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...

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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.