Students savor WeSC’s simple style
By Nicholas Williams
April 1, 2010 9:00 p.m.
From their plaid button-downs to their Atari-inspired logo shirts, WeSC (We Are the Superlative Conspiracy) has struck a chord with UCLA.
Despite the relative popularity among UCLA students and greater Los Angeles, the Swedish-based company, founded in 1999, has only two stores in the United States, one in Los Angeles and one in New York City.
“We are global and continue to grow all over the world, but not to mass market ourselves. We are not everywhere online, nor in random stores. We will keep brand integrity, always,” said Los Angeles WeSC store manager Karyn Montgomery in an e-mail.
WeSC features predominately basics from their signature plaids and logo shirts to simple stripes and solids.
“The general style of WeSC is what they call “˜Life after skate,’ and “˜Intellectual slackers.’ We honestly are a brand that caters to all walks of life; no matter where you come from, there is always something you can find regardless of who or what you do or are,” Montgomery said in an e-mail.
UCLA’s Fashion and Student Trends president, fourth-year art student Aimee Sorek, said, “I would sum (WeSC’s style) up as being simple and accessible to all different kinds of people; that’s why they’re so successful. I think lots of different people can find stuff they like within their collection.”
WeSC’s contemporary streetwear look, underground roots and high quality makes it an appealing commodity to the UCLA student.
“It’s so easy to get lost in the H&M world; you find something nice but it goes away in a week,” said fourthÂ-year international development studies student and FAST member Shakeib Siddiq.
According to Montgomery, WeSC’s edgy but not obnoxious, simple yet cool style and foreign appeal makes it alluring.
Moreover, WeSC offers their customers a wide variety of goods other than apparel, most notably their headphones.
“We are globally known for our headphones that have made a staple impact across the board. We collaborate with iconic DJs who are a part of our Weactivists team and produce sick designs,” Montgomery said in an e-mail.
WeSC has collaborated with heavy-hitting artists such as Steve Aoki, Kaskade, Crookers, Pase Rock and Lady Tigra to create a one-of-a-kind collection. WeSC strives to maintain the underground style that it first started with.
Although WeSC maintains a small stature, their community of artists of various mediums called “Weactivists” continues to grow.
“A Weactivist is someone that is extremely good at what they do, world famous or totally unknown. Someone that has a streetwise mentality that chooses his or her own path with a humble persona,” Montgomery said in an e-mail.
“We do much collaboration in different ways between clothing, headphones, store design, events and so on. They are a great group of people that are carefully chosen and very special with a great attitude that helps define what our brand is about and what also makes us stand out and so different from everyone else.”
Weactivists comprise a wide array of artists and athletes, such as snowboarder Andrew Hardingham, artist Vanessa Prager, artist Sage Vaughn and the DJs the Bloody Beetroots.
“I really appreciate how they support artists,” Sorek said. “Being an artist myself, I think it’s really important when companies support the arts.”
But despite WeSC’s streetwear and worldwide family, according to Siddiq, the brand’s popularity will remain limited to UCLA students more involved in the fashion world.
“When I see kids walking around campus in that kind of apparel (WeSC), I see them as people I can relate to more because they haven’t conformed to the masses. I call them UCLA tastemakers … the ones that wear things in good taste and do it well,” Siddiq said.
Regardless of UCLA students’ sporadic tastes, WeSC pushes on into spring/summer with a calmer style than last year’s fall/winter collection.
“From last year, we had a pretty loud season for fall and winter incorporating many reds and blacks, and just a lot of loud and bold colors. So this year, in a way, there is a bit of a preppy feel, but still intact with what we are as a brand,” Montgomery said in an e-mail.
