The cult magazine 032C, founded by Joerg and Maria Koch in Berlin, has achieved to place its complementary clothing brand as one of the streetwear’s most powerful brands. We welcome them to our catalogue with a brief tour through their history and success.
From its headquarters in Santa Inés, the reconverted brutalist church in Berlin, the couple Maria and Joerg Koch get the ball rolling to bring 032C to life. It all started in 2001 as a magazine doing pioneer work in contemporary culture, focusing on arts, fashion, politics and other relevant issues.
032C is more than a media of divulgating trends. They have values, identity, principles and a spirit of youthful resistance behind it. 032C exhibits a certain level of anti-culture and an audacious critic to the fiercest capitalism. It was something new, something sharp and fresh. Just how their slogan defines it, a “manual for freedom, research and creativity”.
From merchandising to fashion icon
Their prompt success made them fly higher even more. It was in 2015 when the homonym brand was born. The red color, precisely the one in the Pantone code 032C, would become the flagship of the brand, whose garments are mainly simple and easy to wear designs that were originally created as mere merchandising. Graphics decorating T-Shirts, sweatshirts and other wardrobe essentials with the four digits either embroidered of printed. Amongst their features, we can also find references to other cultural areas. Brutalist decorations, illustrations that allude to the motocross scene or subtle nods to controverted spaces like the Virgin Islands’ tax haven. They went through that and much more. 032C played with the late capitalism’s and the streetwear’s codes, achieving a very own cultural universe. And it works for Paris’ avant-garde artists as well as for teenagers going to high school.
The magazine gets published both digital and printed twice a year. Artists such as Cali Thornhill DeWitt, 1017 ALYX 9SM or Gosha Rubinsky, as well as brands like Stüssy and Birkenstock, already collaborated with them. Researching and exhibiting their creative freedom is their thing. 032C’s clothing line has experimented with DIY kits and with bootlegs, among other things. But their principles stay always more than clear. One of them is reducing to a minimum the chain between them and the customer. So the retailers that sell their brand are not many and are carefully selected. And Foot District is now fortunately amongst them.
Get now the latest from 032C.