How did humble workwear label become a hallmark of the niche, the subversive, the unusual and the exciting? It is this history of the brand that editors Michel Lebugle and Anna Sinofzik have dedicated the last 18 months of their life to sorting, editing and condensing at the behest of the brand, creating new Rizzoli tome The Carhartt WIP Archives – billed as “the first extensive look into the evolution of an icon.” We met Lebugle in London, and got a deeper look at the book.

For Carhartt WIP, this is the way it has always been.įrom skaters to musicians, rappers to graffiti artists, that “C” of Carhartt has been subtly omnipresent subcultural signifier over the past three decades. It’s a label that, many clapping eyes on that distinct, chunky yellow ‘C’, have wanted to be a part of – even if they didn’t quite know why. In many ways, it was a backhanded compliment, a gesture of appreciation for the brand’s work. As a brand that, for the past 30 odd years, has been synonymous with differing facets of youth culture, it would have been more of a disaster had the swathes of kids descending on London Fields that day decided they had nothing worth stealing. But in some ways, for those that worked for Carhartt WIP, as they watched images of thousands of pounds worth of stock being walked out the door of their Hackney outlet store, those feelings were likely tempered by a sense of affirmation (some time later, the brand released a t-shirt with the now-iconic photo of their storefront mid-looting). There was a spate of stores that were looted over those five days – for most owners, emotions ranged from fury to despondency.

By the time these photos were taken, it had been over 48 hours since the first brick was thrown in anger, and the protest had transcended its original purpose, resulting in a state of dystopian lawlessness that would continue until August 11th. Out front sat a red Mazda convertible, its roof crumpled like paper, its windscreen a spiderweb of cracks, as smoke filled the driver and passenger seats before the car eventually went up in flames.įor the disaffected youth of London that summer, what started as a protest against the killing of Mark Duggan at the hands of police officers quickly became a retaliatory act. Within the hour, the corrugated metal shutter was ripped open from the bottom of the steel door frame, as a group of mostly teenagers streamed in and out. On the 8th of August 2011, the staff at the Carhartt WIP outlet on 18 Ellingfort Road in Hackney received a phone call from looters telling them, out of courtesy, that they should vacate the premises.

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