We’ve had the first of a few drops of stock from streetwear legends Carhartt that will form their Autumn/Winter range for 2010. The majority of stock in so far is still very ’summer friendly’ with a range of brand new Carhartt t-shirt designs and some fresh new denim styles and washes.

As ever Carhartt have collaborated with a range of graphic artists to produce their t-shirt designs for this season, amongst them are designs from Playarea with the “Airmail T-shirt” and “Spliced T-shirt“, and new designer 123 Klan with the “Big C T-shirt”

Our selection of Carhartt jeans has had a boost as well with a top-up of our best selling Texas Pant (in rinsed Niland denim) and also a brand new wash in the same style. The Klondike Pant which was a popular fit for the last couple of seasons is now available in a non selvedge denim and in black, which makes for a great price slim fit jean at only £55. To view our full range of new Carhartt stuff click here.

Having recently tempted us all with the announcement of their planned release for the new album and a free download of new material, The Bees have finally broken cover and announced a release date along with a host of tour dates!

The album ‘Every Step’s a Yes’ will be released on October 11th and the tracklisting looks a little bit like this:

1. I Really Need Love
2. Winter Rose
3. Silver Line
4. No More Excuses
5. Tired Of Loving
6. Change Can Happen
7. Island Love Letter
8. Skill Of The Man
9. Pressure Makes Me Lazy
10. Gaia

‘I Really Need Love’ will be released a week earlier on the 4th October, and the band describe it a ‘positive, uplifting stunner!’.

Alongside the album release they have announced a headline show at Bush hall in London on Wednesday 15th September (click here for tickets) along with a range of support dates for Paul Weller’s latest arena tour!

Dates they will be supporting Paul Weller are:

16th Nov – Dublin, Olympia
17th Nov – Dublin, Olympia
18th Nov – Dublin, Olympia
19th Nov – Dublin, Olympia
20th Nov – Dublin, Olympia
23rd Nov – Brighton, Centre
24th Nov – Brighton, Centre
26th Nov – Birmingham, Arena
27th Nov – Cardiff, International Arena
28th Nov – Bournemouth, International Centre
30th Nov – Sheffield, Arena
07th Dec – Blackpool, Empress Ballroom
08th Dec – Liverpool, Arena
10th Dec – London, Wembley Arena

Clear your diaries for Sunday 22nd August as Islanders are going to be treated to our first ever exclusive tattoo event! With the ever growing number of tattoo studios on the Isle of Wight the popularity of body art is higher than its ever been, and as part of the event 4 of the Island’s top studios will be showcasing their work.

The daytime part of the event, held at the Riverside Centre in Newport will run from 10pm to 6pm. There will be live music throughout the day with performances from Englane Read, DJ Brown Noise with a dubstep set, Pleasurade and more. The bar will be open throughout the day, and as an added bonus there will be 2 magicians walking round doing personal magic tricks for the attendees.  Starting at 7.30 later that evening there will be an after party, with performances from The K.O.V, New Set of Bruises, Beanius and Bestival Competition winners The Pilots.

The tattoo studios are pretty much fully booked throughout the day already, but for those who wish to experiment with a less permanent look there will be a Henna and Jaguar (simular to Henna) artist available on the day. Black Orchid and Black Sunshine will also be setting up stalls at the event to sell ranges of their clothes and accessories.

Organiser Danielle Brown has decided to host this event to gauge interest for even bigger planned events in the future, which like many tattoo conventions elsewhere would pull in artists and studios from all over to showcase their work.

Tickets for the full day cost £10 and are available from either Ravenskin (Newport and Shanklin,) Tainted Skin (Cowes,) or Flemink (Ryde.) Tickets to the day only or the evening only will be available on the door for £3, but this will only gain you entry for one part and numbers are strictly limited. Please note this event is strictly over 18s only.

Vapour Clothing may have only been around a short while, but it hasn’t stopped them creating some collaborations with some of the finest artists and designers around! Their latest tee has been produced as a colab with London born artist Imbue.

Imbue is very much a mixed medium artist, drawing a lot of inspiration from street art, graffiti and graphics. Many are reworkings of familiar images, given the unmistakeable Imbue twist. For his collaboration with Vapour he has taken an iconic Disney character and given her a slightly ‘cheeky’ pose. Done as a photo print and backed on a white tee this design looks wicked, and as with all Vapour tees it will be printed in house for you when you place an order.

Check out the Vapour Not So White T-shirt on the Vapour Clothing section of our site, and for more info on Imbue and to view a gallery of some of his work check out www.imbueuk.com.

One of the Isle of Wight’s greatest musical exports over the last ten years has without doubt been “The Bees”, and the good news is they are heading back into the limelight very soon with a brand new album “Every Step’s a Yes”. This will be their 4th studio album, and their first since leaving their previous record label.

Having been relatively quiet over the last few years, there are many things afoot in ‘Bee-land’ – we were lucky enough to catch up with the band to ask them a few quick questions:

Afternoon gents…

Its been almost 4 years since you guys released your last studio album, what have you all been up to?

Hello, recording ‘Every Step’s A Yes’ in a nutshell, in Ventnor.

