Vexed Generation Literature

Image of Vexed Bag p40

Image of Shopper Bag p41

Image of A4 Coat p42

Image of Wrap Liberation p43

Image of Fan Pleat Jacket p50

Image of Jacket 3 p51

Images (x2) of See And Be Seen (SABS) Parka p78 &79

Image of Ninja Fleece p.82

Image of detail from Vexed Parka p.103

Image of detail from Vexed Parka p.122

Breward, Christopher ‘Fashion’ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003) p. 238

“Chalayan’s vision, though occasionally constrained by its perceived non-commercial bias, thus claims a clarity of purpose and sense of impact that have nevertheless succeeded (along with artist like Lucy Orta and labels like Samsonite, Prada, CP Company and Vexed Generation) in shifting paradigm of directional fashion as an expressive medium.”

Breward, Christopher; Ehrman, Edwina & Evans, Caroline ‘The London Look: Fashion from Street to Catwalk’ (London: Yale University Press, 2004) p. 156-8
“From the beginning of the decade, the designers Joe Hunter and Adam Thorpe worked as Vexed Generation to produce socially aware agitprop street fashion that reflected both designers’ experience of life on the London streets: surveillance (a hood that conceals the face), the environment (a sleeve pocket for an anti-pollution mask), the quick change (a skirt that zips into a pair of trousers)”
Image of Vexed Parka


Breward, Christopher & Cicolini, Alice, ‘21st Century Dandy’ (London: The British Council, 2003)
“13. Vexed Generation: Origami suit – rip-stop nylon (grey) / Overcoat – cotton/velvet (black)

Designers Adam Thorpe & Joe Hunter have consistently focused on practicality and a love of the design challenges posed by urban life. Materials and Structure are of great importance, everything directed towards suitability to the garment’s purpose. In the process however, pieces take on an unintended ostentation, the designers themselves acknowledging the dandyism inherent in their über-functional garments. The pleats incorporated into the structure of this biker’s suit were added for comfort yet their inclusion also owes a debt to an orientalist “style commonly associated with architectural Modernism.

Dean, Corina ‘The Inspired Retail Space: Attract Customers, Build Branding, Increase Volume’ (Gloucester, Mass: Rockport Publishers, Inc. 2003) p.148-151
“Itinerant in its nature, Vexed Generation, established in 1995, choose to set up its own retail outlet and organize all aspects of the business from the manufacturing of clothing and accessories to sales promotion. The first location in London’s entertainment neighbourhood, Soho, was sited neighbouring London’s underground activities, such as semi-illicit businesses, when the upwardly mobile moved in. When rents rose, Vexed moved on. Because Vexed locations are often highly masked by urban detritus or under the guise of a club, it is not perceived as a retail outlet.
Vexed relies on a different type of brand loyalty: The Vexed customer stays loyal to the Vexed social and political agenda. Clothes designers Adam Thorpe and Joe Hunter as they define themselves, as opposed to the fashion designers, have established a political and social agenda that forms the conceptual basis for the clothing. This design agenda encompasses the promotion of two-wheeled transport, examining surveillance techniques in the city and information surveillance, and a push for civil liberties with the effort to promote two-wheeled transport over the car came the much-copied, over-shoulder courier bag. In response to the heavily armed policemen who disbanded Britain’s underground warehouse parties in the 1980s, Vexed designed a line of clothes that parodies the police riot gear.
Over six years in retail, Vexed has had two venues and a number of shop installations. The changes of location and rapid turnaround of interior installations aptly reflect the design collections titled “Itinerant Retail”.
The first shop, in London’ Covent Garden on 12 Newbury Street, included record decks and a video library. Situated in the city’s film and advertising area, creatives were invited to drop by and use the space as a makeshift cinema.


