Introducing ARKET – H&M’s Latest Creation

Words by Charlie Britton

When it comes to clothes shopping, a favourite and must-visit store on the majority of peoples lists is H&M. The Swedish clothing giant operates in 62 countries, with 6 other brands operating under the H&M group umbrella. These are COS, Monki, Cheap Monday, & Other Stories, Weekday and its newest member, ARKET.

As the second largest clothing retail company worldwide just behind Spain-based Inditex, who are responsible for the likes of Zara, H&M group has well established its name in the industry and is showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. The introduction of ARKET proves that the fashion brand still has more to give and we’re excited to see what the future holds for the Swedish clothing company.

Introducing ARKET

arket regent street store

ARKET, meaning ‘sheet of paper’ in Swedish, has launched it’s first store at 224 Regent Street in London, next door to H&M group’s first British based Weekday store which also opened its doors just weeks ago. ARKET’s offerings include menswear, womenswear, kids and home products, tailored towards the modern-day individual. It’s mission is to ‘democratise quality through widely accessible, well-made, durable products, designed to be used and loved for a long time.’

To fully understand the brand, we went down to the ARKET store in London to view the store concept and products offerings. The store looks great and strongly represents a Nordic style of living. The minimal colour palettes used throughout the interior work well by giving the products the limelight and the shelving and furnishings are well fitted, contemporary and functional.

arket interior regent street
The new Regent Street store occupies 2 stories of an old department store corner building, incorporating womenswear and kids on the upper floor and menswear, homeware and even an ARKET cafe on the ground floor. The character of the building only complements the brand, reinforcing a Scandinavian style of living. This is again exaggerated in-store with the use of lifestyle elements, design details and products that fit with the brands unique selling point.

The Product

With offerings from other brands such as COS, H&M and Weekday, we were keen to see what ARKET could bring to the table in terms of originality and design. Weekday tailors towards the younger generation, with a focus on modern and mindful fashion. COS heads upmarket slightly, offering modern, functional and considered design. Both brands are heavily influenced by Scandinavian design, so we expected to see a similar approach with ARKET.

The product is very much similar, but different, in respect to COS. Its almost as if COS have taken its more formal collections and products and expanded this into its own brand. The price point is again very similar to COS, however ARKET stocks several other brands and produces slightly more expensive garments, especially in regards to outerwear.

Arket menswear

The majority of the mens, womens and kids collections are very simplistic, minimal and contemporary in design. The clothes work well as essential pieces, however it would also be very easy to build a wardrobe from the brand. Block colours, tailored fits and on-trend details run throughout the menswear collections, making it easy to build stylish and flattering outfits that’ll work well through the seasons.

arket menswear

The homeware products are what we would expect from a Scandinavian brand. Functional, aesthetically pleasing and well designed are words that come to mind, with colours, materials and silhouettes strongly representing a Nordic style of design used throughout. There are definitely some homeware products we would love on our shelves at home and in the office, so it’s worth checking them out if you’re planning on redecorating anytime soon.

arket lifestyle

ARKET plans to expand its store offerings across Europe, with another UK based store opening in Covent Garden in the coming months. Here at Clothes Make The Man, we’re excited to see how this brand moves forward and encourage you to check out a store soon. Alternatively, the brand is of course available to purchase online at ARKET, so pay it a visit to check out the collections for yourself.

Conor Mcgregor – Fashion’s New Style Icon?

by Isaac Perry

One of sports most controversial athletes at this present time and the UFC’s Irish poster boy Conor McGregor is not only an influential figure in the sporting world, he is now taking the fashion world by storm, through his love for high-end fashion and in-your-face outfits, specifically through his bespoke one of one suits. Suits have become part of the Conor McGregor’s image, with a focus on press days often switching to what he is wearing, rather than the up and coming fight. McGregor has been known to spend thousands on bespoke individual suits, with David Heil, CEO of David August, serving as his personal suit-maker in order to create some beautiful pieces. 

And for those interested in acquiring the three-piece wool suit, David August will be releasing this limited edition garment, but it comes with a hefty price tag of $6,500. As stated on the company website, the bespoke suit is made-to-measure, with an estimated completion time of 12-15 weeks. According to CEO David August Heil, he was bombarded by calls and messages from clients requesting for the said look, and it was a demand he was just unable to ignore. “We’re only producing a limited quantity, which will be numbered and signed by myself so it will be an exclusive group who own this style,” Heil said in a statement in an interview with GQ.

