Cult of the Well-Worn Hoodie

Love your hoodies, but looking for something a little more dressy? As the cold weather approaches, you might want to consider one of the hoodie scarves from Kasil’s Fall collection.

The schoodie comes in five colors: Grey/Blue Plaid, Bold Pink Plaid, Yellow/Black Plaid, Green/Brown Plaid (pictured), and Turquoise Plaid. The hooded scarves are flannel and one-size-fits-all, and come with a button-flap iPod pocket falling right around shoulder level. All 5 are available for purchase from Revolve Clothing for $50.

And if you’re really loving your hooded scarf, you might want to consider the ORLY hat from the Gaia Online store come casual Friday.

Patterned after a popular product in the web gaming community Gaia Online, the ORLY hat is 100% polyester one-size-fits-all, and the scarf ends double as gloves. The ORLY costs $25 and can be purchased online.

Sure you might be stylin’ in some fly new Bape gear, but what about the little one rollin’ in the stroller? As long as you’re not planning on visiting any seaside arcades any time soon, you might want to consider swaddling your toddler in one of these hot stitched  Headphone Hoodies from New Skool.

New Skool was founded by Bay Area Designer and Graffiti Artist Nate1 MPC in San Fransisco in 2003, and cranks out some fantastic urban-themed tees and hoodies for youngsters and adults. The Headphones Hoodie is a perpetual best-seller, available in sizes suited to infants as young as 12 months, through toddler and up to an adult XL.

The infant and toddler size zip-up hoodies are available in navy with gold metallic thread embroidery for $48, and the adult – men and women’s sizes – are black with silver metallic thread design and cost $50. All the hoodies are produced in small runs in the Bay Area, and can be purchased from the New Skool web site.

This is Karen Lewis. This adorable 4-year old Welsh girl loves to wear hoodies, a lot like you and me. However, this particular photo was taken only moments after Karen was declared enough of a threat for owners of the arcade where she was playing games with her granddad to call in the guards. Her offense?

Wearing a hood in a public place.

Despite their being no notices posted anywhere around the arcade, and plenty of folks walking around wearing baseball caps, the employees of the seaside venue still felt comfortable citing “official policy” in demanding that the child take down her hooded cardigan, or leave the arcade.

The arcade’s owner, Les Harken, has said the emporium is a “good family venue” aimed mainly at children.

Harken was quoted by the BBC as saying that the no-hoodie policy will stay in place for fear of the kids (though he didn’t explicitly specify a policy targeting the under-7 set). “If there is an incident to a hoodie or with a hoodie, we’ve got CCTV all over the place.”

Hopefully future adult visitors to the family-friendly destination feel safer today, knowing that the all-seeing eye will protect them from any and all Teletubby-loving toddler hoodlums.

Brooklyn Industries, the urban design shop run by Vahap Avsar and Lexy Funk, consistently produces some of my favorite hoodie designs. The company, founded during an upstate NY artist residency program, hit the ground running in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They now have seven retail stores in some of the trendiest locations in New York, collaborate regularly with partners in Europe and Japan, and operate their design studio and warehouse from 22,000 sq ft of space in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

First up in their ‘07 lineup is the cozy-looking Entropy Hoodie:

With snaps down the collar and available in Royal, Olive or Heather Grey, the Entropy retails for $72.

Next is the Prefab Hoodie:

A three-quarter zip hoodie with a kangaroo pocket and chest pocket, the Prefab comes in Charcoal with red accents, Cream with grey, or the pictured Chocolate with green hoodie interior and accents. This hoodie is 80% Cotton / 20% Polyester, and costs $74.

Third is one of my personal picks from this collection, the funky Renewable Hoodie:

The tri-colored Renewable is available in Chocolate, Light Grey (pictured) or the fierce orange Lion for $72.

Finally, the classic Brooklyn Appliqué design – one of Brooklyn Industries’ most popular designs, and available in men’s and women’s cuts.

The hoodies come with “Brooklyn Ind.” across the chest in raised letters, and are 80% cotton, 20% polyester fleece with ribbed trim and cuffs and a drawstring hood. The Appliqué comes in a myriad of colors: Black, Grey, Sage and Clover for men, Navy, Brick, Rose, Fern, Eggplant, Sage, Grey and Black for women. They are currently $49, on sale from their regular price of $64.

All the hoodies featured come in sizes from small to 2XL for men, and XSmall through XLarge for women, and can be purchased from their retail shops or online at Brooklynindustries.com.

An ill-fated decision by Citadel High administrators to ban hoodies was reversed today, after the Halifax, NS school was swamped with calls from confused parents and frustrated students.

