We recently caught up with Cathal McAteer, founder of Folk, and quizzed him about his influences. Here’s what he had to say about where it all comes from for Folk.

‘We try and do our own stuff, we don’t tend to buy a lot of old garments and replicate them - we take influence from them, just like most people. But all our influence comes from stuff we’ve done in the past and the things we like.

Also, the thing that could be the catalyst for a lot of ideas could be really small. For instance, a watercolour painting, [and it wasn't even the whole painting] just the shapes and the tones of that become almost the whole voice of the collection - it’s nice when it comes that easy. Usually, you’re trying to find it in various areas.

(At this point) we’ve made so many garments and a lot of those garments are still there. So we’re continually looking at those and improving them. Sometimes improving them, sometimes stripping them bare and starting again. We try and stay in our box in a way, because we know who we are and what we like, so we try and improve on that.

We like making garments better with different fabrics, playing with it a bit, merging garments that we’ve already made. Because we owe that to the people that buy from us. They’re expecting us to make the really nice striped jumper because we do that really well and they enjoy buying that, so we wanna give them an even better one for next season.’

Photography by Andy Barnham

A longstanding civil war in menswear has been between the fashion forward folks and the lovers of classics. For the most part, Scandinavian brands tend to veer towards the latter, but there are a few fighting for the other side. One such designer is Henrik Vibskov, a man who only entered Central St. Martins to impress a girl.

‘I met this really hot girl who was applying to Central Saint Martins. I wasn’t completely sure what the school was all about, but I’d heard of the place,’ he said in an interview with Fader magazine. ‘I put together a portfolio, bought a ticket, went to London for the first time, did the interview for the menswear course and got in’.

Prior to this whimsical application, Vibskov played in a band, saying that it’s the attitude from music that influences his collection moreso than any central theme or inspiration. ‘I think the idea of attitude coupled with style really feeds in to what I do now. Not that my stuff looks rock & roll or anything—but it is about creating an identity, and much of that comes from music.’

Aside from fashion and music, Vibskov also puts on art exhibitions, the most recent one being his ‘graphics works’ exhibition in Berlin. When he was asked about merging fashion and art in a recent Farfetch interview he said, ‘No, I don’t even think in those categories… I follow my ideas and then work out in which project they fit.’

With collection titles including ‘The Solar Donkey Experiment’, ‘The Human Laundry collection’ and ‘The Big Wet Shiny Boobies Collection’, you can be sure that his clothes are an acquired taste. But what surprises most about Vibskov’s collection is just how wearable they are. While they’ll never be as classic as a navy jumper, the clothes do have a far wider audience than most fashion forward clothing lines.

While the need to create something that people actually want to wear, as opposed to things that people will just appreciate from a distance may be a factor in all this, there’s also the fact he doesn’t see himself as part of fashion, ‘I really don’t think of myself as a fashion person and maybe that’s the problem. I just feel pretty normal.’

While streetwear is a lifelong obsession for some, for many it acts as a springboard to a more refined clothing range. The latest brand which has risen from streetwear is French label Commune De Paris 1871.

Named after a French government that ruled briefly in 1871 (hailed as the first assumption of power by the working class) Commune De Paris started up in mid 2008. The team consists of three members in Sebastian Lyky, Edouard Launay and Alexandre Maïsetti. Maïsetti previously helmed streetwear brand Shaiwear, a brand which became infamous for a marketing campaign that attracted the ire of several high profile outlets.

While it can be risky for brands and fashion to use specific parts of history as a fashion inspiration, Maisetti feels comfortable doing so. Whilst admitting that he found the movement ‘aesthetically pleasing’, he also stated that ‘This period in French history is not only rich in symbolism and imagery, but also inspiring’. Going on to say that this was ‘a kind of homage’.

The clothes themselves are of the well made basics variety, with the clothes focusing on making a few things in the best way they know how as opposed to reinventing wheel. The cotton they use is Egyptian, whilst the rest of the fabrics (including cashmere and merino wool) come from Italy.

When it comes to the topic of prestige no longer being the sole factor to certain customers, Alexandre states, ‘People need to know that they pay a fair price. Prestige is a thing. But it can no longer remains the only stake.’

The heritage boom has led to a mini-backlash of sorts; it’s become harder for brands to hop onto the bandwagon without intense scrutiny. While newcomers may undergo a harder ride because of this, it’ll only help brands like Garbstore.