In the build up to McGregor’s fight with Floyd Mayweather, some of Connor’s most suave and edgy outfits have been seen. With the standout piece so far being covered in the text ‘f*** you’ rather than your tradition pin stripe, the mixture of style yet disrespects within this one specific outfit caused social media to go into meltdown. Conor has openly said about the ‘McGregor Suit Collection’, which everyone originally took as a joke however soon came to the realisation that he was being deadly serious, is this something, which we would like to see?

I’ll leave you to decide.

Barbour x Land Rover – AW17 Collection

Words by Isaac Perry

With Autumn Winter looming in the not so distant future, it’s no surprise that we’re already thinking about it here at Clothes Make The Man. Barbour and Land Rover, two of Britain’s most valued heritage brands, have collaborated to create an AW17 menswear collection that fuses style and comfort for the ultimate driving experience.

land rover x barbour

Both brands respectively dominate their individual industries in their own ways, with this season’s inspiration coming from the Land Rover Defender which alongside Barbour, has been dominating the countryside for countless years.

These two brands have worked tremendously well together and seem to be a match made in heaven, creating an interesting collection using their classic colour palettes of olive greens and blues. This has allowed the brands to use their recognised design and styling techniques, creating a consistent and true-to-brand range of timeless garments ready for all environments. Whether it’s worn within the city or out on the wet and windy countryside, this collection contains a wide variety of product suitable for everyone, from essential tees to signature jackets.

Land Rover x Barbour

The standout pieces for us in this collection are the classic waxed cotton Broome and Gillingham jackets. The Broome jacket is perfect for colder weather, featuring large bellow and hand warming pockets to keep you warm and dry whatever the weather. The Gillingham is the perfect shorter length jacket in a windcheater style and can worn casually with jeans or chinos for comfort. Versatile and timeless, both these jackets are perfect to throw in the back of the car.  The collection also features tees, shirts, sweaters and accessories designed for spending time in the city or country, work or leisure, so there’s definitely something for everyone in this Barbour x Land Rover collaboration. 

land rover x barbour

Lindsay Weaver, Branded Goods & Licensing Director at Jaguar Land Rover said, “The Barbour for Land Rover Defender Collection perfectly complements our much loved icon. With over two million Defenders produced they remain a common sight and are synonymous with the countryside. This collaboration is the perfect fit, two brands with mutual aims; quality, durability with timeless design.”

‘The collection is a shared celebration of heritage and authenticity’. Available exclusively with yet another classic British retailer, Department store John Lewis will be releasing the collaboration from the end of July onwards, both online and in stores nation wide. 

Obsessed with Obsession – Obsessed by Calvin Klein

Obsessed Calvin Klein PerfumeObsession by Calvin Klein was and still is iconic in every way, shape and form. It was a fragrance that completely summed up a period of time. In 1993, a certain Kate Moss, who was THE Supermodel at that time, became the fragrance’s face. She was 18 years old when her then boyfriend, MARIO SORRENTI, aged 20, shot her for the campaign.

Kate Moss Calvin Klein

Sorrenti already displayed prodigious talent as a photographer, while Moss was fast becoming not just a model, but a star. CALVIN KLEIN himself, having been shown some of Sorrenti’s informal holiday photography of Moss by the uber-art director Fabien Baron, sent the couple away alone, to the Virgin Islands.
They were asked to replicate the intimacy and informality of the earlier photography for OBSESSION; there was no photographic team, no hair and make-up crew and no art directors present.
The ground-breaking and provocative imagery that ensued reflected the couple’s real love story; besides portraying a mutual flourishing of first love, the images also reveal an obsession with both a subject and a medium by the photographer.

Kate Moss Calvin KleinAs the legendary campaign approaches its 25th anniversary, the House of Calvin Klein finds itself with a new, Chief Creative Officer, in the shape of Belgian design phenomena, RAF SIMONS.

Who believes now is the right time for the re-invention of an iconic fragrance. OBSESSED plays on the evocation of memory through scent. Mixing memory and desire, masculine and feminine, the past and the present, these compelling fragrances echo the original OBSESSION, yet blur and reformulate scents for both men and women today.

As Simons states, “I suppose you could say we were obsessed by OBSESSION. If one thing summed up CALVIN KLEIN for us visually, it was Mario Sorrenti’s OBSESSION campaign with Kate Moss. It lived in our heads for so many years and became a touchstone of sensuality when we arrived at CALVIN KLEIN. We thought about a scent that could reflect such an idea of memory and desire for today. Of male and female, of the memory of somebody else on your skin.”

