So here’s something for the fashion conscious amongst us… Ohw? Shoes
Ohw? (pronounced ‘who’) was launched for S/S 12 and is the shared vision of two footwear professionals with many years of experience. Their aim is simple – to bring a fresh approach to men’s footwear with contemporary and functional designs but backed up with quality product and brand integrity. Unlike many companies that source their footwear from outside suppliers, they have full control over how the shoes are made. The aim is to set a new standard based on expertise and full traceability, because ohw? owns the factory where the shoes are made (a rarity these days).
And hot of the press we have found out that for SS15 ohw? is building on its ‘back to basics’ aesthetic with a new range of clean, classic casuals that let the craftsmanship and detail shine through. The new offer adds seven new styles to the now established core collection of shoes and boots, giving a total of 60 design and colourway options for the season.
Key details include a bold primary and neutral hand-stitched details and colour-blocked soles. A wide mixture of materials make the most of the textural trend, with the selection including full grain leathers, plain and embossed suedes, wool and vegetable tanned leather accents.
A new 80’s inspired rubber sole unit is matched with simple upper designs in a three-eyelet desert boot, two-eyelet shoe , slip-on and moccasin loafer (West, Fitzpatrick, Hartley and Wheeler) in Red, Blue, Sand, Light Grey and Black suedes and full grain leathers.
Two new styles, Kay and Quinell, come on a sports inspired unit with a leather rand. The sole also features ohw?’s signature phylon midsole, more commonly found in the midsole of sports shoe constructions, which provides exceptional underfoot comfort – how about that, not bad in our book!
A highlight for the season is a single style collaboration with the respected Shoreditch- based Footsoldiers Design Consultancy. The lace-up trainer comes in Grey and Black concrete embossed suede with slash cuts and features an architectural, sports-inspired sole unit with a leather rand, aggressive tread and a hand-sprayed named shoes after owner/designers Hector & Tom.
AW14 successes Gatland, Rowntree and Farrell – featuring the same specked finish sports sole unit with leather rand – are updated in full grain leathers and unlined suede with Tan leather accents. Key colours are Petrol Blue, Cordovan and Black.
Other core styles continuing for the season are the Dan boot (main image) and Dan Low shoe on a stitch down sole in Red, Blue or Natural wool with vegetable tanned leather trim details and white enamel ski hooks.
Ohw?’s signature styles Hiro and Roc are reworked in full grain leather and suedes, and the Louis moccasin continues with new colour-blocked soles.
Plenty of designs below…
All ohw? shoes are designed to be ‘optimum fit’ and each pair showcases the workmanship of the factory and the people that make them, with details such as size markers along the edges of the uppers (the traditional way that shoemakers indicate the sizes of cut pieces and hand-stitching in every pair. Each shoe is even individually hand-signed by the person doing the final quality check – another brand that does that… Aston Martin. In good company.
The new Spring/Summer 15 collection will be available in-store and online from February 2015.
