The shop has been taken over by a crack team of Vikings this week... Modern day Vikings masquerading as Scandinavian Sloane Rangers. Norse Projects and Fjällräven have parked their longboats on Thomas Street and we've been forced to give in. Lucky for us though, we're doing the pillaging this time around...

...starting with Norse Projects, from the town of København (that's Copenhagen to us). The blog-obsessed amongst you will have already seen the treat we have lined up for you but for those of you who wait for this newsletter with baited breath (as if!) we've teamed up with Norse and done a nice take on a traditional winter parka. The charm lies in the quality, it may look like a straightforward jacket but dig deeper and you'll find it comes in British Millerain wax cotton and has built in primaloft technology. It makes for a perfect jacket for the coming months, suitable for the entire winter, from the first falling of snow right until it starts to Thor. See what we did there? The devil really is in the detail with this beauty. It comes in three colours too - olive, navy and beige. No excuses then.

It's not all about the one special jacket though - we've had loads of regular Norse Projects delivered this week although there's nothing regular about it. The Norse x Elka raincoat has become a bit of a staple in their collection. If you're sick of carrying your brolley everywhere, just get one of these. It offers just as much, if not more protection from the rain and wearing it indoors won't result in bad luck. We know a thing or two about keeping dry, coming from the UK capital of falling cats and dogs so trust us on this one. It comes in navy, olive and best of all yellow for those of you who want to look like you can handle a fishing rod. In addition to the rainwear we've a nice mix of t-shirts and a lovely selection of knitwear, all of which goes quite nicely with the aforementioned raincoats.

Staying in Scandi-land, we've received a smart delivery of an old Swedish favourite - Fjällräven. What can we say about this stuff that we've not said before? It's all timeless Scando outdoor stuff, built to last. They've mixed things up a little bit this season by bringing out padded versions of the Telemark and Nordli which are spot on in our opinion, a welcome change and maybe a halfway house between their summer and winter versions? The Kanken rucksack is the perfect embodiment of Fjäll though. We recently saw a Swedish news report from the early 80s and halfway through stuck out like the sorest of thumbs was an original Kanken. It hasn't changed a bit either. Great shape to it, that reassuring logo and it'll take more knocks than a Chilean Miner. You'll not be waiting four months for these to come out though, they're ready now; in quite a few colours too, so if there's nothing there that suits you, give your head a wobble, ideally while wearing a Byron or Tärnaby hat.

Sitting quite nicely with those Nordic gems is the best of British - Universal Works. If you've been paying attention you'll know we've already got plenty of this stuff to choose from but we've just topped things up with the Merino button neck knit and a Sand twill suit jacket. Spiffing.

Next up is another example of timeless class - Lacoste. The original polo shirt was actually designed for tennis but ignore that, it's a polo shirt. We have your familiar Lacoste Polos in some exotic colours... get these... Marmalade Orange and Tanzanite Purple. There's also some extra special marl polos that are more Marl-ey than Bob - there's Drop Blue, Patchouli Green (for the hippies) and Convolvulus Lilac. We're not making these up, honest. It's not just polo (tennis) shirts though, we've got a lovely 'Gibraltar' crew neck in blue and a great Knitted Wool Baseball jacket which has to be seen to be believed. You know where you are with a bit of Lacoste don't you?

Shirt-wise we've got a couple of classic British treats for you this week in the shape of Brutus and Fred Perry. In fact speaking of Fred we've got a smart mountain parka in forest green. It's 100% nylon which makes a refreshing change from the cotton versions.
Changing the subject completely, with the new website edging closer and closer, it's a good time to remind you we're on twitter (www.twitter.com/oipolloi) and at www.facebook.com/oipolloi. If you want to hear what we're up to more regularly than once a week (and sometimes see pictures) get signed up.

Next week is shaping up to be another biggie, so we'll be seeing you then

Oi Polloi