Its crazy to think that a year or so ago, Acne was a relatively unknown Sweish label, mainly recognised for their skinny fitting jeans. The label started in 1997 when founder Jonny Johansson designed 100 pairs of jeans and distributed them amongst his family and friends. From these humble roots, Acne has become an international fashion power house with over 16 stores worldwide, including collaborations with France's legendary fashion house Lanvin and a brilliant Fall/Winter collection 2009. From here, its become a brand that can't get out of the broadsheet fashion supplements and off everybody's tongue. We've been shipping Acne across Europe for almost a year now, so it was great to see Hint Magazine catch up with the founder Jonny Johanson as he vacationed with his family in Stockholm.

Interview by Kay Barron.

The last year has been great for Acne. The recession has been good for you...

"

Filippa K "Fall Materials"

A well respected and sought after brand across Europe, we are still pushing Filippa K to become a big player in this rather hostile British market. With so many stores stocking an arsenal of heritage or vintage inspired clothing, we have chosen some clean cut reinterpretations of classic garments from this Stockholm fashion house. The whole collection has a wonderfully minimal urban elegance and is beautifully cut which is everything we expect of Scandinavian design.

Filippa K Chunky Button Cardigan

Filippa K Duffle Coat

Filippa K Peacoat

Best in knitwear

The cold weather is now dawning on us and the knitwear is really starting to fly out of the store. We just wanted to show everybody our favourite knitted garms now that the snow has finally hit us.

YMC Hunting Cardigan

Traditional hunting green Vicscose cardigan with holdalls for bullet shells. Heavyweight and sure to keep your cockles warm when you're out with the whippet.

Nom de Guerre V Neck Knit

A beautiful V-Neck heavy lambswool pullover and produced in Japan. Inspired heavily by military cuts and colourways, Nom De Guerre have produced a selection of heavyweight knitwear of the highest quality. It looks great with a pair of jeans and trainers or under a smart sports jacket.

APC Shawl collar knit

Warm, comforting and extremely relevent to this time of the year. Made from 100% Italian yarn, I couldn't think of anything better than pulling this on, making a cuppa and kicking back with some Christmas books.

Nom de Guerre Shawl collar knit

This is by far my favourite piece of knitwear this season. The cosiest and best fitting garment i've tried on in a while and made from the finest wool. Again taking inspiration from military wear, the outcome is raw and rugged - best thing to keep the frost out whether you're strolling in the city or taking a braver walk in the countryside.

Filippa K Chunky button knit

We just can't put a target market on this piece; everybody loves it. The blend of lambswool and mohair produce a soft and warming cardigan that drops nicely below the waist. The buttons are nice and chunky as well as having leather elbow patches on the back to really top this off. Jeans, chinos, formal... don't worry. It looks amazing with everything.

Common Projects

Selecting brands is tough enough, but when somebody like Common Projects comes along, they make it twice as hard. Every piece in their collection is beautiful: the production, the materials, the shape, the comfort, the minimal branding... I could go on all day. We had to be selective and it looks like we made a good decision as they've been flying out of the store recently all over Europe. Selectism has just featured the infamous Desert Boot [the one Kanye and Beckham made famous] in their lookbook:

These boots sit amazingly between streetwear and something more clean cut. They look great whether you've got some nice denim or a pair of chinos. Like I say, they're flying out of the store, so if you've got your eye on some, pick them up quick at Ideology Online Store.

We're also stocking the Achilles Lowtops and the Tournament highs.

Nom de Guerre in lookbook

The guys over at Selectism have featured the Nom De Guerre grey Decon shirt in their essential lookbook. The heavyweight cuordroy plaid shirt is the great as a functional overshirt or more formal piece, but all the same warm and cosy for brisk Winter days.

Available in store in grey or brown.

They have also featured the Nom de Guerre khaki, lambswool shawl collar knit in their lookbook. We are also stocking the Black and Grey shawl collar knit and the Wings + Horns collaboration Tiger Fleece.

