Shaun Leckenby Design x OTS

 Shaun Leckenby's design work for this blog's cult favourite OneTrueSaxon. It's perhaps not as iconic as Ewen Brown's art (which I once posted about once upon a time here ) for said brand, however there's some cool bits and pieces here...

Yaka Clothing

I like an independent clothing brand.

I especially like an independent clothing brand forged out of the darks of a working class coal mining village in North East.

Step forward Yaka Clothing.

A Sunderland based brand put together through the heritage of coal mining and a passion for good quality clothing. And they've been making some smashing looking coach jackets, pastel tees and a summery cord bucket hat. The latter arrived in time for the May bank holiday.

One to keep an eye out for, especially when there's some Perry-esque polos and Harrington's in the pipeline.

Good Measure

Ever chatted with your pals about items of clobber and muted things like 'it would be better if' or 'I'd like it more if' etc and then done bugger all about it? Well some brave lads who thought like that have put their money where their mouth is, and jumped feet first into the world of limited run, high quality threads. These brave lads are Good Measure.

There first run is focussed on a classic sweatshirt, one that looks the part and fits correctly. Just for good measure they have a focus on producing their work right here in Britain.

Worth a look. Personally I'm not a sweater kind of guy, but I'll be keeping tabs on their efforts, seeing what they produce next. This bunch of connoisseurs could well become the next Connoisseurs...

Hats on or off?

Hats On

* The Bobble
The bobble hat has seen a re-surge of popularity in the past few years, no doubt with some part played by the exclusive Tom Weirs by Casualco. Three colourways are released in limited numbers of 50, sell out in minutes on said website for £25, then cruelly appearing on eBay a couple days later for often treble the RRP. The bobble hat is sometimes associated with nerds like bird watchers and trainspotters, but despite this is the ulimate in cool winter warmers as it evades the attention of the fashionists. It's hip to be square.

Casualco.com

*The Trapper
The trapper is as quality as it is functional. Again wins cool points as it does look a bit silly. Flaps can be worn up for that Russian cab driver look or down to protect ears from frostbite in Arctic conditions - or during January mid week games.

Fjall Raven

*The Flat Cap
Maybe because it's because I'm a Northerner that I rate these so highly. One for the Northern League dwellers, pigeon fanciers and whippet breaders. And the odd clued up chap. Tweed caps are proving to be quite popular at the moment, another hat proving that it has a cooler rep now than in the past. As Northern as a road sign saying THE NORTH in, well, the North.

A. Moon Tweed

*The Bucket
A hat made famous by the Madchester and early Britpop scene, the bucket is predominantly found on heads come summer, particularly at music festivals. Worn by those trying to emulate Reni and Liam Gallagher, but less so Man City boss Roberto Mancini. Quite a functional hat as keeps sun out of eyes as well as rain off the head. My personal favourite is the Kangol Spray, but they loss brownie points for churning out those god awful fluffy hip-hop ones.

Stone Roses Reunion Bucket

Hats Off

*The Cap
Worn by everyone and anyone. The baseball cap is synonymous with chav culture, but saying that you don't seem to see them as much these days. Which is probably a good thing given the vulgar house check designs that single handedly brought Burberry to it's knees in reputation stakes. I do have a problem with the Stone Island ones that are doing the rounds at the moment - even the genuine ones look fake. Being the cheaper of S.I.s range this is the SPW garment that lots of young whippersnappers opt for with their pocket money, hoping for top boy status. Gay boy status i'd say. Shit.

Stone Island

*The Beanie
It's like a bobble hat but minus the bobble. And to be fair they ain't all bad, there's a lot of good ones out there. But they lose points for those who throw one on with a t-shirt in the height of friggin summer. Again Stone Island deserve a mention for their thoughtless and unoriginal version. Sticking their trademark button patch on the front of a beanie really wasn't a masterstroke. I thought things couldn't get any worse... until I saw the CP Company goggle ones. Sigh.

CP Company

 *The Deerstalker
These never looked good and are best left in the confines of the mid 80s. If I saw some country gent wearing one combined with a Barbour jacket, shotgun and gun dog I'd probably laugh, even though he genuinely has a right to wear one. So imagine what I'll do if I see some 17 year old on the terrace combining one with Sergio trackie top. I'll point and fucking laugh.

