Tucked away on a little side street in East London’s Hoxton locale is a compact two-floor boutique that has remained relevant and consistent in challenging times for physical store fronts, with winning curation, a very impressive brand roster (home to brands such as PAM, Junya Watanabe Man, Wood Wood and Pendleton) and keeping true to their ethos with admirable enthusiasm and success.

Designers, Jo Sindle and Kyle Stewart are the creative duo behind the Goodhood name (established 2007) and in my opinion, have made nothing but substantial moves to guarantee themselves a prolonged future as one of London’s finest.

We had the opportunity to sit with Kyle (our congratulations to you both, as Kyle’s partner, Jo is currently away on maternity leave) to discuss style, influences and the future of the ‘hood.

Who are ya + what do you do?

My name is Kyle Stewart. I’m co-owner of Goodhood store and I run this place.

Tell us a bit about the Goodhood store and brand.

The store was set up in 2007 by me and my partner Jo Sindle. It started out as a bit of an idealistic project to curate brands and products that we’d seen on our travels. It was important for us to try and get a range of goods that, at the time, shared our ideas of independence and what that stood for, along with quality and creativity. The store has been going for 4 years now and has got bigger, with an additional floor for men’s in the basement and a gallery just over the street.

Myself and my partner Jo, we come from a design background and so it was important for us to create an identity around what we were trying to do. I come from a graphics background and Jo comes from clothing design background, that’s why we’ve been able to do collaborations with the people at R.Newbold, ’cause it’s something we’ve been doing for years. The graphics thing is a thing we’ve that we’ve rolled with – there’s myself and other designers involved with in the business, so it’s easy to roll out an indentity and be quite strong on that side of things. Although we are a multi-brand store, people very much see the store as a brand in itself.

You recently released the latest collaboration effort between yourself and R. Newbold, which was consistently strong. How did that team up come about?

Basically, friends of friends worked at Paul Smith and I met them in the pub one night. I knew they had done a collaboration with Oi Polloi, so I just said to them cheekily, “We should do a collaboration”, not thinking anything of it, but funnily enough R. Newbold had based a lot of their collections on London style and so the idea was perfect for them.

When we started the project we wanted to make sure that it had a bit of a life, we didn’t want it to be a hit-and-run thing, collaboration for the sake of it, so we applied a long term approach to it. We’ve just released the 8th season and are in talks about a 9th.

What inspires you for each collection?

Listening to what people want, people we meet, talking to customers, taking in what we see here and on our travels. This current season we wanted get away from all the heritage stuff to do something that was more “streetwear”, that’s why we did the Way Back tee, sort of having a laugh with ourselves. We’re obviously very interested in heritage and it does influence our designs, but really the collection is what we’re feeling at that particular moment in time.

On your website you host your Store Styles to exhibit outfits of visitors to the store. What’s your take on blogging’s effect upon men and women’s style?

I think blogging is massively important right now — it’s bigger than magazines, which I feel have become stagnant. They started out being quite cool and about something real and cool or whatever. Now it’s about selling ad space to perfume and sunglass brands. I’d like to see blogs become more significant. Guys, particularly, want to obsess over products and girls are into what people are wearing and doing. East London, hate it or love it, is a global focal point and it is nice to know that someone in Australia can know what’s going on over here instantly via the blogs, news sites and online niche communities at the click of a mouse, and vice versa.

Following on from that, do you have any favourite print publications at the moment?

Monocle is the only magazine I really bother reading. It’s intelligible and an actual interesting read. Stylistically it’s not my cup of tea, but I like their content. Some of the mags we have in the store at the moment like Travel Almanac, Apartmento, Gentry Magazine and Champfest are all really good too. I even like getting in all the brand books, they’re usually quite interesting.

All these new publications are quite open and one thing we learnt when first starting out is that the established media is closed off, it’s quite often about their mate’s mate. It’s quite boring. It’s nice to see people have an open attitude to content and deciding for themselves.

What are your favourite brands at the moment?

Difficult to say. From what we stock there’s Norse [Projects] — they have great product and a great attitude, it’s easy to wear their stuff. Phenom, Yuketen, [Junya] Watanabe are all doing great things at the moment. I personally really like Unrivaled, I’ll buy something every season.