Vexed does not produce seasonal collections; instead, the clothes are designed to react to the political or environmental agenda. The first Vexed store display featured a glass box, much like an incubator unit, in the middle of the floor. Holes were cut into its sides so that prospective customers could feel the items but not remove them from the incubator – hence the store had no need for security. Customers would then progress to the ground floor, where DJs played music, movies were screened, and the actual merchandise sold. The storefront, after years of neglect, was camouflaged under city grime. A discreet slit on the glass was cleaned to allow a glimpse of the interior; otherwise, a closed-circuit television monitor, visible from outside the store, monitored the goings-on internally. The installations was a reaction to the debate in the 1980s about surveillance versus civil rights, air quality, and a greener transport system.
The second installation, titled “The Green Shop”, was located on the first floor of 3 Berwick Street in London’s Soho. Breathing garments linked to an air compressor were inflated and deflated on a timer, giving the impression of breathing clothing and walls. Fast-growing plants such as ivy and clematis were weaned through the clothes to create a living installation. Sensors lights illuminated the clothes when viewers were present, adding a sense of the unexpected.
The third installation, named “The Grow Room 98/99”, featured £750, or $1,200 worth of one-penny coins lightly set into a thin resin layer. The floor was a statement on safety in numbers because it seemed unlikely that someone would go to the trouble to remove 75,000 coins from the floor.
In the shop installation “A Stitch in Time”, customers were encouraged to leave their personal details on a label attached to the wall; these were then randomly reproduced on a garment, which could result in a chance meeting of a wearer and identity donor.
Vexed is now being lauded by the big clothing players. They are working with the anticrime squad division of the police and independent bodies that promote safety to design a range of protective clothing for women.”

Evans, Caroline ‘Fashion at the Edge: Spectacle, Modernity and Deathliness’ (London: Yale University Press, 2003) p. 285, 302

“You put up a surveillance camera, I will put up a collar.” Vexed Generation’s ballistic parka, in knife, and fire-proof nylon, highlights the erosion of civil liberties in the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act which, among other things, made it illegal to hide one’s face in a demonstration. If increased surveillance and police powers of arrest have helped to erode community and breed paranoia in the 1990s, Vexed Generation’s agit prop streetwear simultaneously communicates these issues and protect their wearers from their worst effect. Beneath the turned up collar is and anti-pollution mask. Highlighting social and political question, the Vexed designers respond to their own experience of London street life in the 1990s: surveillance (a hood that conceals the face), the environment (a sleeve pocket for an anti-pollution mask), the quick-change (a skirt that zips into a pair of trousers).

Fake London lovingly perpetuates some great British fictions. Owen Gaster celebrates urban verve. Vexed Generation highlights the hazards of city life. These competing narratives sketch a complex and multi-faceted city, a London not generally represented in its image as a centre of fashion.
Adam Thorpe and Joe Hunter are Vexed. Neither had a formal fashion training; Thorpe studied microbiology at Kingston University and Hunter graduated as a graphic designer at Middlesex in 1990, but together they have created a label which epitomises the attitude of a growing number of fashion designers who eschew the culture of the catwalk.

Vexed Generation have powerful political convictions which have led them to design solutions to social problems as well as fashionable clothes. Bags that are easier to carry are harder to snatch; trousers made in light weight, high-tech, hardwearing material with soft, speedy Velcro fastenings replacing old-fashioned zips, buttons and poppers. All of their clothes are derived from their conviction that urban conditions place us under constant danger. Air pollution, constant surveillance, over-zealous riot police and the risk of attack form a threat to our civil liberties. The garments parody the situation and then offers some protection too. The Vexed parka, the duo’s most notorious garment, is made form “Ministry of Defence –specification nylon; the same stuff they use in flak jackets,” says Thorpe. The parka’s knife-repellent, fire-resistant fabric is padded around the spine and kidney areas, and has a between-the-legs fastening to protect the groin.

The more recent woollen Shark Coat was developed in response to the contemporary political landscape in Britain. The abundance of surveillance cameras in city street characterised at its most extreme by a new multi million pound digital facial recognition system installed by the London Borough of Newham – provided an impetus for the design of the Shark Coat. Like other Vexed garment it features a collar which can transform into a hood, offering the wearer the option of anonymity. “The higher the levels of surveillance, the higher the collar lines of the populace!” says Thorpe. Moreover, the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act effectively renders it illegal to cover one’s face in a political demonstration by granting the police powers to confiscate face coverings. This could have the ironic effect of making the garments an illegal political protest in their own right.

As a designed response to the current social-political climate in urban Britain, Vexed Generation’s clothing positions itself far away from the concerns of the fashion establishment. The garments are, nevertheless, clearly articulated and architecturally structured, with a shrewd sense of style which has made some of the cheaper designs enormously popular in London. As well being politically aware, Vexed Generation claim modestly that their company aims to be “commercially viable”.


Gore-Tex Fabrics ‘Fashion’ (Livingston, Scotland: W L Gore & Associates Ltd, 2004)

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  No text only 2 x photos of Vexed Generation Autumn / Winter Collection 2004-05.
  

Marjanovic, D. (ed) ‘Proceedings of the Design 2006 9^th International Design Conference’ (Zagreb | Glasgow: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture | The Design Society, 2006) p.726-733

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  Chapter written by Dr. L. Gamman and Adam Thorpe entitled Design Against Crime as Socially Responsive Theory and Practice.
  
