A Kind of Guise popped up out of nowhere (to us at least) not too long ago. We first featured them back in July of last year, but we were still interested to find out more about them. Founded in 2009, A Kind of Guise (or AKOG for short). Based in Munich their first collection utilised leather from an old medicine ball factory, using it to create a limited edition of bags (which we’ve also covered before).

The name comes from Dion DiMucci’s ‘The Wanderer’. “There is a part in the song that goes ‘Oh well I’m the type of guy who will never settle down. Where pretty girls are well, you know that I’m around’. We really liked ‘type of guy’ and realized it could work for us. So we rebuilt it into ‘kind of guys’.

They’ve mainly made bags and mens garments that veer on the side of casual without going into streetwear. They’re not putting themselves into any design box yet though, their aim for now is to create limited edition pieces that have a personal touch to them. “AKOG is an expression of ourselves and our influences. Basically, what we are is what we create.”

In the second of our new series, we take a look at London based label Braille. A two man team of Samuel Kientsch and Benjamin Vorono, they launched the brand a year ago, back in February of 2010. We caught up with them recently and gave a short Q&A, finding out a little more about the brand.

Take a leap to read it.

(L-R: Tim Soar, Unconditional)

The fashion calendar hasn’t made sense to us for a while so it’s only natural that someone would try to shorten it. Selling pieces straight from the runway has been an idea that was flouted around for a few years but, possibly due to Oki-Ni’s success with JW Anderson’s collection last season, it’s appearing like a viable option. ASOS are the latest retailer to take advantage of people’s lust for fashion, teaming up with several leading British designers to sell pieces directly from the runway. Involved in the project are Carolyn Massey, Tim Soar, James Long, Katie Eary & Unconditional (the latter’s pieces are already available on the site). So, with LFW’s menswear day happening as we type, we’ve interviewed each designer to gauge their thoughts on the project.

Take a leap to see our Q&A’s with each designer.

Despite Heritage Research’s relatively recent inception (the label was born in 2008) Russ Gater and co-founder Daniel Savory, have close to a combined 20 years experience as designers. In addition to this they sourced vintage clothing, a role that paved the way for Heritage Research. Since their start, they’ve gone on to be stocked in well respected stores and work on a series of well chosen collaborations.

Take a leap to read about their influences, upcoming projects and their thoughts on the heritage boom.

As an Easter treat, we’ve dug out a process feature we had locked in our vaults. Neil J Christopher, founder of ARN Mercantile, doesn’t get as much blog love as other workwear folks but with this process and an upcoming full feature, we’ll be trying to redress the balance. In this process feature Christopher talks about his ongoing collaboration with Nigel Cabourn.

On Saturday, the Levi’s Cords by Opening Ceremony tour (if you will) roll’s into San Francisco. The founders of Opening Ceremony, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, are both graduates of UC Berkley. Given their Bay Area roots, it seemed appropriate for Levi’s to create “a home away from home” for the Levi’s Cords by Opening Ceremony Collection. To that end, Jay Carroll of One Trip Pass helped to create a “store within a store” at the Levi’s Flagship Store in San Francisco’s Union Square. This pop up space within the Levi’s shop will offer the collection as well as some other collaborative items.

Given the publicity of both collection and the “store within a store,” we decided to take some time and dig (a little) into the background of the Levi’s Cords by Opening Ceremony collection. We chatted with Aylin Beyce, designer of the collection, wishing to learn more about the collaborative process and Levi’s background in cordaroy.

Hit the jump to read her responses. (please note the above photograph is by Phillip King, and captures one of the launch campaign sites in San Francisco).