You are recording for Fiction, a brand new label – has this given you more freedom to do things how you want to?

Ah yes, we’re lucky that they love what we do. They haven’t messed with us at all yet. There is an immense amount of freedom on this new record.

Is this album likely to be a departure in sound from your first 3 albums, or can fans expect it to be classic Bees?

Still classic bees, we did reference ‘Sunshine Hit Me’ a bit when we were making this record. But it’s totally a mixing pot of all our records. It’s certainly a return to a dreamy sound, very pschedelic and lush.

You shot to fame in 2001 with ‘Sunshine Hit Me’, following which there have been a number of Isle of Wight bands emerge onto the scene that have struggled to make it past their first albums. Is there any reason you succeeded where others could not?

I suppose we’re constantly reinventing ourselves. The goal is to be fresh.

There are now very few places for bands to play live on the Island, do you think the lack of quality venues restricts what is potentially a great music scene over here?

Yeah man.

The 2008 Bees ‘Sound Selection’ album showed what an eclectic mix of tastes and influences there are throughout the band, but what are you currently listening to?

Washed Out, Animal Collective, Gregorian Chants, Wu tang, Flying Lotus,  Sam Aamadan, Devendra Banhart, Daft punk, Nick Drake, John Martyn, Love, Erykah Badu……..

Are you likely to be heading out on tour for this album in the near future?

Yes, dates will be known soon.

Nice one guys, thanks for taking time out…

Cheers fellas.

Want some new Bees music for free?

You can catch up with all goings on in The Bees world through their new Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/thebeesofficial. Here you will also find a link available for a FREE download of their brand new track “Silverline”, where you can also watch the video. We suggest you get over there and click that “like” button immediately!

As we told you at the start of the month Obey clothing have produced a special collection of tees to mark their 10th anniversary, featuring graphics pulled from the archives that were included in their first ever catalogue! Well these t-shirts have just arrived, and already started to get a lot of attention – each design is available in a different colourway, and all are classic Shepard Fairey/Obey pieces with a variety of representations for the classic Obey Face.

Our two favourites are the full front prints, the ‘Obey Hammer T-shirt‘ and ‘Obey Power T-shirt‘, but in truth all the prints are great and well worth checking out. Obey fans have been on the look out for these since the collection was announced, so they probably won’t be around for long – check them out at our Obey store page.

For anyone who has recently walked into our store and wondered what music we are playing, more often than not you will find its this little beauty:

A Skillz Live Mix 09

Anyone who is a fan of funky music will already know (or certainly needs to know) about Mr A Skillz. After catching the attention of the world with his ‘Insane Bangers’ bootleg series, and also several releases for legendary breaks label ‘Fingerlickin’, A Skillz has become one of the highest rated party DJs on the circuit, and can be found rocking venues worldwide!

This mix from 2009 is the perfect showcase for his talent, and features tracks/samples from artists as diverse as The Beatles, The Fun Lovin Criminals, Jay Z, The Commodores, De La Soul and The Kinks (along with a large sprinkling of horns and sirens!) For anyone who happened to be at the Afterburner stage at last years Bestival for A Skillz’s set, its also a trip down memory lane as parts of that set feature heavily here.

You can download this hour long crowd pleaser (courtesy of the man himself) for a limited time from here.

It is now over 3 years ago that Silas, one of the UK’s most inspirational streetwear labels, decided to call time on distributing to the European market. Well the great news for all the cult followers of the brand is they’re back, and looking pretty much like they’ve never been away!

Silas and Maria was founded back in 1998 by Russell Waterman and Sophia Pantera, and quickly grew into a globally recognised brand. Over the years they have collaborated with some very famous names and faces: James Jarvis (graphic artist and creator of the Amos Toys range and famed King Ken collection), Fergus ‘Fergadelic’ Purcell (renound graphic designer and founder of Tonite Clothing, and Gareth Skewis (one of the brains behind Pointer Footwear) just to name a few. With such a great team of designers and collaborators, Silas and Maria quickly began to put British streetwear to a global audience, and with the help of James Jarvis’ ‘Martin’ figure, they followed on by establishing a UK vinyl toy market.

Many of the UK’s finest and most famous streetwear boutiques such as ‘Bond International’, ‘Hanon Shop’ (who have managed to keep a Silas supply line going for the last 3 years via Japanese import) and the much missed ‘One 40 Five’ store in Brighton built much of their reputations around the success of the Silas and Maria brand. Many a time I personally travelled to the top of the Brighton Laines just to view and buy from the range, which was always complemented by a large range of James Jarvis toys. Somehow the likes of Stussy and Maharishi didn’t seem of that much interest alongside the Silas combination!

In 2006, when the founders decided to focus on other projects, the brand sadly closed nearly all its accounts outside of Japan leaving an army of devoted followers disappointed. That is until now, as Silas is set to return to the UK this summer! Despite being away in Japan for the last few years, they are still collaborating with cutting edge UK designers such as European Bob and shoe manufacturers George Cox, and the early indications are they could be making waves on their return!