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  2. What is Vexed Generation
  
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  2.1 Socially Responsive Clothing by Vexed Generation
  
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  2.2 Vexed Parka 1994
  
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  2.2 Vexed One-Strap Backpack 1994
  
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  2.3 Ninjahood and Ninjahigh 1995/6
  
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  2.4 S.A.B.S. Parka (See And Be Seen) 2001
  
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  2.5 Why Clothing?
  
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  2.6 Why sell these clothes and not just exhibit them? – the argument for Market intervention
  
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  2.7 Vexed and Proleptic Retail
  
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  2.8 Commercial Impact of Vexed
  

Quinn, Bradley ‘Techno Fashion’ (Oxford: Berg, 2002) p. 12, 13, 58, 64-71, 65, 66, 67, 75, 120
“Vexed Generation imbue their collections with principles of surveillance and visibility. They interpret fashion as a form of communication and resistance that can initiate long-term changes to the social infrastructure.” P.12
“Vexed Generation have used military fabrics like Kevlar to create parkas with high collars and zipped panels that conceal the face as well as the head. ‘Hiding the face offers psychological as well as physical protection,’ Bolton explained. ‘It gives the wearer a look that is both aggressive and disturbing, heightened by the fact that the parka’s hood allows only partial recognition of the wearer’s identity, minimising the possibilities of casual exchanges. Interaction with a hooded individual is a one-sided relationship with someone who is not fully present.’” P. 13-14
“The hip London label Vexed Generation also create garments that are reactions against surveillance. Using strategic design tactics, their clothing rebels against the widespread acceptance of video-surveillance by using visors and hoods to render the wearer anonymous. They give fashion the power to invert and deflect the political agendas that promote electronic surveillance as a means of social control.” P. 58
“When it comes to counteracting surveillance, Vexed Generation are the ones to watch. For more than a decade, Vexed Generation have crafted clothing from bullet-proof and slash-proof materials for an urban lifestyle that counter the problems of modern life. Their collections pioneer new materials and construction methods, combining principles from sportswear, high performance protective clothing and cutting edge street style. They work with fashion not to mimic the latest trends, but to use it as a form of communication and resistance that can initiate long-term changes to the social infrastructure.

One of their most famous garments is the ‘Vexed Parka’, which they created as a commentary on the escalation of surveillance during the 1990s. The parka was designed in response to the political climate in London at that time, but relates to a universal narrative. Adam Thorpe, who owns Vexed Generation in partnership with Joe Hunter, explained: ‘It was 1994, and there were the surveillance cameras going up at the time. Now there are cameras everywhere but at that time it was just starting and nobody was discussing it. So we put that on the agenda as well.’ The Vexed Parka is characterized by a sinister hood and collar that covers most of the head and face, closing over the mouth and nose but leaving the eye area open. ‘We made the parka in 1994 and launched it in 1995. It sums up all the ideas and concepts we had about fashion and social surveillance, which we include in most of the other clothes we have designed since,’ Thorpe said.

During the 1990s, the British government and private industry are estimated to have spent around £3 billion to establish surveillance systems and equipment. ‘For a fraction of the cost we made it pretty much redundant as the person wearing the parka can hide his face,’ Thorpe said. ‘The area in front of the mouth and nose is formed so it can take one of the filters normally used in special neoprene cycle masks.’ Though the mask was designed to look and function as a filter, it also concealed the lower half of the face.

The political climate at this time was characterized by protests and civil disobedience in response to the controversial British Criminal Justice Act and the government’s implementation of poll-tax reforms. ‘At that time we felt that civil liberties were attacked. Freedom of expression, the rights to demonstrate, assembly or party were strategically cut short. Particularly during the poll tax riots it was apparent that although holding an equally valid proposition or opinion, people were confronted with riot police wearing protective kit,’ Thorpe explained. The parka embodied the difficult juxtaposition of civil liberties and CCTV, becoming a confrontational parody of police riot gear that protected the wearer. ‘We were interested in the possible sartorial links between the extremes. For us the garment was a kind of modelling of social situations,’ Thorpe said. This enabled the wearer to maintain a public presence and gather social and political information first hand, while remaining anonymous. Thorpe said: ‘Our clothing is about communicating what we think is essential or important. We give people enough protection for them to be able to go out and be active, more involved with their environment in a secure fashion and be more individual.’

Anonymity and visibility against the urban landscape became considerations expressed in each garment Vexed Generation make. As they began exploring materials with different properties, the functions of the jackets extended beyond concealing to include weatherproofing, physical defence and environmental hazards. ‘As well as making garments for our own conceptual reasons, we are also making clothing that people want to wear for practical reasons,’ Thorpe said.