Favourite spots in London?

We’re very local, we pretty much never leave Shoreditch as everything is very convenient here. From the all pubs to places like Laxeiro, Brawn and my local grocers S. Jones on Columbia Road — a little old school grocery joint that hasn’t changed since the 30’s or something, where I pick up lovely bread.

What do you love and hate about London?

I like the people of East London, the diversity, the style and I love the architecture around here, it has a really unique look and feel.

I hate all the crackheads who rob bikes and threaten people with syringes.

Do you collect or hoard anything?

Yes, clothes. I have a massive archive. We come from a denim background, so I have a lot of special stuff that I can’t get rid of and will hopefully become relevant again. A lot of classic streetwear stuff. I used to collect trainers, but I’ve sold them all. I’m trying to get into a more transient lifestyle, where I wear something out and then get rid of it, replace it and not sit on it because my son might wear it in 25 years. He might love my sh*t, but he probably won’t.

Briefly describe your own style.

I’ve just been to the gym this morning and I forgot my jeans, this isn’t my usual look. My style is influenced by Japanese takes on our style, metal and rock, street. I used to dress like a bum, my thing was bum chic, but I stopped that. Grunge is massive influence for me, I grew up in the 90’s and I was into skateboarding. I skated for years and that’s affected the way that I dress and as I got older there were brands like Silas.

You’ve mentioned metal and skateboarding; people tend to forget that it’s had a quite an influential affect on streetwear e.g. brands like FUCT. Kids these days seem to think it comes from a more hip-hop aesthetic…

I think when streetwear became associated with hip-hop, New Era and matching Nike sneakers, it became a really cliched look and a bit of a joke. For me, when we talk about streetwear, it’s nothing to do with that — it’s about i-D magazine 15 years ago; Japanese takes on mixing stuff up with running shoes, fur coats, business shirts and tweed — mixing up styles. I think the hardest thing for us is to challenge people’s perception of what streetwear is. People hear the word ’streetwear’ and they instantly think that it’s like dressing like a baby wearing a blue t-shirt, blue sneakers and a New Era cap, and that’s not what it is.

What’s next for the Goodhood brand?

We’re starting our own label off the back of the store and we’re talking about opening another space, which should be happening in 2012. We’ve got a 4 month old kid who we need to see to/get to a certain age before we can get our heads down on all of that.

The Goodhood Store
41 Coronet Street
London
N1 6HD

The Goodhood Store
@goodhoodstore
GoodHood on FB

Words: Mister Ollie
Interview: Mister Ollie and Denis Yong
Photography: Mister Ollie

A huge thanks to all who came down and celebrated with us at the Emerging Designers Fashion show at Chinawhite during London fashion Week. It was truly an awesome event and the whole teams are still buzzing from the fun.

WeAreHQ and B Fashion held our first fashion event at London’s hotspot with the aim to expose amazing new talent to press and fashion industry professionals. We were lucky enough to have the Vivienne Westwood team down to judge the show in its full glory. The show did not disappoint, the Westwood team were so impressed with the calibre of talented individuals that choosing a winner had proven to be quite tough!

The tension was running high amongst the crew, making sure timings were perfect and everyone was wearing a smile. Although the models looked immaculate and seemed composed with their poses, backstage was an entirely different matter! “Working back stage was a huge buzz! Clothes flying everywhere, dressers crawling across the floor and models running around with clothes hanging off… It was a great experience and all the hard work paid off! Bring on the next one!” - Jasmine May, Backstage Coordinator.

After many photos and wardrobe changes the ten beautiful collections had been shown and it was crunch time! Which designer would strike the Westwood judges fancy?

Back stage whilst our guests were keeping themselves topped up on drinks, the collections were analysed. Colours, textures, composition, techniques all came into consideration when under the scrutiny of the well trained eyes at Westwood. Finally they had come to their grand decision — congratulations to Ross Whittred, who won a cash prize and an exclusive internship at one of the most highly regarded British fashion houses that’s Vivienne Westwood! The judges loved how immaculate and well made his collection was. The equally talented runner up prize was awarded to Jennifer Durran who made a very unique and vibrant collection in complete contrast to Ross’. Jennifer was awarded a cash prize as well as her own website to professionally promote her fashion designs.

