catkin and teasel: Howkapow & Playmountain

Howkapow & Playmountain

Each month I'm going to feature one or two exceptional new (or old) stores, share some of my favourite bits & pieces from their catalogue and generally speak pretty well of them.

This month I'm giving a shout-out to Howkapow and Playmountain. How can you not be intrigued by those names may I ask?

I discovered Howkapow only a couple of days ago. It's a new, UK-based online store that promotes independent designers, and the delightful owner Cat How was kind enough to email me a little "Hello, here we are!". And I'm glad she did, because you couldn't get a product range any closer to my taste than if I hand-picked everything myself. I also like the onomatopoeic potential of "Howkapow".

And speaking of (good) taste, Playmountain. This serene little store on the better side of Harajuku carries a whole lot of cool and very covetable products for the home. I was in there the other day chatting with the lovely staff and ogling some antique archery arrows they'd imported from New York. Sadly I left without the set of arrows and all the other crap I wanted, but I'd say I'll be back after my next pay cheque.