Leeds

After an excruciating 5 hour train journey spanning almost 170 miles, in train seats that are really not appropriate for people over 6", I ventured into my first new city since arriving in Bristol, Leeds. Unsurprisingly it was wet and cold and full of people with funny accents. My first night was fairly uneventful, with a dark tour of Leeds Uni campus being all my hosts could muster. On saturday though I explored what was a surprisingly fruitful city center. For a city so far from London the shopping was quite impressive, with shops like Kiosk 78 and Paper Scissor Stone gracing the streets of Leeds.

What I was most impressed with though was HIP. Sitting in the splendid Thornton's Arcade, HIP offers a lot more than I was expecting. Through my father I had known the owners Everton and Bert since I was at primary school, but until last week I had never visited their shop. I am going to be honest and say that from their website I was not expecting a great deal, perhaps just a few standard brands that the likes of most of similar shops hold in England, with an odd Supreme contract being the only difference. What I instead found was one of the best designed and well stocked clothing shops I had been to in a while. The two HIP's, which sit a few doors down from each other in the Piccadily-esque arcade off the Headrow in central Leeds, both hold completely different, yet equally fantastic stock. The smarter shops racks hold brands like Garbstore, Barbour and Berghaus Heritage, which is in deep contrast to Supreme, Alife and Stussy sitting just down the arcade in the sister shop. A couple of nice presents waiting for me behind the counter, one would argue, could make me slightly biased, but as far as HIP goes, in my opinion, is one of the best menswear shops in england, just for pure diversity of stock. It's also fair to say that the staff were very friendly and the shop fit could rival any in the country.

(p.s. thanks everton)