Launching in Spring of 2008, UK label, Hentsch Man was founded by Alexia Hentsch. “We actually first called the company Jack Shirt - but needed to find a name that was entirely copyright proof,” says Alexia. “Hentsch Man was easy - as it’s my name, it’s difficult to contest. And we liked the play on the word ‘henchman’.”

Prior to launching Hentsch Man, Alexia worked at Winkreative, Tyler Brule’s branding agency, for three years. It was this experience that helped give Alexia enough know how to launch the brand, which she did with her partner Max von Hurter.

Focusing on the basics of clothing, the Hentsch Man philosophy is to make “good, lasting and relatively inexpensive clothing. We’re not so interested in high-fashion, we’re about function, practicality and pleasure. We make clothes for men who want to look good, but don’t have the time or patience to scour the earth for them.”

Despite only launching two years ago, Hentsch Man is already stocked in Opening Ceremony, something which was planned from the start. In an interview with Hearty Magazine, she said that they originally turned down stocking the product, but did like the concept itself. “They told us to go off and make some more products and come back. So about a year later, we went to see them with eight shirts and four trousers. That’s when they took us on as our sales agents. Since then, they’re been distributing our brand in the US and Japan, as well as stocking us in their stores.”

The clothes themselves are made in Portugal, with the knitwear coming from Scotland and the footwear for Spain and Italy respectively. When it comes to the topic of prestige, Alexia states that “Prestige goes a long way with customers. People feel very comforted by the ‘made in Italy’ label, or something with a longstanding manufacturing heritage. This is especially true in this economic climate as, as you say, people want to know where their money is going. However, the quality needs to live up to the reputation, especially as today in age everything is so easily copied. Cheap versions of luxury products are available everywhere. So luxury needs to stay lux, if not it will loose to it’s cheaper competition.”

One of the positives of a trend like the current ‘made in England’ trend is that it can open doors to brands who might’ve have been ignored previously. S.E.H Kelly are an example of this.

Launched in 2009, SEH Kelly is made up primarily of two people in Sarah Kelly (the designer) and Paul Vincent.  The duo had previously worked in the clothing industry for just under a decade, including a few years for a house on Saville Row. “[Saville Row] is a terrific, fascinating place to work,” they say.  “In our time there, we’ve worked predominately with domestic suppliers and production facilities - it was apparent for a long, long time that when we started something of our own, English mills and factories would be at the heart of it.”

The UK based label is obsessed with the UK textile and clothing industry, their experience at the Row strengthening their stance. “We’ve seen a good number of the establishments we work with close down - irrevocable loss of livelihoods and generations of region-specific skills and knowledge,” they say.  “Having witnessed this at first hand, we’re resolved to working with people and establishments across the country that retain local industry and craftsmanship. Every stage of production, no exceptions or allowances made.”

True to their stance, everything from SEH Kelly is made in England, at either Somerset, London or Nottingham respectively. Whilst the fabrics come from the Cotswolds, Cumbria, Lanchashire and other parts of England. “For shirting, we use brushed cotton/wool mixes and cotton pinpoints” whilst using corduroy and tougher cotton fabrics for their outerwear. They use of English materials extends to their Corozo and horn buttons, both of which are made in England.

When it comes to the topic of prestige in clothing, the duo state that, “Being mindful of what’s in your wallet is nothing new, and nor is wanting to know a product inside-out before you part with your money - what seems different is that the mindset is stronger and more widespread than in recent years.

The economic downturn might be one factor. Another, more positive one, is the ease with which consumers can get hold of information and share it among themselves — they’re no longer beholden to press, brands or traditional media for facts and opinions. And that, we think, must be a good thing. Long may it continue.”

Whilst high end denim was usually seen as the sole preserve of Japan, there’s been a number of US based brand willing to take up the challenge. One such brand is husband and wife duo, Raleigh Denim.

Started in 2008 by Victor and Sarah Lytvinenko, Raleigh Denim was named after the town’s “rich textile history”. It was, in Sarah’s words, “as an homage to our hometown and our personal history here.  We’ve had such support from our families, friends, and community, I don’t know if we could’ve done this anywhere else.”

The brand’s philosophy is an interesting one, stemming from how they believe business should be done. “We had the freedom to be idealists and see if we could make that idealism work.  In our ideal world, the sewers and weavers in the area would have jobs and plenty of business, we’d connect personally with our material sources and develop relationships with these people, share stories and trade skills. That was our framework for creating our designs.”

They source their denim from Cone Denim’s White Oak Plant, the oldest denim mill. “They are located about an hour and a half from our downtown shop. We collaborated with the mill to make our first exclusive denims for this holiday season.”

When it comes to the topic of prestige Lytvinenko states that, “We’re glad consumers are thinking about why products cost what they do. We take pride in the fact that we are thoughtful about our entire process, from concept, to manufacturing, to finished product. Most factory-made jeans take about 12-20 minutes to make and ours take more like 1.5-2 hours.  Our thoughtful process absolutely yields a better product. Consumers appreciate that.”

