So as you can see, we just got a box load of Huxley samples through. We now have all the colours in all the sizes and I think you will agree they look great! We would love to hear from people as to which colours are their favourites, which colours they would avoid, and generally any feedback on the jumpers at all. Now that we have the full selection of samples, we wil be making catalogues and getting the Huxley online store ready for everyone to pile in when we launch in Spetember. We will. of course, keep you updated with our progress as we go, there will be behind the scenes sneak previews from the catalogue shoots, and much much more. Keep in touch!

The Times today ran an article discussing how in the recession people want to have more control over their colour choices, and that this is fast becoming a very popular offering with brands and a great way to differentiate onesself. Huxley takes this on board. Due to our fledgling status we will not be able to offer bespoke colouring a la NikeID or the history of colours of someone like Hermes. But in no time at all we hope to offer enough colour choices that people will be able to find their favourite pink or that hard-to-find shade of green.

It certainly feels like people are yearning after some colour to perk them up in what are otherwise pretty miserable times. One thing I can ensure you of...we are surrounded by colour everyday at Huxley, and it keeps us pretty bloody perky.

  

Well there it is. The first of our socks. Not wanting to dissapoint we have gone for a punchy yellow for the sample...I think you will agree it will look very cheeky poking out from beneath your strides! It may or not come accross in the photos, but we have gone with a longer leg on the sock than most people, at a cool 14" it comes in at the top of the calf when pulled up. Old school! As usual we have some adjustments to make to the sock but they are lovely and soft and leg hugging, and in the vibrant colours we showed previously these will certainly be a fans favourite.

My Brother was recently in the Tate modern and stumbled accross the most striking work of art. There is no guessing what intially drew him to the picture. Matisse's 'The Snail' is first of all huge (3m x 3m), secondly it is hung on its own on a wall at the far end of the room in the Tate, finally there is of course the bold striking use of colour smacking you in the face before pulling you the length of the gallery to take a closer look. In the flesh the colours are actually not disimilar to Huxley's first range of colours. Great minds and all that! I thought I would post it here for two reasons, one - my brother told me to as he said as soon as he saw it he was reminded of Huxley and all we are trying to achieve, and two - the story behind how Matisse created this painting from a state of incapactation in his bed is pretty cool. Read more about that and the painting here.

Watch out! Could this be the first sighting of Huxley's first season of colours for knitwear and socks? It may well be! Sorry for the slighty dodgy photo of my notebook with the straggly little bits of merino sample. Apparently this is how all fashion designers display their colour choices...

I have always admired the label Acne for its willingness to push the boundaries colourwise. On a recent trip to Stockholm my close friend Ben Thompson @ Studio Ilse stumbled across this very Huxley-esque display from Acne. I thought I would post it up here to further give people an idea of the kind of brand identity we are striving to achieve with Huxley.

As always I am getting ahead of myself, but I have always liked the idea of launching a range of accessories in line with the jumpers that I plan to launch Huxley with. These belts above can be found at Nordstrom and have inspired me on two levels; firstly I think they have got their colour offering spot on, and secondly they have inspired me to roll out Huxley belts sooner rather than later. These belts remind me of belts worn by Richard Rogers, who is a huge exponent of embracing colour in the way he dresses. It would not be an understatement to say that Lord Rogers has been an inspiration for me in deciding to launch Huxley.

These are just a couple of snaps from a frikkin awesome blog that I follow called LimitedHype. I love the different and often clashing colours of the heads and I can see people rocking menswear in every one of the colours. Similarly the top photo is just a very cool idea and I dig the link to big bold knitwear. The colours are possibly a little too pastelle for Huxley but the you never know we may surprise ourselves and lay down a more pastelle, lightweight, summer range...the options are endless.

I have always felt that there is a gap in the market for well made, great quality and fairly priced men's clothing brand that eschews the temptation for men to stay safe with their colour palette, never veering far from blue, grey or brown clothing. I figured that in the midst of a recession is the perfect time to throw in my stable job and attempt to build a brand on the premise of using British producers, manufacturers and materials in order to offer the British consumer interesting and different brands to get their teeth into.

I have an image of a world where men are not afraid to rock a purple jumper, a yellow belt, a well fitting set of royal blue shorts, or a pair of electric green suede brogues. It is certainly true to say that there are factions out there of men who are willing to express themselves thus...however i want to bring these men out of the shadows and encourage everyone from creatives to accountants, 18 year olds to 50 year olds, lanky gents to chubby dudes to express themselves through Huxley.

The plan is to start by designing and selling some classic men's jumpers. We will start with a round neck and a v-neck in a range of eight vibrant, risky, yet very tasteful colours. The plan is to move on to the full regalia of men's clothing and accessories with socks, scarves, trousers, shorts, belts, wallets etc all following in good time.

If you stumble across this little blog and are interested by what you see please sign up as a follower and stay tuned to what is going on. We will be launching our web site in the new year and hope to have our online store up and running very soon after that. I will be updating the blog as regularly as I can with updates on the brand's progress as well as throwing up photos and links to things/people/events etc that we believe embody Huxley as a brand. As we are a young brand we encourage any comments and suggestions for the direction of the brand.

I hope you enjoy what you find here and I hope that this is the beginning of something pretty bloody special