Punk and Style

Citizen Wolf

As Nick Cave quipped during his brighter moments: “A gentleman never talks about his tailor” and given that his dishevelled Birthday Party days are long left behind, paired with the fact that he has perfectioned his style with bespoke Chriss Kerr designed suits and his trademark unbuttoned shirt look, he should know what he is talking about.

It has always puzzled me how punk and traditional tailoring seem to at odds in most people’s minds, especially since punk was a movement that could have not been designed as a more uniform one with its leather jackets, ripped jeans and boots combo. 

One might argue that it lacked sartorial flair and was more subversive and rebellious in nature than other youthful underground phenomena, however, one can argue that it was still about dressing up. Essentially, the DNA of the punk look as we know it could have not been more artificially designed as its rebel aesthetic was essentially incepted by the fashion creating duo that was Vivienne Westwood and Malcom McLaren, whose emblematic provocative distressed fetish inspired edge eventually created “punk” archetypes before they infiltrated haute couture and subverted the establishment.

Fashion and the art behind tailoring has always fascinated me and I have had the fortune of visiting designers during my travels to learn more about how their collections come about and the meticulous approach to design.

When it comes to wardrobe staples like shirts, there is nothing that beats a good fit, which can make more than merely a subtle difference and on my search for new gear, I came across a local business that goes by the name of Citizen Wolf.

What intrigued me from the get go was Citizen Wolf’s mission statement, i.e. their endeavours being centred around affordable carbon negative on-demand production for a sustainable fashion future and their intrinsic drive to break the fashion industry’s addiction to overproduction.

Ushering in a new era which has the promotion of a healthier relationship with the clothes we wear at its core,  Citizen Wolf has pro-actively re-engineered technology to create custom fit garments for any body shape, only producing them when an order is placed.

Now, how does it work?

A bit of research revealed that Citizen Wolf has created what they refer to as their trademark Magic Fit algorithm, which no matter if you need a tall-fit tee or a bit more room than standard sizing provides, will ensure that it fits your frame: 

First, you choose your style—from tank top to turtleneck; then your fabric—organic cotton, hemp blend, or RWS-certified Merino wool; then your favourite colour from a wide and diverse colour palette. 

Using biometric data distilled from close to two million data points, Citizen Wolf creates a mathematical model of your body, which serves as a basis to create custom-fit garments faster and more accurately than a human tailor could.

While I had my concerns at first, what materialized was exactly what I had hoped for in terms of sizing with the added benefit that the fabric is pre-shrunk and made to stay in the shape you purchased it. An added bonus is that they offer the free option for further alterations and tweaking.

By upcycling any offcut fabric waste into quirky totes and scarves, they break the mold of how things are done in the fashion industry in a sustainable and affordable manner and what could be more punk than that?