The next interview is from a dope beer brand in Germany. Its arguably the first brand of beer, which was exclusively made for the high end Hip Hop and Street Culture. Afer tasting a bottle of their finest Red Beer, you know they arent fucking around. Their beer tastes really good. They use a special kind of malt that makes the beer dark and red. Their brewer is one of the best in Bavaria, Germany. And if you know something about beer, the bavarian region is the home of worlds finest beers. So if you are in the region dont forget to try Clique Beer

1. Describe your brand with three words:
Dopest Beer Ever

2. Tell us why your brand kicks ass:
Its just the perfect embodiment of Hip Hop´s finest poured into a very high quality german Red Beer. Put that in a dope ass bottle and you get Clique Beer

3. Name one accessory you cant live without and why:
My glasses. I cant see shit without them

4.Fill in the blanks: When i was a kid… and now …
I cant answer that question because im still just a kid in my head.

5. What would be your last meal:
My last meal would be a plate of mutton fried rice from „Lalan“ in Jakarta

Website: www.clique-bier.de

Instagram: @clique_bier

Facebook: @cliquebier

Twitter: @clique_bier

You can tell an idea is good if you wish you had come up with it yourself. This next brand is a good example of that. Lets start with the name of the brand, which i think is a very smart word play. The brand is called Felony Case, and they make spiked and studded iphone case (see the awesomeness here?) This iphone case looks freakin badass and it surely will upgrade every outfit you wear. One fascinating fact about Andrew, the founder of the brand, he is doing everything at Felony Case by himself. From handcrafting to marketing, i mean everything and he is just in his mid 20´s! Seriously he has a bright future ahead of him and im excited to see whats next! Thank you Andrew for doing the interview and we wish you all the success!:

1. Describe your brand with three words:
Luxury tech accessories

2. Tell us why your brand kicks ass:
A Felony Case speaks for itself – just look at them. The case could actually be used to kick ass.

3. Name one accessory you cant live without and why:
My iPhone, I’m always on it.

4.Fill in the blanks: When i was a kid… and now …
When I was a kid I blew all my money on shoes. Now I save it for a rainy day

5. What would be your last meal:
Probably some glazed & smoked pork chops with super fluffy mashed potatoes or scalloped potatoes, these beans with sliced almonds that my mom makes, broccoli with cheese sauce. Now I’m hungry.

Be sure to check out the online shop here

I found out about Jeckybeng when Moritz, the founder of this brand, wrote me a short email telling me about his passion. So what is Jeckybeng actually? Well Jeckybeng is a “way of life” brand. Now i carefully chose those words “way of life” over “lifestyle brand” because lifestyle is often associated with those overpriced brands who sells things according to trends. But this brand is nothing like that. With Jeckybeng, Moritz is making products for his cool, free spirited and nature/outdoor focused way of life. So this is not a gimmick. He is living that life. Jeckybeng, appropriately like their motto “Multidisciplinary Design Solution”, is making from tshirts up to surf wax and tools. Not to mention they are making it handmade, so this brand is legit. Thank you Moritz for doing the interview:

Dont forget to check their online shop here

1. Describe your brand with three words:

nature-equipmentmanufacturer-adventure

2. Tell us why your brand kicks ass:

We are JECKYBENG – a manufacturer from Bavaria who produces awesome, handmade stuff for life’s big playground
and this by doin’ less harm to nature.

3. Name one accessory you cant live without and why:

it’s a pity that it is my iphone. but it has four features in one that are essential for me:
-music
-photo/video camera
-diary
-my inspirational notes

4.Fill in the blanks: When i was a kid…and now…

When i was a kid i loved to be ouside in the nature and now
nothing has changed. and that’s good because now my business is all about nature
and being outside.

5. What would be your last meal:
beer

Here are our favorite pieces from Jeckybeng

I met Thomas, the founder of the brand Liebling at an online marketing conference and I was very fascinated by his personality. He is one the most humble, straightforward, and genuine guy I have ever met and you can see this awesome personality in his brand. He lives and breathes this brand. Its not about marketing strategy or about putting up a façade so people buy his products. No this is an honest brand. Everything Thomas does for the brand its because he thinks thats how its supposed to be. He is bringing tradition in a cool and original way. Liebling´s specialty is making clothing pieces made from high quality lamb wool with a touch of Bavarian style and selling it to a reasonable price. I would call their style the “Bavarian Swag” (im not sure if he approves this though haha). Im very glad they were down to do an interview with us. Thank you Thomas and Verena for making this happen and I hope to visit your farm really soon!
Note: I dont normally edit the interview but since some answers are in german i will try to translate.

