A couple of years ago whilst visiting a friends house I noticed a cool hand drawn illustration print framed on her wall. It was a curious cartoon-esque drawing by French illustrator McBess. I was supremely happy to find out that clothing brand The Dudes Factory were being showcased at the Margin Trade show as the crux of their designs are created by the talented McBess. The Dudes Factory were at Margin with the support of Boy Parker, an independent t-shirt brand and also part distributer who brought this brand from Berlin to our cloudy shores.

The Dudes Factory are awesome. Yes, I’m trying to stop using that word but in this case the description is perfect. All the designs I saw at Margin were creations of Mcbess, including a printed plate and a beer mug with the words ‘piss’ written on the front but there are other artists that flourish under the umbrella of The Dudes Factory. Here are some of the other great illustrators : Ugo Gattoni, Genius Inc., Dave The Chimp, Network Awesome, Oblast, Fidia and Carolin Loebbert.

By chatting to the different brands at Margin we gleaned information about them in various ways. The levels of professionalism and the essence of their brand was best shown in their lookbook/catalogue. By this I mean the actual design, style and photography. The Dudes Factory simply nailed theirs with fantastic product and location photography. This should be a benchmark for brands to aspire to.

Be sure to check out their wonderfully designed website and glorious shop items by following this ink. This time has come to get involved.

Is it just me or does their model look a bit like Adam Buxton, except with longer hair and and even bigger beard?

Really impressive new collection from OLOW, lots of premium goods here and I love the lookbook. Very impressive, if not particularly wallet friendly.

Exciting times lie ahead for young streetwear brand Less Clothing.

As well as just launching their new website, Less will be making their trade show debut at Margin, the longest-running independent exhibition in London.

Handcrafted in London, Less Clothing produce men’s and women’s streetwear with a sharp attention to detail, from the signature cuffs to the embossed leather labels.

We love the vibe of the label and their lookbook, the sun-drenched images and their association with musicians and DJs give the brand a real “Ibiza” vibe that we’re happy to buy into for some sunshine (especially during such a cold grey winter!).

Renowned amongst key buyers and press as the launchpad for new brands, Margin has been providing an affordable platform for new brands since 2002.

Men’s and women’s labels such as 1ina100, Lazy Oaf, Supremebeing, Eva Evanovitch, Sugarhill Boutique, Ruby Rocks, Diamond Supply Co, Ashley Marc Hovelle, King Apparel, My Yard, New Love Club, Your Eyes Lie, Seventyseven, Emily & Fin, and Long Clothing, all made their UK trade debuts at Margin, which celebrated 10 years of exhibitions in 2012.

Less will be exhibiting at Margin in February 2013 which takes place on the 10th & 11th.

Margin London has been kindly invited to contribute to HideYourArms. We’ll be posting some news about up-and-coming labels that will be exhibiting at Margin in February 2013, which takes place on the 10th & 11th, but firstly we think we should introduce ourselves.

Started back in 2002 as an affordable platform for new designers, Margin is the longest-running independent trade exhibition in London. The show presents designer women’s and men’s tailoring and accessories, as well as streetwear for men and women, to invited store buyers and press.

The humble tee has long been a starting point for numerous labels, and we’ve seen many an exhibitor start off with a t-shirt offering which has grown over the seasons to include a full range of clothing. Supremebeing, Lazy Oaf, Seventyseven, Dephect, YourEyesLie, and many others all started at Margin with tees before growing their stockist base and extending their range to include clothing, bags, jewellery (or jewelry for Americans!), and hats.

Margin has been providing a launchpad for brands to meet with key buyers and press for 10 years to date, and 2012 marked a decade of exhibitions.

To commemorate the occasion, a limited-edition 10 year book was printed for visitors to the show, but it’s also available to download as a PDF or as a super-interactive book for iPad. The iPad version features extensive galleries of previous seasons, as well as videos, and can be downloaded here.

Here’s the link to posts where HideYourArms mentions Margin including brand updates from when they last visited (well overdue for a revisit but Andy & the HideYourArms London correspondent are returning in February 2013!).

Margin is an intimate showroom exhibition in a white gallery space in the heart of Central London, and the only tradeshow in the UK where buyers and press can discover new & emerging design talent (most making their debut launch).  When we say “NEW”, we don’t just mean new to Margin, we mean brand-spanking, never-been-seen-before, new!