All online at Ideology Boutique.

Veja: fair trade footwear

Is another world possible? Veja believe it is and thats why they built their company around these three principles:

1. To use purely ecological inputs

2. To use fair trade cotton and latex

3. To respect worker's dignity

These guys feel that the era of good will and nice speeches is over and now is an era of action over intentions from which Veja has created a global chain that emphasizes solidarity and environment from the small producers in Brazil to the public.

Veja sneakers are made with organic cotton and natural latex sourced from Amazonia. The canvas used to make their sneakers is organic cotton which comes from a cooperative of small producers in the Northeast regions of Brazil where cotton and food crop is exploited without manure or pesticides. On top of this, they produce all trainer soles from wild latex produced by Amazonian Hevea trees. The Amazon Jungle is the only place on Earth where this tree grows in a totally wild state. Using this is a small step to preventing deforestation.

Our understanding of ecological clothing ends at 100% hemp, tie dye tee shirts and vegan sandals, but Veja sneakers couldn't be further from this preconception. Understated, comfortable and modest, these are great trainers for city cycling or just a stroll around the town.

We are getting a delivery this friday, so keep your eyes peeled on the online store but meanwhile, kick back and enjoy this Veja film which highlights the skills of the workers in these small cooperatives.

'How to Make A Perfect Cup of Tea', George Orwell's thoughts

Evening Standard, 12 January 1946.

If you look up 'tea' in the first cookery book that comes to hand you will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the most important points.

This is curious, not only because tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject of violent disputes.

When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no fewer than eleven outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would be pretty general agreement, but at least four others are acutely controversial. Here are my own eleven rules, every one of which I regard as golden:

• First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays — it is economical, and one can drink it without milk — but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting phrase 'a nice cup of tea' invariably means Indian tea.

• Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities — that is, in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. The teapot should be made of china or earthenware. Silver or Britanniaware teapots produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse; though curiously enough a pewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad.

• Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water.

• Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing, this is not an idea that can be realized on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes — a fact which is recognized in the extra ration issued to old-age pensioners.

• Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly.

• Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference.

• Seventhly, after making the tea, one should stir it, or better, give the pot a good shake, afterwards allowing the leaves to settle.

• Eighthly, one should drink out of a good breakfast cup — that is, the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The breakfast cup holds more, and with the other kind one's tea is always half cold before one has well started on it.

• Ninthly, one should pour the cream off the milk before using it for tea. Milk that is too creamy always gives tea a sickly taste.

• Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.

• Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tealover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.
  
  Some people would answer that they don't like tea in itself, that they only drink it in order to be warmed and stimulated, and they need sugar to take the taste away. To those misguided people I would say: Try drinking tea without sugar for, say, a fortnight and it is very unlikely that you will ever want to ruin your tea by sweetening it again.

These are not the only controversial points to arise in connexion with tea drinking, but they are sufficient to show how subtilized the whole business has become. There is also the mysterious social etiquette surrounding the teapot (why is it considered vulgar to drink out of your saucer, for instance?) and much might be written about the subsidiary uses of tealeaves, such as telling fortunes, predicting the arrival of visitors, feeding rabbits, healing burns and sweeping the carpet. It is worth paying attention to such details as warming the pot and using water that is really boiling, so as to make quite sure of wringing out of one's ration the twenty good, strong cups of that two ounces, properly handled, ought to represent.

A Merry Christmas from Tom Newell

Ex-local lad and illustrator Tom J Newell dropped by today to put a festive twist on our store advertising board. Now living in the Big Smoke with his Mrs, he's illustrating in Now Then., Dazed and Confused and +1 magazine. Check out his blog to keep up to date with his work.

Looks like Christmas is finally dawning upon us.

n.d.c (made by hand)

Images from Selectism

n.d.c (nom de code/code name) claim four key factors in every one of their collections: simplicity, quality, originality and constructional know-how and they've delivered season after season for the past 8 years.