1. Describe your brand with three words:

frisches bayerisches Lebensgefühl (Trans: A fresh feeling of the bavarian life)

2. Tell us why your brand kicks ass:

Liebling doesn’t have to be sold, it sells itself. “Mia miass’n ned, mia deaf’n” (Trans: We dont have to but we are allowed to) is Liebling’s way of living and working. Bodenständigkeit, Moderne und Ehrlichkeit spiegeln sich so auch in unseren Produkten wider (Trans:Down to earth mentality, modern and honest are the spirit of our product). Everybody who tries a cardigan for a short spell, doesn’t take it off again and is ass-kicked.

3. Name one accessory you cant live without and why:

Die richtige Kopfbedeckung zum richtigen Style, zu JEDER! Tages- und Nachtzeit (Trans: The right headgear for everyone at day or night).

4.Fill in the blanks: When i was a kid… and now …

Als ich ein Kind war wollte ich Wahrheit – von mir selbst und von anderen – und jetzt erzählen wir mit unseren Produkten die Wahrheit (Trans: When i was a kid i wanted the truth from me and others and now we are telling the truth through our products).

5. What would be your last meal:

Bierkutscherschnitzel mit Bratkartoffeln und Schweinsbratensauce

You could buy their stuff at their online shop here. These are our favorite looks from Liebling

If you have been reading curated wares for some time now, you probably would know how much we love scandinavian brands or swedish brand for that matter. They somehow know how to bring out simple classic designs with great quality yet still selling at an affordable price. This is also the case for the next brand The Bow Club. Im always amazed at brands who could concentrate at doing one thing and doing it great. The Bow Club is, if you cant already tell by its name, making great bow ties. From the fabrics, design to packaging, you can see that this is a well thought out product. Not to mention that the bow ties are hand made in Sweden but go for around 55 Euro!. Definitely a brand to look out. So tack Naeem for doing the interview!

1. Describe you brand with three words:
Bold, simple and unpretentious

2. Tell us why your brand kicks ass:
The Bow Club is not simply an accessories brand, it is a progressive movement, reforming the way people perceive the bow tie. We at The Bow Club believe that the bow tie is a great accessory and feel it is a shame that is has been subjected to a certain niche of people and to formal events. Our aim is to help people be bolder, embrace the bow tie and wear it with ease and happiness!

3. Name one accessory you cant live without and why:
Other than stating the obvious, haha, I guess with all honesty its my iPhone. I have everything on it in terms of social and work contacts as well as a great camera to whip out whenever I want to take a pic or or listen to music on the go.

4. Fill in the blanks: When i was a kid….. and now….
When I was a kid I was the ‘nerdy’ kid; I read huge fantasy novels and wore ties and rolled up trousers. Now all I have done is switched from ties to bow ties.

5. What would be your last meal
My last meal would most definitely be a nice well-sized burger. I’m way too obsessed with them for my own good. You should see The Bow Club’s Instagram!

Here are our favorite pieces from The Bow Club*:

Oh they have their own online shop so you could buy them at thebowclub.com

*all photos are taken from The Bow Club Website with the permission from the owner

It is not easy finding a really cool online shop who specializes in mens accessories. That is until we found out about Opumo (opumo.com). We love all the brands they are selling that we thought their buyer could read our mind. You can find all the essentials here from bags to cufflinks. The fact that they are carrying MISMO is enough to love them but theres more. One thing we look in a store is that the element of surprise in learning about new brands and we definitely discovered brands in opumo.com that we didnt know but directly put it in our must haves! So thank you Harry from Opumo for doing the interview

1. Tell me why your store kicks ass:

We have an ethos at Opumo that we don’t stock anything that we wouldn’t buy ourselves. It keeps buying for the store very simple- if we love something then we put it in the collection. So, for me the reason why our store kicks ass is because it offers all of my favorite brands and products. What makes it even better is that we get to share all of our most wanted products with our customers!

2. How do you want people to feel after shopping at your store?

I want people to feel like they have seen a lot of great men’s accessories and that they have chosen something perfect for themselves.

3. Name 3 brands that people should watch out for in the next season and why:

• Berg & Berg has got to be in this list. Based in Norway, minimalistic Scandinavian designs and some amazing new small leather goods to sit alongside their collection of ties and pocket squares.
• Mismo makes the list too. I have checked out next season’s collection and it’s awesome!
• WANT Essentiels de La Vie is a favorite brand of mine and I have a few pieces that I am going to get for myself as soon as they are available.

4. What is your current food addiction?

I cannot get enough of Haloumi cheese. Weird I know.

5. Name 3 songs that you have on repeat at the moment:

• Hungry For The Power – Jamie Jones Remix
• The Mole – Trentemøller
• Oh Well (Live) – Fleetwood Mac

Check out our favorite pieces from their store. They have a sick collections of MISMO bags but their TATEOSSIAN mechanical cufflinks and Kiel James Patrick bracelets are just insane!

