Hilp

Sweatshirts From Estonia. Mostly With Dogs on Them.

Right. So. Hilp is a small family-run thing in Tartu — that's southern Estonia, lovely place, bicycles and design students everywhere — started back in 2015 by people who had, one assumes, simply had quite enough of mass-produced fashion and decided to do their own thing instead. The proposition is rather charming: clothes with handmade bits, a quietly unhinged sense of humour, and (this is the part I keep coming back to) a fairly devoted commitment to putting people's actual pets on the front of them. As in, you send them a picture of your dog, and your dog ends up embroidered on a hoodie. I'm not making this up.

The catalogue itself is properly soft. Heavy combed-cotton sweatshirts with brushed interiors (frankly, rather embarrassing to most high-street equivalents), proper cotton-jersey tees, caps with the small dignified details — six-panel construction, brass-effect buckles, vintage profiles, none of which I claim to know anything about, and yet here we are. Everything sewn in the EU under fair conditions, in chemical-free, skin-friendly fabrics. Designs lean cheerfully into the animal kingdom: dogs primarily, cats with strong opinions, the occasional unexpected woodland creature. The sort of brand that, if you accidentally find yourself laughing at a sweatshirt in the changing room, has rather done its job.

For more pieces from independent makers, browse our Women's Fashion and Men's Clothing collections. Discover complementary makers in our Baltic Brands edit, find more for the youngest in the household via Baby & Kids, and find brands chosen for how they make things via Sustainable Brands.