These little pieces of stained material are the best things since Lee made super-tube jeans for booty. Averaging between $90-$110, the concept behind Cheap Monday jeans is to offer a trendy tight fit for an extremely low price. They are not only made with a fashionable high waist to mould your body, but seamlessly stretch to your comfort while shrinking in a hot wash; just like other designer tubes that would cost you $300 plus. Another perk is the vast array of hues available. So bring out the bargain-lover in you and find these Sweden-made gems at Melbourne’s Alphaville.

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Swedish designer Paula Hagerskans has a cool masculine-edge to her female fashion lines. But it’s her attention to detail that really blows my mind. Her perfectly tailored jackets, along with her flat dress shoes, make dressing up fun, comfortable and classy. When asked what she keeps in mind while designing, Hagerskans responds, ‘Bohemic music lovers, humor, graphic design and the female body’.

Cheap Monday are arguably one of the biggest revolutions in denim since Levi’s. They’re pretty much the uniform second skin for the music totin’, cons scuffin’ youth of today. Add to this the latest collection by those clever Swedish folk and you can jump on your stolen bike straight to the nearest Weekday store to buy a new anti-hero wardrobe. Sticking with it’s core themes, MTWTFSS doesn’t just pay homage to the calendar week but the same ethos of monochrome colours and skinny cuts. Also, much like the jeans, there is nothing flashy or pretentious to be seen. This is just good old-fashioned rebel wear. Every piece teeters on being a basic, but through precision fitting becomes something else entirely. The only thing to note is that although the collection is unisex where the female parts veer heavily into androgyny, it’s usually easier (and better looking) to cut out the middleman and head straight to the menswear. Other than that, for all your late night, back alley way misdeeds there is no better clothing than the ultra hooded MTWTFSS psyche.

Can you ever really get sick of red plaid pants? Geography defying brand, Mjolk certainly doesn’t think so and looking at their Autumn/Winter ’08 collection, it’s hard not to agree. The brainchild of Lars Stoten and John Clarke, the label was born and bred in Sweden, but transplanted to Australia, which accounts for the slight, but pleasant sense of displacement that reverberates through the range. It’s a label about lines; about messy, unexpected, striking, splashes of colour; blood red, canary yellow and fun details; and, most memorably, a keyboard tie. Spurred on by evangelists like Franz Ferdinand, it’s not hard to see why Mjolk is starting to make waves in menswear. And unlike the plethora of divine Gatsby lines purring out this season, they’re doing it their own way.