“The human body is always the starting point in my work,” says Swedish knitwear designer Sandra Backlund. “I am really fascinated by all the ways you can highlight, distort and transform the natural silhouette of the body with clothes and accessories. I build my garments by hand from a couple of basic bricks which I multiply and attach to each other in different ways to discover the shape that I want. In that sense I approach fashion more like a sculptor than a tailor.”

Backlund is definitely defying what the modern fashion industry stands for with her ground breaking knit sweater designs. Now only if we could find somewhere cool enough to wear one of these we’d be set.

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The Gatherer jacket is an interesting new concept in fashion that allows the wearer to adjust to their own ever changing climate conditions. Using adaptive insulation pockets through the body and sleeve, you can fill the pockets up with an insolating material of any kind; newspapers, packing peanuts, leaves, or pillow stuffing. You can fill it up as much or as little as you want, making it a truly year round accessory. The only limit to your ability to stay warm is your imagination.

Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay teamed up back in 2003 to form french electronic music duo, Justice (Pronounced Just-EECE), and you might remember the D.A.N.C.E. video we posted a little while back. Nowadays, not only are they continuing to churn out awesome music, but they getting in touch with their fashion designer sides. French label Surface to Air Paris took a chance with the musical group and produced a mini collection that was inspired by each of their personal styles. Leather wallets, worn-in biker-style leather jackets, graphic tees, and super tight, skinny jeans are a few of the items included. If you’re a skinny french canadian living in LA (hi, American Apparel please?) you just found hipster heaven.

Wheels and Dollbaby’s slogan is “Clothes to Snare a Millionaire” and considering how hot these looks are you just might be able to pull it off. Wheels and Dollbaby was conjured up by Melanie Greensmith, who started out making clothes for unsigned bands and now dresses celebrities like Debbie Harry and Dita Von Teese, How does Mel feel about her clothing being stocked everywhere from Fred Segal to Harvey Nichols and being considered a national fashion icon? “It feels good because when I was younger it was a lot straighter than it is now. You sort of had to fit in a box to be successful. I didn’t have a big education but I was creative and strong-willed. To have come through and have done it how I wanted and be recognized for doing something that makes people happy is great. It shows other girls you don’t have to do it a certain way. There are many paths to success.”

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We’re pretty up on that whole European hand-drawn aesthetic as of late. So Me pushed himself to the forefront with his creative direction for ed banger / illustrations-a-plenty per t-shirts in the video for Justice’s D.A.N.C.E. So it’s only appropriate we tip our collective hats to the artists continuing in that vein. First up; the French collective Shoboshobo. Like a couple previous posts, dudes are kinda all over the place. Hand stitched sweaters, silk screened shirts, drawn-on cassettes with original music, icons and the like. These guys are pretty on point. Viva la analog!

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If you’re a fan of limited edition handmade designer art, jewelry and clothing you’ll probably be as happy as we were to discover Little Paper Planes. This site is run by Silverlake artist Kelly Lynn Jones who is a talented artist in her own right.

We were especially happy to see some of our favorite underground zines sold here such as FYEO and Broken Wrist Project (if you don’t live in LA, you’ll probably never find these and you are so missing out).

If you see an artist you like, you can probably find out more about them in Little Paper Planes Artist Interviews section.

If you’re a fan of the boutique retailers of like found on Melrose or Robertson but want something a little different than everyone else who shops there, Firmament is just what the doctor ordered. This Berlin based retailer offers brands like Surrender (shown above) and Supreme that are to Europe what Artful Dodger, Obey, or Shmack are to America. Most of their wares are available through their online store. Luckily PayPal will save you some trouble by doing the currency exchange for you for free if you don’t have any Euros handy.