Abigail Pate (I hope she’s a reader!) told a CanWest reporter, “I literally have, like, two sweaters that don’t have hoods on them.” Officials claim that the decision was made to improve school safety, addressing the concern that hoods would obscure faces from the school’s security cameras.

As a concession, Tam Fawcett, principal of Citadel High School, says students will be allowed to wear the popular piece of clothing, but only with the hoods turned down.

Presumably school bans on long hair, baseball caps and waving hands above one’s head are still pending approval by the school board.

Unfortunately, Albany students are still out of luck.

In case you’re looking for more protection than your Bape crime-fighting cowl offers (or have concerns about getting holes torn in a $450 piece of fashion), the Bladerunner Slash Resistant Hooded Top might be right for you.

The Bladerunner brand, based out of Romford, Essex, has recently expanded beyond their security community focus to offer protective clothing to parents of students and concerned citizens everywhere. Strong sales and a series of positive news stories (although most of the ones I was able to find read more like press releases) have convinced the label to branch out into the consumer market, offering several style and color alternatives to their dark black hoods, and an urban-themed portal site to buy them from.

Prices run from £ 20.00 (approx. $40) for the unlined hoodies, up to £64.99 (approx $130) for the kevlar-lined hoodies. They come in solid colors or “chemical print” and “razorwire” designs, and in addition to the traditional black Bladerunner has pink and light blue styles designed for female joggers. Sizes run from small to 3XL.

Given the bad rap hoodies traditionally receive in the UK, I don’t know whether something like this is good or bad for the stereotype.

Nigo (née Tomoaki Nagao) loves himself some classic superheroes, and this fall he’s expressing that love in hoodie form.

Collaborating with DC comics, Bape is bringing out this Batman hoodie; patterned after the old-school Adam West style threads and with a pointy-eared cowl hood that zips up enough to keep your face just barely exposed on any midnight crime-fighting runs. The collection also includes Superman and the Flash non-hooded sweatshirts, and each of the three comes paired with a little plastic sidekick toy molded to represent the appropriate superhero.

Being a Marvel guy myself, I’m partial to the Anticon Hoodie. Perhaps because it reminds me of Peter Parker’s first wrestling costume.

The French-designed Anticon hoodie went on sale to the public in October 2005, and is available in four colors (and all the expected sizes) from their online store for 85.00 €, or around $115. The Bape hoodie and sweatshirts are expected to retail for $439 and $351 respectively when they hit store shelves in Autumn.

Clear skies signaled the end of summer here in New York – the perfect accompaniment to parades, barbecues and long drives back from the shore. But the interminably sunny skies would hardly deter me from throwing an Imaginary Foundation Cloud Hoodie over my shoulders once the evening chill starts to come on.

The Imaginary Foundation, whose tagline is “Somewhere something incredible is waiting to be known,” are a Swiss collective whose leader is the progeny of a Dadaist movement founder. In addition to hoodies, their output includes t-shirts and art prints, with visuals often resembling a mash-up of Magritte and Monty Python.

The Cloud Hoodie is an 80/20 heavyweight fleece, and available for purchase from their online store for $100.

Wow, two threads referencing the Beastie Boys in one week!

Ever held the perfect hoodie design in your minds’ eye, spending weeks scoping out storefronts and hitting up Google, trying to find it but coming up empty-handed? Maybe it’s time to get stichin’!

Designing your own hoodie is probably easier than you think, courtesy of some great tutorials online.

First up, ThreadBanger, the network for DIY fashion, has a video tutorial on how to turn an old band t-shirt into a custom vintage hoodie. Curbly as the text run-down, in case you’re having trouble watching the video or want to print out some instructions for post-viewing sewing.

If you prefer hook and yarn to thread and needle, Knitty has a hooded cardigan pattern that is perfect for the cooler weather. The design is by Jodi Green.

If you have any success with these patterns, or know of any more worth sharing, post them in the comments.

You love your hoodies. Shouldn’t your furniture enjoy that same level of comfort?

Originating from a 2003 Campana brothers workshop with the themes “containment” and “constructing from deconstruction”, the Hood Chair by Swedish firm BRDA – Broberg & Ridderstråle Design & Architecture – plays upon the different visual appearances furniture takes on when in use, such as the look of a chair when someone “claims” it by laying their jacket or hoodie over the back.

BRDA does some fantastic conceptual design, though I could find no indication that this chair is currently for sale. It would make a great addition to any apartment, though I wouldn’t act too surprised when your cat claims the hood as her own space.