Literally starting out of his basement, Anton Sandqvist started his self-named label after working as a mechanical engineer for several years.

Starting out officially in 2004, Sandqvist’s has a background in making things for himself. “I grew up in a small village and was spending lots of time building things in our large garage, full of old junk” says the designer. “I used to play with my mothers sewing machine, making my own jeans as a teenager”.

Still a relatively new venture, Anton says that he’s just started working full time in the bag label after doing this and his engineering job for five years. He describes the label as ‘Function and style without a twist’, which, given that nearly everyone’s obsessed with putting a twist on things, is an interesting way to put it.

The bags are made in India, ‘”[we use] two small family businesses. One of them, a factory in Chennai, is using old, very nice machinery which they imported from a closed down leather factory in Sweden,” says Anton. “The other one is a leather and canvas bag factory in Kolkata. The factory owner’s son went to Sweden for studies and somehow we met him. Since then they’ve made all of our canvas bags.”

The fabrics are usually vegetable tanned leather and the canvas is “heavy cotton canvas dyed in the colours we want. From 2011 all our canvas will be organic and certified. It’s been difficult to switch to organic canvas, the quantity is around 4000 meters, which is a lot of material for a small company like us.”

When it comes to the topic of prestige Sandqvist says, “Our bags are reasonably affordable for being a small brand. and we spend next to no money on marketing campaigns. It’s about making good products that people want and need. We don’t build dreams in our brand we just try to make great bags.

Hailing from Columbia, Andres Niño and Nicholas Hurtado formed new bag brand, Hasso last year. The Bogota based team, often confused for brothers, just launched their debut bag collection earlier this year.

Nino and Hurtado started the label in March 2009. “I remember we were having a random conversation, when all the sudden Nicholas pulled out a little Moleskine from his pocket and started showing me some drawings he had done,” said Andres.  “It was a little sketchbook filled with bags, shoes and clothes. A couple minutes later, we were day-dreaming about how nice it would be to see those drawings come to life.” They ‘put a pin in their graduate studies’ and focused solely on the line, aiming to bring Columbian craftsmanship to the forefront.

The name itself doesn’t have quite the backstory we expected; “we just wanted it to be an approachable name, easy to say and easy to pronounce no matter the language” says Andres.

The duo’s factory is an old factory in Bogota, using skilled artisans to create their bags. “We only use local materials, many people don’t know but Colombia has a strong textile and leather heritage. The majority of the leather production in the country is exported due to its great quality. We were able to get our hands on some of Colombians finest leather.”

When it comes to the oft-discussed topic of prestige, Andres states, “I think companies can’t rely on prestige alone; they have to face the whole offer the market has and the fact that people are more critical over the products they consider to buy. Personally I believe that the people who get interested in Hasso really go for long lasting products with a strong focus on craft and detail, people who care not only for price but the overall story they can get from the design, materials and manufacturing.”

Japanese brands have long held a strong hold of menswear bloggers (some online stores are following suit, stocking strict Japan-only sections), so it’s no surprise a brand originally hailing from Japan would garner as much attention as Creep by Hiroshi Awai has.

Creep started out in Japan back in 1997. Founded by Kiyofumi Awai, Hiroshi’s brother, the line began as a womenswear only line. “I joined the company in 2005 as a North American sale agent / production manager to help out my brother’s business expansion in North America”, says Hiroshi. ”In 2008, my brother asked me to take over the line and I started the exclusive men’s line, Creep by Hiroshi Awai out of Toronto, Canada.”

The main company still exists as a womenswear only line in Japan, with Hiroshi running the menswear section by himself in Toronto - that’s also why the line is called ‘Creep by Hiroshi Awai’.

The name from the company comes from the Radiohead song, Kiyofumi’s favourite band and the company philosophy is ‘complexity within simplicity’. “I think designers sometimes design their clothes for the sake of designing and overdo it,” says Hiroshi. “I always try to avoid that when I design my collection. Men who wear Creep are someone who has their own styles. My clothes are just there to enhance them. So when I come up with complex ideas and designs, I try to execute them in as simple form as possible so that they collaborate with people’s individual styles.”

The clothes are made in China, with the woven pieces being made in Shenzhen and the knitwear in Shanghai. The fabrics vary, although Hiroshi has noted that he’s quite the fan of linen for his upcoming Spring/Summer 2011 collection, importing it from Japan and Italy.

When it comes to the topic of prestige no longer being enough of a selling point with clothing, Hiroshi says that “I think people are definitely looking for more of a long term investment with their clothes. I mean they want clothes that lasts long in terms of quality and also doesn’t go out of style. I mean that’s why heritage/traditional workwear type of clothes are a big trend right now. I think our brand’s expansion in the past year has a lot to do with this.”