UP TO YOU is the kind of shop that makes me jealous of the torontonians. This shop is selling the kind of products that will instantly spark your right brain if you see them. No im not talking about medical marijuana….Im talking about a very well curated yet wide selection of design objects. And when i say wide, im talking about everything from home accessories to jewelry and even bath products. I could literally take a picture of every product they have and ill have a year of material for my blog.  So im really happy they were down to do an interview with Curated Wares. So thanks Dimitra and your friend who told you about my blog.

Be sure to check them out whenever you are in Toronto.

UP TO YOU
1483 Queen Street East, Canada
tel: 416-778-6487

1. Tell me why your store kicks ass:

UP TOP YOU has a little bit of everything to satisfy one’s needs, wants and desires.  All you have to do is imagine it and we most likely have the coolest incarnation of it.

2. How do you want people to feel after shopping at your store:

Giddy with Delight.

3. Name 3 brands that people should watch out for in the next season and why:

Katrina Kaye
Finch & Fouracre
Veinticuatrodientes

4. What is your current food addiction:

I am perennially addicted to movie theater popcorn.  No butter, just completely naked with a large Pepsi on the side.

5. Name 3 songs that you have on repeat at the moment:

Kavinsky – Nightcall (Dustin N’Guyen Remix)
Dick Dale and His Del-Tones – The Victor
Johnny Cash – Girl From The North Country-(w Bob Dylan)

Here are some of my favorite products from UP TO YOU

MAGNETIC BRACELET

MONEY CANDLE

PIPE CANDLE HOLDER

PIPE COAT RACK

READING LIGHT & BOOK HOLDER

I just cant get enough of products with smart designs that will actually make your life easier. And this brand Blue Lounge brings out products after products that does this perfectly. Well this make perfect sense since they put “simplifying you digital lifestyle” as their highest endeavours without compromising good design. I even personally think that good design is actually the path to practicality. But what makes me really drool over their products is they are putting out a lot of products to solve one thing that i even hate more than long baggage claim and windows vista. Yes i am talking about cable tangle! Cable tangle just makes everything ugly dont you agree? But lucky for me Blue Lounge is selling really good looking products to a surprisingly affordable price that will banish cable tangle from my life. So im happy they did an interview with us. Thank you Dominic!

1. Describe your brand with three words:

Simple Relevant Design

2. Tell us why your brand kicks ass:

We design super useful products you can really fall in love with

3. Name one accessory you cant live without and why:

iPhone. Keeps me connected.

4. Fill in the blanks:

When i was a kid i always invented stuff and now I design stuff for a living. Life is great.

5. What would be your last meal:

Cold cuts, cheese, fresh bread, fruit, antipasto in the shade of a huge tree.

Dont forget to check out their other awesome products on their website

Here are some my favorite products from them

This next interview is kind of a big deal to me. This store was a personal source of inspiration and cool clothing when i lived in Paris in 2007. I even use their room fragrance “l’air de colette” for my apartment until now. Yes im talking about “the” Colette store in Paris. The first time i went to Colette was way back before the infamous masamichi katayama from wonderwall did a redesign on the store. And without any exaggeration, it changed the way i see fashion, luxury and art. Of course there were already a lot of concept stores back then but Colette was different. And i think this is why. Colette has this “fun” flair to it. It sounds so simple but think about it for a second. When was the last time you really had fun visiting a fashion concept store? Most of the concept stores are trying to be so high-end, so ground breaking, so innovative that they sometimes forget to make it fun for people to go there. I mean at Colette you can find high-end brands like Thom Browne and Junya Watanabe but at the same time you can buy a pack of haribo gummy bears! So mix that fun experience with the fact that they are carrying a lot of rare pieces, having its own art gallery and restaurant not to mention that they do a lot of cool collaborations ranging from shoes to polaroid cameras , then you get a picture of how awesome Colette is. Since its opening in march 1997, this store has been so influential in the fashion world even if you didnt notice it. So i think its safe to say that you cant talk about fashion retail concept without mentioning Colette.

Thank you so much Sarah and Guillaume for making this happen.

1. Tell me why your store kicks ass:

you tell me ! but maybe because it changes every week and we work with great designers and artists…

2. How do you want people to feel after shopping at your store:
Ecstatic ?!

3. Name 3 brands that people should watch out for in the next season and why:

For fashion, let’s say :
Mary Katrantzou from UK
Julien David from Japon
Adam Kimmel from US
just because they’re very talented !

4. What is your current food addiction:

As always, Ladurée macarons…

5. Name 3 songs that you have on repeat at the moment:

From our new COLETTE SEX compilation :
Prince-Erotic City 45
Cyan / Kindness
Love On The Beat (Krikor & W.A.R.R.I.O. Remix) Serge Gainsbourg

To see pictures of the store visit the wonderwall website here. 

So whenever you are in Paris dont forget to visit them at:
Colette:
213 rue saint-Honoré
75001 Paris