Vexed Generation chose technologized materials like Kevlar and ballistic nylon for the strength and durability that makes them slash-proof, providing a shield in the even of a knife-wielding attacker. ‘When we first started using Kevlar you could only get it in Britain, where it was manufactured for use by the Ministry of Defence and security companies. We had to say we were making protective clothing to get it, so we told them our company name was “V G Security”,’ Thorp said. He began buying other technologized textiles from factories in Switzerland, America and Italy. Using high-tech materials created a unique aesthetic almost by default, because the densely textured surfaces and subtle patterns in the fabric have real impact. The properties of non-woven textiles are ideal for creating complex forms, due to their strength and ability to hold their shape.

The aesthetic this created became known as ‘stealth utility’, because it defined the wearer against the public space, concealed their identity and constituted a multi-functional design. Other streetwear labels soon began to update their look with hoods, technologized textiles and multipurpose designs. ‘We never intended to become part of any fashion trend, but have noticed that much of the clothing that we originally made in 1994 and 1995 has ended up becoming a new sort of urban utility look,’ Thorpe said.

Investing their garments with stealth significance has in some ways contributed to the social mythology that generates the ‘Big Brother’ paranoia associated with surveillance systems. But as Vexed Generation’s range of customers grew they attracted people who liked the stealth aesthetic for its practical value, rather than the surveillance principles behind them. The concepts and social principles behind their clothes remained in place, but their designs evolved to include garments less radically concealing. ‘While the first pieces we did were single statements, allowing people to shut themselves off from their surroundings, now we also make the “A4 Crombie” styles that appear much more conventional, tolerant and open,’ Thorpe said. The danger with the principle of self-sufficiency is that sometimes the wearer closes off to the environment they are in, relying on the clothes to filter the input and stimuli from outside. ‘I agree that if the comfort zone goes to a point in which people become too dependent on technology or where people become too distant from reality there is a concern there. I think the boundaries of natural and synthetic should not be forgotten; once they are forgotten we start getting into trouble,’ Thorpe added.

The coats in the A4 Crombie range are tailored like traditional overcoats, echoing classic Mackintosh styles. Made out of high-performance duramix wool, the A4 Crombie range combines the resilient outer shells with a waterproof, breathable coating. They are less menacing than the Vexed Parkas, but elements of their stealth aesthetic still remains. With a few discreet zips the hood covers the face and a mouthpiece is revealed, a look that turns from stylish urban fashion into fully functional protective gear. ‘If you want to hide from a camera you still can, because we’ve put in a tinted visibility strip so you can still look around and remain anonymous. We use a high performance cloth that can last and be durable and can cope with all those outdoor things that are thrown at you, whether it is the weather, or an uncivil civilian. We are trying to make clothes that will stand the test of time, including the styling.’ Thorpe said.

The use of temperature-regulating materials in Vexed Generation’s winter collections ends the need for bulky layering. Phase Change Material, a substance originally developed for NASA, is used in the lining to equip coats with built in thermometers that act as personal thermostats, keeping the body temperature constant while journeying through transitional spaces. ‘Phase Change fabrics like Outlast have tiny paraffin capsules embedded in the fibres to create a climate controlled atmosphere,’ Hunter explained. ‘When the body heats over forty degrees centigrade the paraffin molecules react and absorb the heat. When the temperature drops below thirty-seven degrees centigrade they expand to release the heat they’ve stored and warm up the wearer both inside and out, bringing the temperature under the control of the individual, following the same principles of the fifth season created by urban air-conditioned environments. Their semi-tailored suit/bike jackets are streamlined even further by the use of Corwool, a fabric with the warmth and appearance of wool, without the bulk and shapelessness of an anorak.

Almost everything that Hunter and Thorpe do is inspired by the London scene. Like the skateboard labels that emerged as part of urban subculture, Vexed Generation’s range of clothes paralleled developments in urban youth culture. ‘We started in response to the English street environment because we thought that that was the environment we knew about and where we were placed ourselves,’ Thorpe said. When Hunter and Thorpe decided to go into business together they were equally drawn to the idea of starting a music label, because Thorpe had the experience of working for a London record company. ‘When we got together we were all on the dole and couldn’t decide if we wanted to do music, design, fashion, whatever,’ said Thorpe. ‘We made some records first and eventually decided to have a go at fashion, which we made based on new ideas and materials,’ he added. When they lost access to the recording studio they were using fashion seemed to be the easiest option, since Hunter had the experience of having previously produced his own fashion label.

