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They use 60-year-old looms to make the denim, then a 600-year-old dyeing technique to colour the resulting jeans. The business has been run by the same family for over 100 years and the aesthetic is still artisan. In fact, Aika means "indigo song" in Japanese. All of which makes the new, hard-wearing Aika men's jeans and jackets, now available at Gubb & Mackie and priced between $395 and $425, well worth checking out for denim fanciers. Ph (09) 374 1949.
Down to a T
Local creative director and T-shirt designer extraordinaire, Glenn Jones, has had enough of simply being the most popular designer at Threadless.com, a custom T-shirt company where punters vote for their favourite shirt designs. He's doing his own thing as well and has launched a website to sell some of his designs independently, albeit from inside the US. If you're after something a little different on your chest, the internet address to visit is: www.glennztees.com. Prices start at around $25 for a shirt.
Walker wonderland
There are some new Karen Walker jewellery designs to peruse. They include coloured stones on the adorable toy robot pendants, a skull and rose atop military-style ribbons in hip colours on the brooches, and reworkings of favourite rings. All of these are available at Karen Walker stores and selected stockists now, www.karenwalkerjewellery.com
Snug as a rug
If the selection of rugs created by Australian fashion designer Akira Isogawa are anything to go by, then the one-off floor coverings that New Zealand designers have been asked to put together should be equally fabulous. Six local labels - Zambesi, Cybele, Nom*D, State of Grace, World and Crane Brothers - have been invited to design a rug each for premium rug company Designer Rugs. The resulting one-off samples of carpeting will be auctioned off in August and the money raised will go to a charity of the designer's choice.
Isogawa, who is best known for his intricately constructed and beautiful frocks, actually first designed a rug for a similar initiative in Australia. Maybe, if carpet buyers are lucky and the one-off designer rugs prove particularly popular, the same thing might happen here. Visit www.designerrugs.co.nz or ph (09) 300 6116, if you're looking for that special tapestry for your place.
Seeing the light
Some of the best-looking outdoor lamps we have seen are the Light House series by Menu, a Danish design company. They're meant to evoke images of Scandinavian sea voyages, where the coastline is lit by a series of beacons - but mostly they're just damn good-looking objects. Added bonus: you can fill the different-sized lamps without taking them apart. Prices start at around $120 and go up to around $400 for different-sized lamps. Ph Design Denmark (09) 361 3333.
No more rubbish
Once you start recycling, you quickly realise how much extra paper, plastic and other packaging you're wasting. Worst of all, you realise a lot of it isn't really recyclable. So next time you buy a new top or dress and tell the sales assistant you don't need a bag, think of the Christchurch couple who have pledged to live rubbish-free for the year.
That means no takeaways in styrofoam containers, lots of second-hand purchases and learning how to bake your own bread. Crikey. Those who believe green really is the new black can read all about it on their blog: www.rubbishfreeyear.co.nz
Drawing on style
If you're one of those glamouristas who already has everything, but still wants something more exclusive, you'd best check out Pourquoi Pas?, a magazine of fashion illustrations recently published in Europe.
It features words by leading clothing commentators like Lisa Armstrong of the London Times and British Vogue and Cathy Horyn of the New York Times, and some of the most charming drawings you've ever seen by illustrators who attend events like Paris Fashion Week and have pictures published in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.
Buy the magazine for around $65 from the website: www.pqpmagazine.com.