With over ten years of experience in the shoe industry, Arnaud Zannier and Enrique Corbi sought to offer luxurious hand made footwear that would be appreciated by a wide range of customers. All the shoes are crafted and designed to be timeless classics that out-live trends and fashions - something we strongly believe in at Ideology - making them one of the undisputed leaders in their respective field.

The AW09 collection continues their signature styles but they've also introduced some new styles, like the suede boot with uncharacteristically chunky sole.

Check the online store for AW09.

A Man's Manual

In an attempt to take men back to their primitive responsibilities in a world where everything is served up to us on a plate and we no longer have the tools to facilitate daily needs and activities, a couple of friends of mine have started a new blog.

Its a manual for men, in an attempt to reconnect us with our knowledge to build, grow and produce stuff: carpentry, growing vegetables, fishing, butchery, making and knowing about beer and whiskey, carving the roast, car maintenance, plumbing and beekeeping as well as general good style and etiquette.

I'll also be offering a few thoughts of my own over there.

Surface2Air

You may have no idea about it but over the past few years, you will have come across Surface To Air. They are responsible for some of the most creative mainstream projects of the past few years. It started out as a lot of good things do, in Paris, amongst friends who just wanted to organise projects they enjoyed and has since then evolved into a multidisciplinary collective (company?) spanning across the entire creative spectrum through fashion, graphics, photography and multimedia.

Surface to Air's studios are now part creative direction agency and part clothing company. Some of their more recognised works include music videos for fellow Parisian's Justice and electrofunk duo Chromeo as well as art directing the Blason shoot for Pharrell's line of jewellery for Louis Vuitton, and commercials for Diesel and Sony. More recently however, they have linked up with Kings of Leon to produce a capsule clothing collection as well as being the main driving force behind UNIQLO's emergence in France.

As well as being famous for milling with some of the biggest names in arts and music, these guys have become widely recognised for their repinterpretations of classic and technical garb: beautiful and delicately tailored shirting, calf leather bags and graphic print tees made from the best cotton and not forgetting their leather jackets are some of the best pieces available from them at the moment.

Check out availability in store.

Limited Hype recently caught up with cofounder and creative director Jérémie Georges Louis Joseph Roza.

What I want people to know about Surface To Air is we do whatever we want and that you [can do that] and do it successfully. You do not need to be specialized to do something.

My day-to-day consists of the same as a firefighter.

I know something is a big idea when everybody talks about it…in our office

My approach to creative direction is let’s do it and we’ll see. It is quite hard to analyze more. But I like: epic, poetic, erotic, destruction, brutalism, nature.

The project I’m most proud of is Surface To Air in general because it is the project of all projects. The whole idea of S2A is to be able to jump from one project to the other with a refreshed mind that you would not have if you’d always worked in the same field. That’s the basis of our originality I guess

What I love about the Surface To Air clothing line is it is made by us and for us. It is a mix of all our geographic and social origins. The S2A team gathers more than 14 nationalities.

You can usually find me wearing boots, jeans and buttoned up shirt.

Our brand has always had part of its roots in the States. It is more than time for us to come there with a proper project we have always found an amazing support there in NY or LA.

The best part about my job is that it changes every minute. The worst part about my job is that it changes every minute

I really admire people who have 3 kids because 2 is quite tough already.

Werner Herzog really inspires me.

Outside of work you can find me working.

The most important thing I’ve learned thus far is listen to everyone but do not take in account what they say.

My hopes for 2010 are for Surface To Air to build 2011 properly.

Critical mass, Sheffield

Started in San Francisco, but now happening in over 300 cities around the globe, Critical Mass is a bicycle event held on the last friday of every month. Founded in 1992, the ride was originally to demonstrate how unfriendly the city was to cyclists, but the leaderless structure of Critical Mass makes it impossible to assign it to any one specific goal. To be honest, I don't think the purpose of it is any more formalized than the meeting in a set location and time and travelling through the city streets to celebrate the bike and its relationship with the urban context and the bicycle as the most efficient, peaceful and perfect mode of transport.