Since the exhibitions first started back in 2002, Margin can lay claim to providing the successful trade launch-pad for many brands such as Chateau Roux, Your Eyes Lie, Supremebeing, Dephect, Emily & Fin, Miyson, 1 in a 100, Missmilne, Worn By, Ashley Marc Hovelle, Humdrum, Worn Free, Sugarhill, King Apparel, Terratag, Lazy Oaf, Famous Forever, and Ruby Rocks, as well as the UK launching point of overseas brands including Silas, Upper Playground, Tank Theory, Eastpak Apparel, Loreak Mendian, Syndrome, Al & Alicia, Gama-Go, Mimobots, Double Goose, Stereo Sound Agency, Diamond Supply Co, Urban Originals, and Uzi amongst many others.

Margin has welcomed key stores to the exhibitions since first launching in 2002; from online players like ASOS, My-Wardrobe, and Urban Industry; multiples such as Ark, Joy, Beams, and Ships; department stores, such as Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, Liberty, House of Fraser, Psyche, Fenwick, El Corte Ingles, Galleries Lafayette, & Engelhorn Trendhaus; as well as the key independents Margin is renowned for, including Colette, Hip, Sakis, Wood, Royal Cheese, Natterjacks, 290sqm, Coggles, Market, Atoo, My Yard, Donuts, Caliroots, and Get Cutie, to name a few.

Margin has welcomed numerous stylists and fashion editors from magazines including Vogue, Wad, Elle, Wallpaper, Arena, i-D, FHM, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, Vice, DJ, Flux, WWD, Drapers, Sportswear International, and Sport & Street; as well as contributors from directional blogs such as BNTL, Coolhunting, Hypequest, Slamxhype, Hypebeast, and, of course, Hideyourarms.

For more info about Margin, visit the website here, find us on Facebook or Twitter, and we’ll be back soon to post about some great new labels that will be exhibiting at Margin in February 2013.

Well, it’s not really and ugly Christmas sweater, it’s a sweatshirt!

Even the Empire celebrates Christmas. Here’s our Faux Star Wars Ugly Sweater with Darth Vader putting the final touches on the Super Star Destroyer’s Christmas tree. Unlike us normal folks who have to deal with scratchy arms and step ladders to decorate the tree Anakin simply uses the force to drop the Death Star angel in place. I’m sure he made some Storm Troopers place the little Tie Fighters and X-Wing Fighter ornaments. This design was Kevin’s idea. He was crushed once he found out we were labeling it as ugly.

80sTees released loads of new Star Wars items recently, so I’ll probably be posting a few of them since there’s some good ones in there.

Costiness=$35 Buy it at 80sTees

Presuming that there is an extra design hidden behind the logo in the middle, there’s 81 different items in Akomplice’s Fall collection, amazing!

Deadly Skull Tee or Sweater perfect for this time of year awesome all year round.

Andy: I suppose there’s a market for everything and I know that design is subjective and different people like different things, but I just don’t know why someone would want to buy this design.

CX.CITY present their latest offering for Fall 2012, ‘Death Will Tremble To Take Us, Pt. I’. Balancing bold graphics within a season color palette, this release continues within the simple, vintage aesthetic that the brand has become known for.

Very impressive release from CX.CITY with a really well taken lookbook to accompany it. hoodies are $48.95, sweatshirts $39.95 and you can pick up a tee for $25.95.

It looks like fairly simple stuff, but that’s where the quality lies, there’s nothing here that I wouldn’t want to wear, and that’s the mark of a good release from Editions.

Young Love Apparel are a recently launched brand that describe themselves thusly:

Alternative clothing for girls and boys. Our designs are formed from our
interests in music, photography and literature. Our simple black and white
aesthetic has been influenced by guys like Raymond Pettibon, Daniel Johnston and
Charles Burns among others. We are a independent Manchester based clothing
company.

Here’s another great example of why product shots matter, imagine if these designs from Young Love Apparel were just on a boring mockup, you probably wouldn’t want to buy any of them, right? But with these well taken product shots which have a bit of personality (and attractive models) all of a sudden I want to wear this stuff and think it looks really cool, the photos really bring out the potential of the designs. T-shirts will run you between £18 and £22.50, and a sweatshirt is £28. Definitely looking forward to seeing what these guys come up with, especially since they’re just (two hours) down the road in Manchester.