It all starts in the mid-90s, when the microbiologist Adam Thorpe and the graphic designer Joe Hunter decided to launch a capsule of technical clothing in response to the worsening of air quality, the proliferation of CCTV cameras and anti-protest laws.
Far from current techwear; Vexed Generation goes beyond urban utility, working in the social-political field. Fighting against the marginality, legislation and the aim of the media of ridicule remote neighborhoods of London in the 90s.
Their pieces give great importance to the manufacture and protection of their fabrics, using military textiles in most cases. Hoods and high collars acted as masks and filters from the violation of identity and air pollution. And for its part, ballistic nylon was a strategic padding against police charges.
Twenty years later, the British cult brand resurfaces, maintaining its transgressive discourse, but adapting it to current times. Technological development, individualism or migration come into play more than ever. However, we contemplate Vexed Generation as a conceptual brand, a protest brand that reminds us of William Morris’s motto: “I wanted to design for everyone and I ended up doing it for the rich”
Written by @gionavarre
