The Fader talked with the dudes behind a couple of grassroots, start-up-esque streetwear labels that are trying to bring back the good ol' days, before brands like Supreme, Fuct and The Hundreds cashed the fuck out, back when the world of streetwear was more communal and less exclusionary. The piece is a nice little look at the nature of small brands that launch directly in the face of the current state of fashion, one of highly marketed, limited release, collaborative collections done by large corporations masquerading as small ones. Dertbag founder Philip Post tells The Fader that his model is contrarian by design, going against the grain while everyone else goes in the same direction.
FTP (short for "Fuck the Population"), known for being the most flagrant of streetwear's new class, was actually contacted by the Department of Homeland Security in regards to one of its T-shirt designs that plainly identifies the brand as a "terrorist organization." Illegal Civilization sports some relatively Odd Future-like designs influenced by founder Mikey Alfred's interest in making skate videos, while Death Precision pushes more toward '90s Ralph, though, unfortunately, the brand's site is mostly broken right now.
We've championed the youth and Cool Teens™ getting out there and doing their own shit for a while, so it's nice to see that it's not just something that exists solely on the web. Kids are actually out here getting entrepreneurial with it and trying their hand at something tangible and that's fucking awesome. However, my favorite point of this whole thing is the last sentence where Alfred calls out all the brands with tons of Instagram followers, but no actual customers. Nothing's wacker than that shit.