Join us (at 6PM outside the Town Hall on the last Friday of every month) for a monthly cycle ride in the city. Bring someone you know who's got a bike; bring EVERYONE you know who's got a bike; make some flyers and go around Sheffield sticking them on bikes or giving them to cyclists; speak to the person next to you at the traffic lights and tell them about it; do whatever you think will make more people come; come YOURSELF.

This isn't a protest, its a celebration.

Look Book: I

With Autumn fully in swing now, and Winter starting to show everybody what its made of, I thought I'd start putting together some looks that would go down a treat in the coming season.

YMC Hooded Mac - £145

Filippa K Oxford Shirt - £88

Acne Pop V Knit - £85

APC New Standard red selvage - £110

APC Work Boot - £315

Surface to Air Weekend Bag - £395

APC Knit Scarf - £115

The perfect look for a chilly Sunday morning stroll in the city to your favourite coffee shop and independent record store with a copy of Monocle and the Sunday papers. Thats what we call perfect!

Article Magazine, Sheffield

Article is a printed magazine, with 1000 copies a month circulated in Sheffield.

Sheffield is a city with a difference. Sheffield is edgy, creative, friendly and ugly. Its a city that has soul. Article Magazine is a monthly publication with a print circulation of 1000 that offers people a guide to the space they're in. Its a magazine that talks about the city and places they love, and what makes them special: the building, the people, the streets. A brochure for the constantly evolving fabric of Sheffield, like an exhibition brochure, the magazine offers a wide variety of features from bikes to Obama to gay geography. Thinking, writing, publishing and doing, these guys present stories of the city around us, from architectural analysis to personal tales of strange subscultures to interviews with people who make things. The thing that I love about the magazine is its celebration of the real world, a celebration of our city's ugliness and a celebration of the normal everyday.

2009 Prix Pictet first prize: Nadav Kander

It is not fresh news that the demand we [humans] are putting on our Earth is out of its depth. The ecosystems we depend on already suffer resource demands beyond their capability. Reports are showing us the results are devastating: international foot riots, desertification and loss of forest cover. With an ever growing population, the governments are trying to stimulate growth, but can our living systems really sustain the future consumption patterns of a further three billion people with 40 years?

Or are we making the transition, as the Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen has suggested, to a point where the face of the earth – its soil, its waters, its groves, its hollows – is no longer natural, but bears the terminal scars of man’s intervention.

The Prix Pictet claims to be the world's first art prize dedicated to artists that use to photography to convey crucial messages regarding sustainability. It has a simple goal, and that is to portray crucial messages about social and environmental threats of the forseeable future, using art as its medium to target a wider global audience. Impurity, excess, contamination, absence, control: these werethe aspects of sustainability on the theme of Water covered by photographers nominated for last year’s Prix Pictet. This year the theme was Earth.

This year's first prize went to London based artist Nadav Kander. His work appears regularly in publications such as The Sunday Time Magazine, Another Man and Dazed & Confused. Here are a couple more images from his entry:

III Generation - Nom De Guerre

Since their emergence in 2003, Nom de Guerre have been renowned for harvesting strict military references in their clothing and converting them into modern reinterpretations of clean cut workwear classics. Fresh out of NYC, NdG are all about heavy, hardwearing knitwear and rugged workshirts produced from the best, most refined materials available in Japan.

With the idea of Utopia as a key theme, The Third Generation AW09 collection explores clothing necessary for survival in the the Arctic wilderness, arguably the last remaining utopia. Shawl collar knits, wax hunting jackets and heavy gauge wool pullovers; primitive and essential survival wear.

I couldn't put the bicycle as a 'design classic', but these are too beautiful to not mention...