Helmed by Ian Paley, Garbstore is a store/clothing line which, in Paley’s own words during a Style Salvage interview, means ”clothing shop’. ‘I like the use of the word garb because like so many other things these days , it’s use is dying out’.

Prior to Garbstore Paley worked at Paul Smith, where he was the designer of their casual wear. He then launched Paul Smith sub-brand R.Newbold, a Japan-only offshoot that can now can be found in London. He stated in an interview with Hypebeast that this experience was ‘my real introduction to the craft of making good jeans and weaving great denim’. Stints at Burberry, advertising and launching his own line One True Saxon followed before he eventually launched Garbstore.

The clothing line and store were launched in conjunction, focusing on heritage based products and Japanese made US-influenced clothing. In an interview with Hypebeast, Paley said that ‘the best American stuff is re-made and improved by the Japanese because of the superior construction techniques and buoyant domestic textile industry’.

An oft-overlooked topic in the blogosphere’s love of all things Japanese is the sizing issue. Japanese frames are typically slimmer and their clothes are remade for that frame. Paley recognised this, saying that ‘it’s something we addressed right from the start with all of our Japanese brands. As long as you know how to change things then it’s really not too hard’.

While local manufacture has turned into a buzz topic amongst a niche crowd, Garbstore have bucked the trend by proudly stating their clothes are made in China, producing features on their site stating why they do so. ‘it’s a real trend to try and in-still ‘heritage’ into your product,’ He states. ‘It’s really appearing to be fake now. So boring. We just love our manufacturers, and are happy to share in their own successes’.

Whether it’s doing it like Acne and mixing film amongst their clothing or being like Kitsune and running a record label, some brands function better as part of a creative collective. With their fingers in music, art and film, Uniforms for the Dedicated are the latest example of a collective fulfilling their potential.

The collective itself started around 2004, with the Swedish team originally meeting in the USA. One of the founders, Fredrik Wilholm states that ‘We actually got to know each other living together in Colorado snowboarding, basically starting out as a travelling collective’. It wasn’t until 2008 that the clothing collection started, with the video and art sides not starting until early 2009.

The clothes themselves are influenced by historic reference points and given tweaks and twists to bring them in line with the rest of their collection. Using family owned factories in Turkey and China, they focus on fabrics that can achieve the look they strive for. “Materials, whatever we find, like and can afford, mohair, wool, leather, cotton twills, synthetics, a lot of canvas. We spend a lot of time on washes that looks Uniforms – they might not be the most crazy expensive raw material but we work and treat it to get the right look and hand feel.”

When it comes to the oft-stressed topic of prestige not being enough to warrant a high price anynore Fredrik states, “We believe that everybody need to question their brand existence, what´s unique in your product and what the customer actually gets in relation to what she/he pays for. Recession or not I think we live in a time when consumers in general have the confidence and knowledge to create a subjective opinion about the product living up to the price or not.”

There’s never been a more harmonious time in the relationship between streetwear and traditional menswear. Streetwear aficionados are wearing oxford shirts, menswear fanatics are wearing backpacks and everyone is wearing the simple under-designed sneaker. Gourmet are a brand who’ve risen to the top in this sector of fashion.

Started by three friends, Gourmet originally started out as a clothing company. “The [story] behind the clothing company was three Italians from the East Coast coming together to start a clothing brand, but the key ingredient to the recipe was that we were going to make all the clothing in Italy”, stated Jon Buscemi. This changed when they found that the market wasn’t quite ready for the products they’d made. “Making $400 sweatpants and $1200 sweatshirts just didn’t make sense where the market was going”.

It was only then that the company started introducing footwear into the collection, eventually morphing into a fully fledged footwear label. Gourmet are a company who wear their influences on their sleeves - sometimes to their own detriment. “Obviously Gourmet is influenced by Nike, they were doing all this first.” Jon stated in an interview with BNTL.co.uk that “When we did that Jordan flip shoe they dropped a federal lawsuit on us.”

That blip aside, the company still make shoes based on classics. For instance, their duck boot is clearly influenced by LL Bean’s version, but Gourmet’s versions is a re-interpretation as opposed to a rehash. Fabric-wise, the company uses the same leather as Louis Vuitton, making their shoes in Italy. But whilst the quality is top notch, the design is their calling card. They make clean trainers that straddle the fine line between under and over design. As Jon puts it, ‘There’s no floating space shoes here. It’s all easily digestible classic design.’