80s Casuals

*The Trilby
Unless you're one of the seven members of Madness or one of the Blues Brothers then you haven't got the right to wear a trilby. One for the old boys as part of their Sunday best, after wearing the flat cap on a saturday. Another hat which has it's chequered past thanks to Aquascutum et al.

Aquascutum

Vintage Teapot

 
Only stumbled across Teapot Vintage after they started following me on Twitter. Thought the name was a bit strange so followed the link and came across a pretty exciting vintage clothing retailer based in Manchester. A quick root sees that it's predominantly for lasses but they got a fair few used one offs for blokes - labels like LL Bean, Barbour, Lacoste Izod and K-way making appearances at reasonable prices. Nowt much in my size at the moment but will be keeping tabs on this site from now on. They've got the mandatory blog to follow too...

One True Demise

Founded in 2000 by the Good North (not me) boys in Nottinghamshire, OTS set out with the mantra of making quality clobber for chaps like us, and us in turn reassuringly knowing that the gear was designed and styled by chaps like us - obsessed with quality, integrity, honesty and throwing in a good dose of British humour to the mix. Now though One True Saxon is slowly coming to an end some twelve years on. Owners Pentland Brands have pulled the plug citing a 'difficult market' and in two days time, on the 24th of August 2012, OTS online store will cease trading.

The brand have come a long way in just over a decade from cool cult terrace label, before selling out to the man and rapidly imploding. It's staggering to think it's only been ten years. They were the cream of the crop around 2003 with some quality bits of jacketing - The Rifle club Camo, Supply Parka, Jungle Marsh etc. Some real pieces of eye catching beauty. Then OTS stalwart Ian Paley left for Garbstore and things went down hill. The masses of the classes got into it as it started appearing in Littlewoods catalogues and creeping onto TK Maxx's rails around 2007. The quality and fit went sideways too (XXXL polo shirts to fit an XL anyone?) Although time was spent in 2010/11 trying to get the brand back to where it used to be, it was an effort made in vain. And now the company is now facing closure and if the label is to continue then it's suspected it'll be exclusively in the likes of JD Sports (part of Pentland too), devaluing the Good North name even further and condeming it to a lifetime of dressing the underclass.

But I'll remember the good times. The first piece I ever owned was one of the Supply Parkas in black. A stunning coat. Screamed out class. Plenty pockets and a lovely big hood. It went the way on eBay after I, ahem, out grew it. But I've trawled eBay ever since and will pay through the nose to get one again - don't care if it's in ten years time and by then the OTS name is the worst of the worst and being sold in Primark. It really was that good a jacket.

I've also had a couple of Cats & Dogs in my time. Choc full of pullstrings and drawstrings, pockets in weird places and in surprisingly bright colours, they saw me right on the odd awayday. Red and Lime saw eventful days out at Middlesbrough and Derby County (back in the day when I went away with Sunderland semi regularly). These too have gone the way of fleabay as I prefer the darker colours now, but they were very important to me at the time.

Red Cats/Dogs enroute to Boro

Most recently have snapped up a couple of OTS bits for peanuts - which highlights just how the brand has gone. A pair of Edwa trotters for the princely sum of 99p and a Jungle Marsh Parka for less than a score. Madness. Both old school (if you can call something post 2000 old school) OTS when they were at their prime. And one thing I can't do without is their dogwalker jeans. OTS did denim better than anyone and I practically still live in any one of the three identical pairs of dogwalkers I own. Nowt fits or looks better on me, from M&S to Edwin.

OTS Camo Edwa shoes

 So I personally will be sad to see OTS go. It seems to have so much history given the influence it had some ten years ago, providing top notch gear with the ideal template - set up by regular blokes obsessed with good quality decent clothing. It was perfect. In theory. It just hasn't worked out as they'd have planned. But people can sit around and criticize about what it was, what it became and where it's going. But at least the OTS lads had a go.

Lime Cats/Dogs & thumbs up for OTS