Stiff Pap x Carhartt WIP: A First Of It’s Kind.

Stiff Pap took to their social media platforms to announce a collaboration with a legendary clothing brand, Carhartt WIP, that left most of us geeked. If you are a regular here on Culture Club – Magazine, you know everything there is to know about this musical duo. Carhartt WIP known also as Carhartt Work In Progress is a branch of the original and classic Carhartt which has its own collections based on original Carhartt workwear. The brand combines authentic adaptations of these robust American archetypes, while engaging with the subcultures that have embraced it. This, in turn, has seen Carhartt WIP place itself in a new context and bring forth its own classics.

We spoke to the duo about their collaboration with the brand and here is how it all went:

This partnership/collaboration was pleasant surprise to the masses, how did it all start? How did they approach you? Tell us all about it.

Our record label, Cotch International, already had a relationship with Carhartt. Before our merch dropped, the label had already done a collaboration with them so when it came down to releasing our project we reached out to them and they liked the concept. We’ve always liked the brand and since they’re already close to our label the collab made sense to us.

Now tell us about the t-shirt design and the overall creative process.

We wanted the t-shirt to mark the era we’re in right now, so it’s inspired by the aesthetics we introduced on TUFF TIME$. Since the concept was already in place before we worked on the merch it was a pretty easy process to get to the final designs. We got our friends at Caramel Palace involved to work on the designs and put together a promo campaign. We had a lot of freedom to play around with ideas but we basically already knew what we were planning to do.

You’ve collaborated with a very iconic brand that’s transitioned from generation to generation, what does this collaboration represent for Stiff Pap?

It’s a very big and iconic brand so this is a big deal not just for us but for SA streetwear too. We’re really grateful we got the opportunity to represent who we are and create this milestone to inspire other people. For us this signifies growth and it’s definitely one of our proudest achievements.

What was the inspiration behind the campaign shoot?

The character is basically a Stiff Pap super fan obsessed with the band, we just wanted to create a fun, quirky visual based on stan culture.

There’s a subtle punk aesthetic that surrounds the collaboration, would you say you always draw reference from punk inspired influences?

We’ve always been “anti-establishment” and unapologetically ourselves so being punk was always a part of what we represent. The visuals as of late are more what people would associate with punk culture but we’ve basically always had punk aesthetics.