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.’

More pictures after the jump.

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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.”

While fashion and music have been intertwined for years, attempts to bring the two together haven’t always been successful. One need only look at the various musicians attempts to recreate their favourite clothing line - the latest attempt being Liam Gallagher’s Pretty Green label – to see where things can go wrong. A rare exception to this rule is Kitsune.

Kitsune (Japanese for fox) launched back in 2002 by former architect Masaya Kuroki and former Daft Punk manager, Gildas Loaec. A trip to Japan prompted the launch of the French label, as Gildas noted in an Anthem Magazine interview. “People there love clothes, music and [that collective] image; we love music and we love clothes. [We wanted to] do a brand that would do both.”

While Kitsune’s music label focuses on the achingly hip (their compilations are a good barometer of what will be the sound of next year), their clothing focuses purely on the classics. Their Autumn/Winter 2009 collection was inspired by ‘The Graduate’, whilst their Spring/Summer 2010 collection focuses on reimagining golfing style through a selection of colourful polo shirts and sports jackets.

In order to avoid the ‘cheap music merchandise’ tag, Kitsune have taken extra care in where their materials are sourced from. As Gildas explains, “We offer a selection of blue jeans made in Japan, cashmere sweaters from Scotland, cotton Polos made in France and Italian shirts. It’s not record label merchandising — it’s a self-sustaining clothesline.” When it came to describing Kitsune’s long term aim, they stated that “Our goal is to win the right to exist in both arenas: music and fashion.”

Al Bazar is not Milan style; but it is a standout destination for classic menswear in Milan.

Milanese residents get frustrated at times that Al Bazar is the most famous menswear shop for foreign fans of classic tailoring. Its unique persona – literally, in founder Lino Ieluzzi – and stylish quirks has created an enthusiastic following. But the style is Lino’s. He wears it, designs it, buys it. It is not Milan; for that, go to Bardelli just a few streets away. It is just Al Bazar: a stylish collection of oddities, inspiration and chaotic colours.

Last week I popped in early to have a look around and spent an hour chatting to assistant Gianpaolo Alliata before “the boss” turned up. Gianpaolo had a good description for Al Bazar’s aim: “We started out trying to produce clothes that would excite the sons of the people that shopped at Bardelli. Not teenagers, but those in their 20s, 30s and older. We did new things, we experimented with colour and shape – though the aesthetic has always been very constant. Over time, the fathers started shopping here as well. So the customer base is pretty broad now.”

The clothes at Al Bazar are a mixture of other brands (Levi’s), designs for the store from other companies (Guy Rover for Al Bazar shirts) and clothes under the store’s label (most of the jackets and tailoring). There is a mixture of bright and classic colours, jackets and suits, classic and Neapolitan shoulders. But all are cut pretty slim – a double-breasted jacket is adjusted to be very narrow, on the understanding that it will be undone when the gentleman sits down. Contrary to tradition, perhaps, but it does allow for a much more aggressive shape.

Gianpaolo was also quick to point out that the trouser shape was definitely an Italian invention (his grey flannel trousers were narrow, short and cuffed – barely touching the shoe). “You young people may know all about Thom Browne, but trust me we’ve been wearing our trousers like this for decades,” he said. “This is our style and always has been.”

Tailored items that stood out for me included several double-breasted corduroy jackets in a variety of pale colours – cotton with a decent chunk of cashmere in them, producing a very silky handle (Zegna Cashco). And some pale-grey covert coats with black velvet collars (both picture below). Often the skill with Al Bazar is producing clothes that are just that little bit different – that coat is a lot softer than it looks, yet still has the substance of tweed.

The shirts from Guy Rover (a great Italian shirtmaker, despite the name) are well-known – traditional menswear importer Neglia also stocks them in Milan. With a slim cut and a spread collar, they are the kind of item that gets Lino noticed on the terraces of Inter Milan – and does the PR for Al Bazar all on its own. (At least among Italians; foreign fans are driven by The Sartorialist).

The shirts also come with a spare collar and cuffs, for when these get frayed with use. So in theory they should last years. (I’m much more likely to stain mine irrevocably before that point, but maybe that’s just me.) However, the spare collars and cuffs are unlikely to be around for too much longer – extra costs are driving them out of the store.

Less mentioned is the second line of shirts, not by Guy Rover but with a slimmer cut and a slightly higher collar. Personally this was the style I preferred – but then I saw a Guy Rover one in a very subtle, horizontal Bengal stripe, and was sold.

Prices also pretty reasonable for a high-end, highly fashionable store: shirts at €110, jackets around €700. If it wasn’t for the terrible sterling-euro exchange rate, I would have bought more. As Lino said (he had arrived by this point): “We’re outside the main shopping centre of the city so we have to offer something a little bit more to get people to come out here. They do though; they do come.”

“I thought they never left”. That’s the usual reaction when you tell someone who doesn’t follow fashion that classic hunting style pieces are coming back into fashion. Regardless of your opinion on the revival, it’s hard to ignore the wave of fashion labels taking their cues from traditional hunting fare. One such label is Hope.

Hailing from Sweden, Hope was launched in 2001 by Ann Ringstrand and Stefan Söderberg. Prior to Hope, the duo had worked at H&M, Levi’s and Acne respectively. The fabric Hope uses hails from the UK, Italy and Japan, keeping their focus strictly on classic materials.

They then update these materials and styles and update them, although in a manner more similar to Junya Watanabe than the workwear offerings we’ve become accustomed to. Their love of waxed cotton has even led them to make the ‘wax wear’ capsule collection, which focuses on using that sole fabric in bags, shoes and coats.

They make use of factories all around Europe, focusing on ones that can “deal with our high quality, advanced detailing”. Stephan describes Hope as a “product driven brand rather than a trend driven one”. He explains, “But a lot of brands are more surface and not so much product, it’s rather the trend and first look that matters for some brands”.