Astronaut: Clothing as Free as Space
Designers Gavin Taylor and Christian Wicks said they chose to name their new streetwear line Astronaut People Wear because of the idea of freedom that the name implies. The Los Angeles-based young men’s collection will officially be launched at MAGIC.
“To be an astronaut is to be free,” explained Bradley Angel, Astronaut’s sales director. “Gavin and Christian liked the freedom of the name and felt it was definitely new millennium.”
“We looked at the definition of astronaut—it means one who travels beyond the earth’s atmosphere,” added Wicks, who is the son of Christopher Wicks, owner of the Los Angeles-based men’s label DaVinci. “We wanted to ignite the scene and take it to another level, with clothing as free as space can be.”
The two designers, both British natives, combined Wicks’ love for snowboarding and skateboarding and Taylor’s love for deejay culture to create a line that is based on the lifestyles of those subcultures.
In combining elements of the disparate subcultures to come up with the design of the line, Wicks and Taylor said they made certain that the line’s sizing was not as huge as the traditional sizing found in deejay-culture clothing but still had a “free” feel to it.
“You will not be invisible and will not be lost wearing Astronaut,” said Angel.
Wicks described the line as “great wovens in plaids and solids and cottons in tech fabrics” and said, “We do great heavy fleeces and knits driven by a lot of graphic T-shirts. Everything on the line is logoed—some blatantly, and some understated.”
The collection includes denim items in a variety of washes, board shorts and walk shorts.“We do high-density screen printing and appliqueacute;s to give it a futuristic look,” Wicks added.
The “freedom” of Astronaut is found not only in the design of the line, but also in the designers’ freedom to define the company and their line, according to Angel.
“The collection is suburban instead of urban, because it’s driven by a lot of music,” said Angel. “It’s a combination of the deejay culture and the board sports culture as opposed to being one or the other.”
The company plans to keep that combined focus by sponsoring deejays as well as snowboarding and skate teams.
“I know a lot of people consider themselves ’lifestyle,’ but we’re trying to take it to another level,” said Wicks. “That’s why we’re doing all the cross-promotions.”
Wicks said he and Taylor have already sent out more than 100,000 flyers promoting events that they have sponsored, including board sports festivals, contests, concerts and clubs. Wicks has also assembled skate and snowboard teams.
Astronaut People Wear is already being sold at Urban Outfitters and is currently being delivered to Pacific Sunwear, Demo, Fred Segal of Santa Monica and American Rag. At MAGIC, it will be showing in booth #ST8613 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. For more information, call (213) 346-0919. —Claudia Figueroa and Darryl James