The London fashion scene is characterized by social contrasts, with a wide gap between insider and outsider. Coming into fashion virtually by default highlighted this divide; working outside fashion conventions proved to be Vexed Generation’s advantage. The concept behind their shop and showroom was set up to break down the insider/outsider boundaries, by presenting fashion in an open forum rather than through insider PR events. Rather than just watching fashion shows, the public can be in dialogue with the clothes, look at them close up and try them on. The showroom was in Soho, accessed via a spiral staircase, where the latest collections were hung on dress forms suspended from the ceiling. Thorpe explained: ‘We put all of our energy in communicating the ideas through the space, through our shop because it is open all year long, anyone can walk in and experience it. Meanwhile, if you do a catwalk show you rely on the press or on those who attend to communicate what they’ve seen or they’ve felt to other people.’

The showroom’s interior design expressed their clothing concepts in architectural principles. While in architecture things are usually built to be longer-lasting that they are in fashion, the concept behind the showroom inverted this. The technologized textiles they use mean that the clothes are almost impossible to wear out, and more durable than the paint, carpet or wallpaper, while the shop’s décor was made to constantly wear away. The Plasticine floor in the gallery space started off as a pure blue surface that would be worn down with each foot print, recording the traces of each visitor and accelerating the process of erosion day by day. ‘We were interested in its weathering capabilities and in concepts of quality, tradition and longevity,’ Hunter explained. ‘It was also our Ludite approach to surveillance, because we were tracking people without using digital technology.’

Rather than fitting heating insulation, they padded the shop’s interior with the type of quilting they would pad their garments with. ‘We did that to slow things down,’ Thorpe explained. ‘Before that people could scribble their names and orders on the wall, but we put the padding up so that they could embroider their names, which took them longer to do. Later on we printed out labels for each order that had the customer’s name on it. One was sewn into the clothes, the other was sewn up on the wall, mimicking the way big retailers build a name and address database to keep records of their customers,’ he said.

Vexed Generation’s uncompromising perspectives on the standards and values of their designs is a rarity in both conventional and cutting edge fashion. Vexed Generation tend to invert superficialities like marketing clothing for its sex appeal, capitalizing on short-term trends, notions of exclusivity and product branding by placing emphasis on protection and durability. They also innovate by guaranteeing high performance standards for their clothes, achieved through high-tech textiles and functional design. ‘With our garments, and as a philosophy, we go against the mainstream of production where the products are designed to last a determined period of time through concepts of cheapness and disposability. We are fundamentally against that and that’s why our garments are intended to endure and keep their qualities. We’d like to thing of our garments going into second-hand shops and yet, being in perfect shape,’ Thorpe said.

More recently the stealth utility concept has been extended to a range of garments designed to be worn on a motor scooter or bicycle, called the ‘See And Be Seen’ line. ‘We use a lot of technological developments because we appreciate the utilitarian values of them and because when we use motor scooters, we know how it feels to be in the freezing cold and have aching knees for at least four hours after you come off your bike. We made them [the See and Be Seen range] to be worn on the scooter but also to look like an ordinary day coat. When you wear it on the scooter, you unzip sections to show reflective panels inside. Other parts unzip to give you the expansion you need in a scooter coat to hold that position of leaning forward on the handlebars,’ he explained. ‘So I guess they’re not so ordinary after all.’”

“This is why Vexed Generation developed a range of transformable fabrics for their techtonics range. They discovered that it was not viable to produce one-off garments, and the constraints of mass production made it difficult to include enough variations to make each garment unique and individual. Rather than explore modularity, they began looking for a design innovation that would transform the garment over time, and also give the wearer a role in personalizing it.

Initially Vexed Generation attempted to find high-performance fabrics that would change texture or colour with use, mimicking the way that suede gradually turns into smooth leather with wear and tear. ‘To begin with, we tried making the techtonics range in ballistic nylon,’ said Joe Hunter ‘but the nylon doesn’t mould to the shape of the body so we changed to denim instead.’ The techtonics range includes trousers, jackets, coats and ‘mid layers’ made out of non-stretch plates of fabric laid out onto a stretch framework. As they are worn against the body they move apart, referencing how tectonic plates operate in nature. ‘We were aware that the friction between the two materials would create an erosion in the edges of the cut that would change the garment over time,’ he said. Rather than deteriorate with wear, the techtonic garments would transform into something new. ‘We once talked to Reebok about how to produce a range of clothing based on transformability, because what these people want is to mass produce individuality which is a difficult thing to do,’ he explained.