howies®

One of Wales’s most sexy men, Wil Gritten has flown back from his Bondi Beach pad for a whirlwind UK tour. Wil, who has modelled all over the world for some of the biggest fashion houses, was once voted Wales’ 13th sexiest man by the Western Mail. But all that posing is behind him. Now he grows organic vegetables, surfs and makes weird music. He also writes books, in which he talks about his travels and confesses his secrets. Letting Go is one of the first four titles in an exciting new series…

Wil says goodbye to his family and friends in North Wales, and hello to adventure in South America, heading into the unknown, away from comfort and predictability in a bid to ‘let go’. From the beach he lives on with only a stray dog for company, to his final destination with its tearful goodbyes, Wil shares the joys and the trials of his search for freedom of the soul. He talks candidly of friendships, drugs, sex, politics, of the fear and elation he experiences along the way, of how dangerously close ‘letting go’ can come to ‘losing it’ when the boundary between exploration and hedonism becomes blurred. 

This is no ordinary series of books. To start with, all four authors are pretty damn young (and also, possibly, pretty, young, and damned). Before they’d turned thirty, they had each approached Parthian with their manuscripts, which varied in style and genre, but were all examples of exceptional literary talent. The Bright Young Things series was born.

7.30 pm Tuesday 21st of September, howies Carnaby Street.. pop down to hear Wil talk of his travels and adventures, we have organic beer and juices, and plenty of chairs to perch on. Tickets are free as usual but give us a ring on 0207 287 2345 or drop us an email CarnabySt@howies.co.uk to reserve your place.

I started at howies in 2003 and Ray Mears was on the telly at the time doing his stuff.

I read about the knife that he designed and then had made by Alan Wood, so I phoned to buy one. There was a three year wait.

I gave my howies e-mail address and could have sworn they had not written it down and I would never hear from them.

Nearly 7 years to the day I got an e-mail from Woodlore saying,  ”we got it,  you want it”?

Yesterday I just took delivery of this beautiful tool.  The quality of the materials and finish means I shall be passing it on to my kids and them to their kids.

If you order one today you will have to wait till at least 2020 for one!

Sadly, there will not be a new t-shirt of the week design this week.

Demand for t-shirts throughout summer has been high, and we’re running very low on blanks for the printshop to print on.

The good news, though, is that we have a whole load of new t-shirt stock winging it’s way to us as I type.

New colours. In all sizes. Men’s, Women’s and Kid’s.

We should have them down in the warehouse toward the end of next week.

Watch this space.
Or this space.
Or even this space, if you have some free time and like HTML5.

For years we’ve searched for a way of offering different shades of our organic denim – our customers ask for lighter washes all the time (I guess there are only so many pairs of dark indigo jeans a wardrobe can take).

The truth is, we always struggled to find a process that didn’t involve silly stuff like chemicals, bleach or enzyme washes, or blasting them with sand to lighten the colour – as well as being harmful, these methods can often weaken the fabric. Though these may be the industry standard way of doing things, it’s just not our way of doing things.

Then we discovered a new technique, involving nothing more than washing the denim in pure deep sea salt.

During this process, seawater from a depth of around 350 meters is pumped from Cape Muroto in Japan. From that fresh, bacteria-free water, the equally pure sea salt is extracted and used to wash the jeans. It’s those coarse microscopic granules that perform the magic here, gently agitating the fabric and slowly removing some of the indigo dye.

This wash gives the denim a lighter colour and the jeans a softer, slightly worn feel, without affecting the strength of the fabric… Naturally. Now that’s more like our way of doing things.

See the jeans here – Men’s or Women’s

Let me set the scene.

I was sitting at my desk getting on with my work and Hollie walks by from the kitchen with a cup of tea for me.  Lovely!

Next thing I know Robin puts a big box down on my desk saying F.A.O Lydia.

I have a look inside and I find these four perfectly crafted cup cakes all the way from the London Humming Bird Bakery.

Thank you guys at the Carnaby store! A perfect accompaniment  to my brew.

I’m logging my phone off for 5 minutes while I stuff my face. Do not disturb. Thanks!

We had a full house last night for The Ride Journal’s Wee Do talk. Lots of people…

Lots of bikes…

Lots of fun. A big thank you to everyone who came to see it, and of course the Diprose brothers (The Ride Journal creators) for a really good talk. And an extra thank you to Innocent Drinks and Pitfield Beers (we had a fair few) for keeping us hydrated.

It was inspirational stuff. See you at the next one!

This is not a bike film, it’s a film about a bike.

Found this nice little trailer via @robwelsh – Find out more about the film here.

this Tuesday, 7th September we have the creators of  ‘the ride journal’ joining us at Carnaby Street to do a Wee Do Lecture.

they will be here to tell us all about the inspiration behind the books, how they put their ideas into reality, the huge success they have now become and what’s going to be happening from here. 

if you missed your chance to get hold of the first 3 they are available to download from the website and are well worth it, issue 4 is still currently available to buy but be quick because i doubt they will hang around for long.

the lecture will begin at 7:30pm, if you would like to come down or know anyone else who may like to come then just drop us an email at carnabyst@howies.co.uk or ring us on 0207 287 2345 and reserve your free tickets.

the usual beers and juices will be available to quench your thirsts.

we hope to hear from you all soon!

This Weeks T-Shirt of the Week is ‘No Gears’ by No Gears Bristol

No Gears is a group of like-minded cyclists who live and ride in Bristol.

From premiering some of the best cycle films in the world, to curating bike-based
art shows, they have a love for anything with two wheels.

No Gears designed this t-shirt to commemorate the 2010 Bristol Bike Week.

Click Here for the Men’s
Click Here for the Women’s