Ross Whittred

Jennifer Durrans

Here are the rest the rest of the contestant’s collections:

All in all, the night was a complete success. I for one felt like a proud mum when the winning designers were announced. We would like to take this opportunity to name drop some thank you!

Huge thank you to these guys for helping to make the night a special one:

• Chinawhite’s crew
• Vivienne Westwood’s team
• WeAreHQ family
• B Fashion’s girls
• Cossima and Holly from Benefit Carnaby Street for their beautiful makeup skills
• Modus PR
• FashionOne
• All the talented designers
• Every single gorgeous model
• All the backstage crew and runners
• Our host Antoine Allen
• DJ Bruce Wayne
• Our cameraman from Wrighty Media
• All the guests that came down and showed their support

Enjoy our photo album below taken from the night and stay tuned for the video exclusively here on WeAreHQ.

Photos taken by Magdi Fernandes and Ollie Adegboye.

London-based jewellery designer Toshi ‘T-Dog Junior’ Takahashi has been crafting some of the finest silver pieces for just over 13 years. Originally from Japan, he has independently built up the brand Dog State (est. 2004), through which he distributes his handiwork of unique silver rings, earrings and pendants. Be it a one-eyed grinning skull, a beautiful rose or British bulldog, Toshi does it all with a distinguished skill.

Whoareya + what do you do?

My name is Toshi Takahashi and I am a jewellery designer. I own the label Dog State.

Tell us more about Dog State.

I’ve been making rings since ’98, I’m self-taught, but I worked in a jewellery store on Carnaby Street for 5 or 6 years which was fun, I learnt a lot there and it made me want to do my own thing even more. I would come home and just improve my skills to make my designs better.

Dog State is just me making and selling jewellery that I like. I specialise in modern skull and animal designs. When I do custom work, it’s a relationship between me and the customer, we make the piece together.

How do you go about your design process?

When I wake up if I want to make rings I will, otherwise I won’t. I draw inspiration from a lot of sources; when I’m out on my bike or walking and I get ideas from nature and animals I see, I’ll then come home and work off that.

What’s playing in the headphones this week?

I listen to a lot of jazz. At the moment I’m working to Miles Davis.

Are you reading anything interesting at the moment?

I hardly read, but I do browse a lot of blogs, like my friends Bounty Hunter, Secret Base and Illustrator End.

What’s your worst form of procrastination?

I spend a lot of time on YouTube looking at dumb stuff.

Is there anything that you collect or hoard?
I don’t actually. I’d love to collect clown and joker related memorabilia, but if I started, I would never stop. I used to also collect jewellery, but that cost me way too much.

Your favourite spots around London town? Do you prefer to party or chill?

I rarely go out, but if I am out I’m usually going to this Japanese spot, Tsurukame (Crane & Tortoise), near Chancery Lane.

What do you love/hate seeing around London?

[Laughs] I could go on forever about what I hate so let’s start with love. I love seeing such a diverse mix of cultures in town. I hate the miserable weather. When it’s so cloudy outside, I don’t feel to make anything.

Three of your favourite brands and why?

Bounty Hunter – I love their overall style and collection.

Tenderloin – They made some amazing jewellery and jackets. Their stuff suits me a lot.

Dickies – I don’t wear denim too often, I’ve been wearing Dickies pretty much everyday for over 10 years. They’re just hard wearing and good for the conditions that I work in.

Wouldn’t be caught dead wearing…?

[Laughs] Can I say? I don’t like Ed Hardy because it looks like it disrespects tattoo culture.

Briefly describe your own style.

I like plain things. If I wear prints, I have to think about what I’m wearing. With my long hair, tattoos and jewellery, it’s just easier to just dress simple.

You never leave the house without…?

I never leave without my keys on the big skull chain and my bike. I don’t like London Transport.

What would you do with a big Lotto win?

I’m not a big spender. I’d open my own jewellery store in Los Angeles.

Toshi is currently in the process of revamping his website, but you can still check it out and if you’re after some crazy custom work, don’t hesitate to get in touch with him for an appointment!

Dog State is also available in store and online at Goodhood, London.

For more info, head over to:

• Dog State Jeweller
• @T_dog_jr
• Facebook