Believability in brand identity has become a crucial crux in creating a culture around a fashion label. In an era where everything is a movement, materialising a real and tangible connection with one’s audience by voicing a vision for them to buy into can often be the deciding factor in a brand’s journey from an underground atelier to a shaper of contemporary trends. Whilst many brands bond their logo to a pre-existing subculture like skating, street art, surfing or DJing others carve out their own character, transforming clothing into community and fans into family. Perhaps no up & coming brand has built a stronger sense of self and surrounded themselves with like-minded loyalists like the Leeds based collective, Vulfco.
The humour driven multi-hyphenate nature of Vulfco has seen the brand sprawl across many different facets of the UK’s cultural underbelly since its conception back in 2018. The music-centric wing of the company has been guiding initiates in the art of raving under the name ‘Hydro Lab’, an excentric and expertly curated events company under the Vulfco umbrella. Hydro Lab has allowed Vulfco to venture out from the algorithm and form a real-world following, folding an anarchistic alliance of ravers, DJs, and politically conscious creatives into the very fabric of the Vulfco vision.
However, despite moulding a must-attend reputation around each Hydro Lab experiment, the secret sauce of Vulfco’s success can be explained by the no-BS & unabashed brain of its founder. Whilst so many other brands run and hide from socio-politically sensitive issues, Vulfco has formed fervent respect from its followers for constantly calling out corruption, chastising the greedy and keeping their often adolescent audience informed on topics that too often slip between the cracks of mainstream coverage.
This almost unprecedented willingness to tie the brands’ identity with its clearly defined political principles has earned Vulfco a position at the epicentre of on & off-line activism, as well as a never before seen notoriety as a source for original reporting. In recent months, Vulfco’s coverage of the war in Ukraine via their Instagram account has been startling to watch, delving into the details and dissecting footage from sources on the ground that would never see the light of day via more traditional sources. Gallows humour and an unyielding willingness to disrupt the usually squeaky clean cultivation of a curated social media presence makes Vulfco a true champion of original and out of the box brand/customer relationships.
Vulfco’s vicious voice and willingness to say what others wont, has created a prestigiously punk perspective on the responsibility of fashion brands to actively stand up for the principles they say they support. Not only has their bashfully bold approach been a breath of fresh air for us, but Vulfco has also been rewarded for their honesty as fans raging from Francis Bourgeois to Oliver Jones have found sanctuary in the brands’ transparency. Although their designs are strong enough on their own to foster a wide-reaching audience, its Vulfco’s self-awareness and social critique that places them on the plinth of brands primed for global success.
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