Designer: Komakino Design

Except for reveling in the overpriced horrors of Balmain menswear, we've generally been neglecting men's fashion a bit, so we're going to start to introduce a greater fashion gender equality here at Hapsical. A good place to start is looking at the exciting London based label Komakino Design, by design duo Jin Kim and Federico Capalbo. Their SS09 collection (see below) wasn't very interesting (yet more punk-ish, trashy clubbing clothes), but by the time they unveiled FW09 (see above) they'd really upped their game, producing a strong collection that simultaneously brought to mind Helmut Lang, early Raf Simons and Rick Owens.

The key ideas themselves (slashed jeans, 'bondage' straps, leather and asymmetric jackets) may not be that original, but overall we think the collection will work really well for young, fashion forward guys, and it has a greater freshness to it than a lot of the menswear we see. In short, it made us stop and look, something which not many men's collections do. What's particularly interesting is how the designers have managed to combine wearability with 'concept,' a union that is often unsuccessful in menswear: men's fashion has a tendency to either be too 'conceptual' (at which point it ceases to be of much practical use, because most guys simply aren't going to wear it) or too dull, playing it safe with staples like standard t-shirts, jeans, and sweaters. The construction looks good too, and we like the small details.

Three looks from the less successful SS09 collection.

No word yet on stockists or prices, but for more see komakinodesign.com