time we met, I was working for Vogue Australia and had the opportunity to interview Nigel at his London store. We hit it off, two like-minded people who loved vintage, and over the next few years, Nigel took me under his wing and taught me how to run a fashion business from the ground up. For the first collection, I worked with a local denim producer in Bangkok who was using vintage workwear machines to produce a small collection, exclusively for Japanese retailers. This was 8 years ago and the brand has evolved and grown to serve a more global market.
Did growing up in Australia and Bangkok influence your approach to design and clothing?
Absolutely. Moving from Thailand to Australia at the age of 8 was a big transition from a Metropolitan city to an expansive, wild landscape. I spent a lot more time outdoors in Australia, and I loved sports and the arts. As a teenager, I was a volunteer Surf Lifesaver at Long Reef beach in Sydney. Throughout my time at Art School I would be surfing on weekdays and fishing on the weekends. After graduating, I decided to retrace my roots in Thailand, where I fell in love with the traditional textiles and the age-old artisan crafts that the culture is based upon.
What does a typical day in the studio look like at W’menswear?
As a small business, we all carry a bunch of different job roles in the team. A typical day at the studio is a dance between design, production management, and logistics. Our studio is in a trendy Bangkok neighborhood called ‘Ari’, where food is a definite highlight. There is an incredible choice of street food, cafes, diners and mom ‘n pop eateries. What we’re having for lunch each day is an important topic!
What inspired you to source from fabric mills across the globe?
Over my time spent here in Thailand, I have become a collector of Southeast Asian textiles. They can teach you so much about time, place, and values. These textiles are beautiful examples of what was important to these cultures. First of all, they represent the natural resources available at the time. If you look at a Hmong wedding piece, it has been woven over many years, and you will see changes in colour throughout which tells us the plant, soil, or insect matter that was available then. Also, weave design tells us the function and values that the textile holds.
I use textiles to give a historical context to my collections. I use authentic fabrics like camo or denim that come from the time period that the collection is inspired by. I might commission traditional Thai weavers to produce a handwoven piece made in natural dye colors to pay respect to my own heritage. Or, I may play with new tech to give an age old material like hemp a new identity and function. I like to mix authentic materials with some newer textile developments to tell a story and give new meaning to the garments.
“Hard-hitting garments for hard-hitting humans” – can you expand on this tagline you use and what it means to you?
I hope that my garments represent a sort of integrity that their future wearers can identify with. As most of the collections are based on inspiring people through history, I do hope that people can feel that juju and embody it in their own way.
What’s next for yourself personally and W’menswear?
Over the past few challenging years, it’s become ever clearer to me that I want to focus on expanding skills and knowledge in my community. Our community line, ‘Good ‘Ol Whats-her-face by W’menswear’ was born during the first year of the pandemic to provide stable jobs for the smaller-scale artisan makers in a time of hardship, which since grown roots of its own. Our natural dyers, who are in fact a network of Northeastern Thai artisans, have been training younger members of their communities to continue the linage of knowledge and culture. It’s a wonderful privilege to be a part of these communities, and my hope is that I can continue to make traditional crafts relative to contemporary culture.
Keep up to date with W’menswear here.
New to HIP for AW22 – W’menswear. Online now.
