I moved house four months ago and this week I have finally unpacked my last crate. Squirreled at the bottom was a hardback copy of Berlin by Hedi Slimane, which I am very happily revisiting.

Slimane’s brooding, dark, uber-skinny silhouettes at Dior Homme have been much copied and adopted by a generation of musicians and artists. Although today the copies seem almost banal, the original inspiration behind the design philosophy, as seen in the book, remain as poignant and striking as ever.

As the title suggests, the photos were shot in Berlin and reveal a quiet beauty within the dark, dirty and sometimes seedy cityscapes. Shot over two years (2000-2002) the photos depict the day-to-day reality for a young generation ensconced in a metropolis that by Slimane’s own admission is constantly being reinvented.

The high-contrast black and white photos and mixture of close crop and wide-angle composition add a zeitgeist strength and charm to a subject matter that greatly benefits from such sympathetic treatment.

I first came across this book in my final year at RCA and it became an inspiration in my own designs. Picking it up today, the images are as fresh and intoxicating as when I first set eyes on them. Photos of urban textures and stark lighting effects provide the backdrop to a generation X captured in naively hedonistic social interactions.

Emotive on a personal level, the book continues to astound and inspire, albeit for different reasons than when I first opened and leafed through its pages as a student.

In my design work today, I find that it inspires me in injecting some of the fearless passion of youth and carefree arrogance into what is ordinarily a stuffy and tight-laced
genre of footwear.

Everyone’s talking about work wear. Whether people are posting pictures from the Life magazine archives or writing about reproductions of outfits from ‘Taxi Driver’, it’s a hot topic. That’s why a label like Oliver Spencer, who take a work wear influence and update it for the modern man, are such blog favourites.

Oliver Spencer’s first foray into clothing was in 1991 when he launched Favourbrook, a company that specialised in wedding clothing. The clothing line gradually shifted with his changing interests, and he began making work wear related clothing within the Favourbook collection. The line eventually morphed into the prototype of what Oliver Spencer would become. He launched his namesake brand in 2002, opening a store in his first store on Lamb’s Conduit Street in London in 2008.

Spencer says that his clothes “use functional fabrics, are properly made and made in England”. While he still makes half the collection in England, Spencer does now make some of it in Portugal. Whilst other brands are happy to replicate archive work wear clothes, Spencer seeks to make everything with “a view from where we’re at today”.

“It’s modern, but it tells a story. It’s slightly in homage to the past; the fifties, the seventies, but with a new take on everything.”

When I was a toddler I used them as drumsticks. When I was a bit older, I used one to clunk my brother round the head with. Then I just stopped caring about them altogether.

But it has happened: I’m starting to turn into my Dad, as proved by my realisation that shoe trees are really important.

I’m surprised it has taken me this long to be honest. During secondary school the main selling point for shoes was how well they could withstand epic games of football during morning break and lunchtime. I guess I stayed in that mindset a little and didn’t notice that my shoes cracked, lost shape and, ahem, stank.

But I have now reached the point in my life where I am paying a lot more for decent shoes. And I want them to last and be value for money, so shoe trees are vital.

Their most important feature is retaining the shape of the shoe - particularly where it bends as you walk, and especially when it has been raining. Stuffed newspaper is still advisable if the shoes are really wet, but after that shoe trees should be used to stretch the bridge of the shoe and dry the excess moisture.

Also, most shoe trees tend to be made of cedar to help deodorise. My bedroom has certainly stopped smelling like a teenager’s locker since I realised the benefits of shoe trees.

For a footwear novice they do seem like a large outlay. But please avoid the temptation to buy cheap, or worst still, plastic shoe trees - from a certain Scandinavian superstore for example.

I followed a friend’s advice and ventured onto eBay. With enough searching, you will find a top quality pair of second-hand shoe trees for a reasonable price. Or, if you don’t mind a small chip or crack, a decent pair of seconds.

In an ideal world, you should have a pair of shoe trees to match every pair of shoes you own. But for the budget conscious, it is less important to have lots of cheap shoe trees and far more valuable to have a quality pair that you rotate. After all, it is the day or two after wearing your shoes that they most need help and support.

‘Under the radar’ is an overused phrase in fashion, but there is the odd occasion when it’s the perfect description of a company.

That’s the case with Ally Capellino, a label which began back in the 1980’s as a fashion label when Alison Lloyd began the company with her former creative partner and husband Jono Platt. The label re-launched in 2000 as an accessories-only line she took on the name Ally Capellino (Capellino means ‘little hat’ in Italian).

Capellino’s signature material for her bags is waxed cotton, a material known for its graceful aging and one usually reserved for coats. Other materials used are nylon, canvas, leather and for the spring collections, washed cotton.

They use two different types of leather, with one version being an unlined, oiled leather and another being a washed leather. The leather pieces are made in London, whilst the canvas bags are made in China. Capellino states that she “like(s) to use naturally finished leathers, which age and relax with use. Longevity is a natural bonus of our bags.”

While they do have seasonal collections, the main updates come in the form of material changes, such as updating a certain bag to a lighter material for a spring collection. She considers the bags to be “practical, tactile, unstructured, casual, wearable and classic”, also nothing that as an accessories designer “I feel one step removed (from fashion): you’re selling a product rather than a look and people have to add something of themselves.”

There’s no shortage of luxury bags labels out there, but most are based on mystique rather than quality. Mismo look to break that mould with the best quality materials, classic shapes and a simple design that’ll remain in fashion for years rather than seasons.

Founded in 2006, Adam Alexander Bach and his co-founder had actually spent the three years prior travelling the world, sourcing the best materials. They eventually settled on vegetable tanned full grain leather from Turkey and custom developed canvas from one of the oldest canvas manufacturers in Italy. Bach notes that, “We make no compromises in our choices. If we have to pay 10 times the price for a specially developed zipper that lasts 100 years instead of a standard one that lasts 30, that is what we do. The focus is on giving the bags a timelessness rather than pandering to current fashion demands - both in terms of design and quality. We are obsessed with durable, natural looking materials that will enhance its beauty over time, and sourcing these exact right materials is one of the processes we enjoy the most.”

This focus on timelessness is why they don’t add new bag shapes every season – instead focusing on adding new colour ways or developing a certain bag in a new material. “Any new style we create originates from a mix between a strategic decision on what we feel is missing in the collection as well as on the market,” Adam says. “It also comes from the creative desire to innovate vintage styles and constructions into updated classics”.

The price point is a bone of contention in the blog world, but in comparison to other luxury brands, it’s a fair one. An important point Adam makes is that “we’re not on a mission to build a brand so desirable that the correlation between actual costs and retail price is blown out of proportion”.

“One good thing about this financial crisis is that the average consumer has suddenly started to pay attention to what they’re buying. Gone is the over-consuming, 100% brand driven, unimportant buys, and what is left is a new focus on durability, longevity and the use of sustainable materials”.