After an unexpected and unwelcome 24 flight delay (props to Air France, they did put us all up in a hotel, but a 24 hour delay is still crazy) I’m back from Hong Kong and ready to get back in the swing of blogging. I got loads of e-mails whilst I was away from new (to me) brands, and loads of offers and deals (some of which have now sadly expired) so, I might be focusing less on product picks over the next few days whilst I try and clear out the backlog.

If you’d like to see what I was up to on holiday then check out my blog (admittedly, I wrote a lot more about food than what I got up to, and I didn’t write often enough). If you think you already read way too much of my waffly writing, check out my Hong Kong Flickr set, which will be expanding considerably over the next few days after I finish up processing all my RAW picture files.

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Tags » Admin • air fance blows • HK • hong kong • self-centred personal blogging • travel

Yeah, bet you didn’t expect to see that title on a HYA post!

I managed to get a great deal and will be heading off on Friday morning, I’m going to try and write up enough posts before I go so that there will be something new every day, but I can’t guarantee that will actually happen as I am often a lazy, lazy man.

Apparently, my hotel in HK has free wifi, so if you really need to get in contact with me I should be contactable by e-mail, and if you want to keep tabs on my travels (I can practically guarantee pictures of me eating unidentifiable meat!) then check out my personal blog.

[cool photo by Steve Webel]

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Tags » Admin • HK • hong kong • self-centred personal blogging • travel

Hey guys, I’m still down in London for the Margin exhibition, so there’s no posts today, but hopefully things will be back to normal tomorrow and I can start talking about all the great new brands I’ve seen.

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Tags » exhibition • london • margin

Laptop maintenance the easy way, originally uploaded by bitrot.

Just quick warning that there’s no need to e-mail me if the blog looks crazy for the next hour or so, I’m upgrading the laugably out-dated version of Wordpress that I run to their latest stable build. I’m also using this opportunity for the first time to try posting from Flickr to Hide Your Arms, so if this post looks wrong, also no need to e-mail me.

*Update: All done, hopefully nothing is broken, if it is, please let me know*

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Tags » Admin • upgrade • wordpress

Next weekend I’m going to be making the long trek (well, 3 hours on the train) to London for Margin, a streetwear and directional tailoring trade-show being held in central London (February 10th, 11th & 12th). Hopefully I’ll find out about a load of new and exciting brands, so get ready for an invasion of British brands on the blog over the next month or so.I’m going to be down in the big smoke for three days, and presume that I’ll only be at Margin for one day, so I’m throwing my itinerary open to the HYA masses. I’m making up a list of stores that I have to go to. including checking out Concrete Hermit’s latest show, Magma’s Covent Garden Store, the Sunday (Up)Market (note: hangover dependent), the Design Museum, and wherever Yutaka tells me via this excellent website that Virgin seem to have had a hand in.

I guess that makes it look as if I’ve got a pretty busy schedule, but I’d still like a few more tips about great stores that you think I should check out. I’m no stranger to London as my brother lived there for a few years, I know my way around fairly well and I’ve done all the tourist stuff that I want to do, so I’m after interesting off-the-beaten-path type stuff. If you leave a comment or drop me an e-mail and I go there I’ll try and take pics and do some mini-reviews of wherever I’m sent, so if you own a store this could be potentially useful for you too.

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Tags » exhibition • london • margin

Hide Your Arms was started two years ago today!

You might have noticed the not-that-impressive new header image that I put up with all the hearts in it, that’s just a little reminder that HYA loves you and I want to thank everyone for making the past two years of blogging so much fun for me.

I had hoped to announce an awesome new feature today, but I’ve hit some difficulties with it so you’ll just have to wait and see. If everything goes to plan HYAs third year is going to blow your mind (and mine, hopefully)!

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Tags » birthday • meta • yay!

A couple of weeks ago, Contrast came to me and asked if I would be interested in running a new blog for them. I took a look around their store, and saw some lovely minimalist lines on high quality products and decided that yes, yes I would write for them. Fear not, my dear and much beloved leaders, this does not mean the end of HYA, I’ll still be maintaining the rampant pace that I’ve been managing here for the past couple of weeks (5 posts a day!). Hopefully we’ll have everything in place by next week for a launch, I’ll definitely let you know when that is happening so that you can get even more Andy every day.

It’s designs like Siwan that attracted me to Contrast, they aren’t in your face, they don’t demand your attention, but they are interesting and you have to respect the design. They’re kind of how I want people to perceive me, which is why I feel that we’re such a good fit.

Costiness=€75 Link

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Just a quick note first; I’ve been having some problems with the site rendering properly in IE (version 6), the sidebar is dropping down beneath the post content. It’s rendering normally in IE on the other computers in my house, and it’s fine in Firefox, but I was wondering if any Internet Explorer users (if there are any of you left) had noticed any similar rendering issues?

Quixotic Clothing: I’ve got another coupon for you! You can get 15% off your entire order by using the extremely witty code hideyourupperarms during the checkout process. Here’s the perfect opportunity for you to pick up one or two of those new releases that I mentioned a while back.

Soho Tuna: All their current crop of tees are down to £12 to make way for new tees, polos, sweats and hoodies arriving early next year along with a brand new website that apparently comes “with a twist”… mysterious!

All-Mighty: They’re clearing out their ‘bark!gain bin‘ by knocking 25% off their already reduced prices. “Effective immediately…ending in one week 11/14/2007.”

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I managed to fix the internet here in France (by turning it off and on again), although the router (one of many) has since been replaced by the home entertainment team (who have worked for ‘the other guy’ that owns Google, amongst others), negating my own achievements.

All this means that I will be able to keep a bit closer eye on things around here and might be able to post a few of the deals that land in my inbox. I should also be working my way through e-mail replies over the next few days, although the work schedule is pretty hectic and I’m often getting called away from one job to do another so there’s only so much time I can dedicate to HYA. Just thought I’d keep you all in the loop, and I’m posting little things over on my personal blog if you want to see how things are going.

Oh, and I think Threadless are having a sale just for hoodies, they’re all down to $25 for 24 hours starting from a few hours ago (if I remember the e-mail correctly). I was pretty impressed by the quality of the hoodie I’ve got from them, so check it out and grab yourself a bargain.

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I’m going to France for work again (driving the 1000 mile journey in a slow van that doesn’t have a/c as you read this post). It’s only for a couple of weeks this time meaning I should be back before the end of the month, unless something unforeseen happens and we need to stay for longer. I’ve also been told that the internet isn’t working at the house I’m working at, so I probably won’t be able to write posts there, or answers e-mails.

I’ve written some posts that will automatically be posted, but I won’t be keeping up the rather energetic posting schedule that I’ve managed to maintain over the past few weeks. You also won’t be getting my usual critique on recommendations, since I wrote them in a bit of a rush.

So, just to be clear, don’t expect to get a reply to an e-mail or comment for the next couple of weeks.

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