Kate Moss Calvin KleinAs part of the campaign to promote this fragrance OBSESSED utilises never before seen imagery from that time and personal biography to further explore and evoke the idea of memory, past love and present iconography.  As the first fragrance formulated and promoted under RAF SIMONS as Chief Creative Officer of CALVIN KLEIN, OBSESSED can be seen as a celebration of CALVIN KLEIN fragrances past, present and future. OBSESSED is about how memory, the sensual and the visual intertwine today.

OBSESSED FOR MEN is an Oriental Woody Amber fragrance with top notes of Oro Blanco Grapefruit Sichuan Pepper Black Cardamom. Leading into Cedar Leaves Labdanum Firnat Blonde Leather and finally dry Patchouli Cœur Black Vanilla Infusion Ambrox Super. A compelling heart of Black Vanilla is sophisticatedly structured with dark, dimensional woods, providing the tension between a feminine melodiousness and masculine strength. Ambrox elegantly cuts through all, lending a sleek and contemporaneous edge.

Obsessed Calvin Klein Perfume

3 Ways to Wear it – Vans

Words by Charlie Britton
Photography by Keanu Adorable

It’s safe to say that Vans is one of the most renowned skate brands in the world to date. Since it’s birth in 1966, Vans has gone on to grow into a powerful and respected player in the menswear game and it isn’t stopping anytime soon. Collaborations, limited releases and reinventions of the classics are just a few things that Vans manages to do consistently well and it has proven that once again with its most recent collection.

To celebrate Vans’ success and in collaboration with Farfetch, here at Clothes Make The Man we’ve worked to put 3 outfits together that anyone can pull off with a pair of the classic skate shoes. As the great British summer is here in full hormonal force, it would only be right to work with the warmer weather and produce three summery’ outfits you can rock right now.

The Vans we chose are the Classic White Old Skool 36 DX shoes, made in the original Anaheim factory in California. They combine a modernised comfort with the UltraCush inner sole, original Old Skool design and throwback details including the original colour palette and heavy 10 oz. canvas to complete the shoe. White shoes or sneakers are so versatile when it comes to styling, so we couldn’t resist picking these ones out.

Outfit 1

The first outfit is definitely a casual one perfect for day-to-day wear. Combining soft colours such as this pale blue sweatshirt from COS, raw hem dirty blue wash jeans and a simple white tee to break the colours, we managed to achieve a flattering and simple look. Paired with the Old Skool Vans, it completes the fit and makes for some nice contrasting details. This is Charlie’s favourite fit for everyday wear as it’s stylish but simple and can be changed up easily with different coloured sweats and bottoms. If skinny jeans aren’t your style, throw on some slim-fit chinos or jeans and you’re good to go.

vans old skool outfit menswear

Vans old skool outfit menswear

Outfit 2

It wouldn’t be summer appropriate if we didn’t feature an outfit featuring a good ol’ pair of shorts. Despite Charlie’s dislike towards knee length bottoms, this outfit definitely captures a sweet summers day. With this style, Charlie threw on a black hemp tee which allows heat to escape, perfect for the warm weather days and paired it with some smart cotton shorts from H&M. The Vans really complete this look and act as a subtle but statement piece for the fit.

We included some nice details with this outfit too by adding a black tote bag, some Classic 108 sunnies from YSL and a Simple Navy Key Wrap from Campbell Cole. This created some interesting touches and we’re thrilled with the final outcome from this fit. You can put your legs away now Charles.

vans old skool outfit menswear

Outfit 3

For our third and final fit, we wanted to include some smarter elements such as these cropped grey trousers from H&M. Slim fitting, perfectly tailored and well constructed, these trousers are ideal for the warmer weather as they give your legs some breathing space and look great whatever the occasion. To provide the best contrast to the Vans sneakers, we threw on a heavy cotton, oversized, drop shoulder t-shirt in white. This fit is really great as it can be mixed up for any occasion. If you’re going smart-casual, swap out the tee for a white oxford shirt. Formal event? Switch out the vans for some chunky derby shows or slip on loafers and you’re set for whatever the world is gonna throw your way.

vans old skool outfit menswear

So there you have it, three outfits perfect for the summer season whatever the weather. Vans have proven to be not only iconic but a hugely versatile sneaker and we can’t get enough of this white Old Skool pair here at Clothes Make The Man. Affordable, easy to style and an obvious essential every gent needs in their wardrobe this summer, so make sure you pick up a pair!