At Ideology, not only are we great fans of cycling, but we appreciate things of sheer beauty and whether you're an advocator of the vogue city transport around the world at the moment or not you would struggle to deny the simplistic beauty of the bicycles at Bertelli Biciclette Assemblate NYC. These bikes are assembled, finished and tuned by the fine hands of Francesco from a combination of brand new parts, "new old stock" and vintage parts he picks up at flea markets, old bikeshops, collectors and from his trustworthy suppliers.

Our favourite ride of his right now is the Domenica: this is the bike for a sunny sunday morning ride, with the newspaper or some Murakami under your arm, on your way to your favourite suburban Italian deli... thats how it is in my head anyway.

How could I not start my description by mentioning the Adam Brackney special design wooden handlebar? The perfect icing on this beautiful cake. Viking frame, Brooks (keeping it British) B15 saddle, vintage white Michelin tires and a vintage Gipiemme crankset turning a gold finished chainring.

Its a thing of beauty and worth every penny of the $1600 it'll set you back, or get in touch with Francesco for information on custom builds.

Design Classic #1: APC New Standard

Jonathan Glancey, architecture critic for the Guardian, last year began writing a series of short articles called 'classics of every day design'. Writing around fifty articles, including products such as the moleskine notepads, the illycafe jars and Robin Day's polyprop chair amongst other products which surround us but don't 'swank around in style magazines' and which we unforgivably take for granted. We intend on publishing a few design classics of our own; timeless pieces from architecture, product design, the great outdoors, architecture and beyond.

Our first product is the APC New Standard. As a brand, APC needs little introduction. Adopting a very Miesian 'Less is more' approach to their clothing which seems to have been lost in time, althought certainly still appreciated, geared towards essential wardrobe needs. Much like the New Standard, the creator - Tunisian born Jean Touitou's thoughts about the clothing industry are direct and to the point. Practically unchanged in two decades of production, the New Standard is a unisex jean made from raw selvage denim that can't help fitting everybody with unrivaled precision. They epitomise utilitarian design - there is nothing superfluous, no external branding (excusing the neatly attached APC pin and the top fly button which is engraved engraved 'APC, Paris pres de Luxembourg') but most importantly no gimmicky washes, paint splatters or uniform holes. Yes, these jeans require commitment, they represent an everyday narrative that is unique to every pair. A new pair will hold you hostage; they're hard, unwashed and stiff. It is widely recommended amongst jean connoiseurs to buy 2-3 sizes down and then wear the denim in for 6-12 months without a wash.

I've only been wearing my jeans for 3 months now and they're still unwashed. They've definitely loosened up and are beginning to show some beautiful fading in all the places I wanted. As an avid cyclist, the crotch has a saddle shape fade and the backpockets shadowing the shape of my wallet, not to mention the countless number of handrails I have slid down over the past 90 days.

I often feel that a sign of great design is a product, system or idea that transcends and outlives fashion and the New Standard has done it for the past twenty years. A great pair of jeans will get better with age, with every action you make, and every time you fall. We haven't seen anybody look good in a pair of flared cords recently but a classic pair of jeans never go out of style.

A fresh start

Ideology is a menswear boutique set in Sheffield's Devonshire Quarter. With an open niche in the city's retail market, Max Wadsworth wanted to offer classic, functional menswear alongside more innovative, contemporary labels.

Ideology Boutique has introduced Sheffield, Yorkshire and Derbyshire to much sought after internationally acclaimed brands as well as some of the best up and coming labels. Season on season, we hope to deliver and evolve by seeking and introducing new exclusive brands, designers and collaborations.

With a focus on high quality materials and production, here are some of the brands we're stocking this season:

Acne - highly regarded Swedish denim,

A.P.C - 'less is more' champions of French style,

Fillipa K - simple, clean contemporary clothing,

Nom De Guerre - utilitarian classics straight out of NYC

Common Projects - staple understated luxury sneakers

n.d.c, made by hand - artisan hand made leather shoes

as well as YMC, Tretorn and Passarella Death Squad.

Check out the new Ideology Boutique store and our twitter to keep up to date with what music we're listening to, our thoughts on style, design and beyond as well as the current stock that drops in store.