Silas will be showing their new collection exclusively at Margin, the UK’s longest running independent tradeshow. Margin has run since August 2002, and has been the launching block for many new brands as well as supporting some of the biggest names on the streetwear scene. This years Margin on the 1st and 2nd of August will see the likes of Obey Clothing (who will be showing off their new ladies range) rub shoulders with not only Silas themselves, but also Gravis, Duffs, Dephect, Vistal and Misticon Clothing.

We are obviously pschyed to be seeing the new Silas stuff, and also look forward to checking out what other newly emerging brands are on offer. To check out what Silas have been up to you can still check out their website at www.silasandmaria.com and for further info on the 19th edition of the Margin show go here.

Misticon Clothing launched their first range in the summer of 2009, a women’s brand aimed at providing the perfect blend of fashion and functionality. Its creator was Charlotte Dutton – former pro snowboarder, high fashion model and designer of the “MOTO SNO” range for Topshop.

Charlotte’s snowboarding obsession began when she was only 11 years old, and after quickly progressing through the UK scene managed to earn herself the opportunity to be trained at a prestigious coaching school in the US. From here she went on to win a number of championships and attracted high profile sponsorships from the likes of Volcom and Palmer Snowboards. After a chance meet in London in 2000, Charlotte suddenly found herself thrust into the world of modelling – a career which blossomed, as very soon she found herself fronting campaigns for Vidal Sassoon, Topshop, Diesel and many others. It was from here that she went on to work with Topshop in designing a snow/street range for them, which continued successfully for the 3 years leading up to her starting her own brand Misticon.

Having been around for a just over a year, the Misticon range is already gaining many fans. The UK streetwear scene has been fairly quiet for ladies of late, and much of this is to do with the lack of imagination and unwillingness to adapt that many brands have shown. Misticon Clothing goes against this, offering their customers not just versatility but also great fits. Their range is also designed to be worn all year round and not just on a seasonal basis – very much going against the ‘throw away’ trends seen in many recent areas of women’s fashion. Very few ladies brands offer this sort of approach, perhaps notably Icelandic brand Nikita also have a simular ‘all year round’ approach with a lot of their range, and their mix of sports and streetwear for ladies has seen them become huge globally.

Whilst we have only recently started stocking Misticon at Switch, their range has already been a big hit with our customers and we are looking forward to finding out where things are headed in the future. Charlotte Dutton was kind enough to take time out recently to answer a few questions for us :

Can you descibe Misticon in no more than 5 words?

Fashionable, active, lifestyle sportswear.

Misticon is still a fairly new brand, but before launching it you designed a successful clothing range for Topshop for a number of years – what made you decide to start your own brand?

What I wanted to buy wasn’t available so I decided to make it simple as that really and the Topshop range did really well so it was just the next progressive step for me.

Having snowboarded on the pro circuit for a number of years and also working as a model you must have had plenty of experience in fashion, but were there any brands in particular that inspired you?

I was always a fan of  Volcom thats why I chose them to sponsor me. I like their swim-wear.

Misticon is an exclusive range of pieces designed to adapt to the lifestyles of its customers, do you plan to expand the collection further or maintain the limited nature of the brand?

We may expand it but I will always maintain the limited nature of the brand, because Misticon is for girls who want to wear somthing different and we will continue to have limited edition ranges.

Obviously fashion and function are two of the most important factors in the Misticon collection, but are there any other outside influences that affect the designs you produce?

Yes sports that I’m into, music I like, anything im into really – its inspired by my lifestyle and its for other girls who like the same kinds of things as me. I sponsor girls who also share the same kind of influences – Dj’s, snowboarders, skiers, artists, bloggers etc.

Having conquered the snowboarding world, hit the big time with a career in high fashion modelling, designed a successful range for Topshop and started your own brand, whats next?!

Well Ive just had a baby so motherhood – maybe I could have my own show like Snoop Dogg’s “Fatherhood”! ;0)

Thanks for that Charlotte, and if anyone from MTV is reading – I think we may have a good pitch for a show! (for the trainspotters out there, you may have realised Charlotte actually shares the same surname as one of the writer’s of Snoop’s show!)

You can find more information on Misticon Clothing at either www.misticon.com or www.charlottedutton.com.

A new arrival to the Switch brand rosta is South West based UK independent label Vapour. With a great range of graphic t-shirts, urban streetwear stylings, and a personal touch on production, the recently established Vapour are starting to make a name for themselves, with designs featured in recent issues of Front and 24/7 magazines.

Influenced heavily by their extreme sports, skate and biking background, the Vapour guys focus on producing designs that are fresh, but with a twist of humour. One of their unique features is their ‘in-house’ print shop, which means the majority of their designs are printed to order. This means that every design has been personally overseen by its creators, a personal touch that very few brands in todays marketplace can offer.

In keeping with this we will for the time being be offering Vapour as an exlusive online brand, so every order placed with us will get the ‘Vapour Touch’ and be printed personally for each individual customer!

Designs to check out include the “Robot Treble T-shirt“, with its retro robot and headphone graphic, the edgy photo graphic “Secret Kiss Tee“, and the play on the Transformers Autobot logo “V Bot T-shirt“. Check out our full Vapour collection here.