Victoria Sin: Victory Brand Spring/Summer 2012

Branching out so that the brand can clothe beyond the torso, Victory Brand’s Spring/Summer 2012 collection has cemented the label’s entry into London’s fashion scene. 

The sequence of its progression, starting just a year ago and featuring on the white t-shirt, has incessantly been cultivated by the label’s core inspiration: illustration. Victoria Sin’s concept, which has been disseminated through not only apparel, but also advertisement for London’s zeitgeist – such as for the Southwark Arts Forum– is to portray her creativity by whatever medium possible. One gets the sense that her illustrations have haphazardly found their way on to t-shirts rather than being a conceited, intentional clothing line. Yet fortunately for us, Victoria’s illustrative expression converts to clothing with irrefutable success, titivating the basics of menswear with the inventiveness of an artist rather than an entrepreneur.

Her screen-printed t-shirts, principally meriting Victoria’s excellence in animal portraiture, are a fun and unique addition to the East Londoner’s wardrobe. Yet beyond her t-shirts, Victoria has been able to trounce her obsession with illustration – an affliction that she has previously stated consumed her – to impart her creativity to pieces that reveal the identity, thus developing the brand.

Being printed in East London, Victory is a centralised label that returns to those who inspired it, a uniform that perfectly befits the composition of the East Londoner. Maintaining monochrome to assuage the vibrancy of Central, tailoring to proclaim a conceited style and foreign to the habitual suburbia beyond London, Victory is embedded within the confines of E1 & 8 areas. 

Her employing of studs proves the constraint of the brand: the hostility of these antagonistic, silver additions to shirt collars deepens the disparity between the wearer and the subjugated. As well as drawing inspiration from animals, authoritarian images such as Korean dictators, the monarchy and religious iconography ridicule the “establishment” and scorn its irrelevance to contemporary street life. This forceful guise indeed empowers the band of tormented dissidents against the quotidian who are invading their artistic hub with unapologetic gentrification. 

However, while this angst is a stimulus for Victory’s armour, it does not engulf the brand. Here is an inspired take on menswear, focusing on the intricacies of design and artistic flair to separate it from the unimaginative garb available to men. This slight deviance from the standardisation of menswear has created a concept collection that can be appropriated by those who do not identify with autonomous East London, but are enticed rather than daunted by their stark, shielding studs.

Ryan Brown

Click here to visit Victory Brand’s website.