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media, as we feel that is our best way for people to relate to our product.”
Their lookbook is bold, with their simple hats and tees juxtaposed against bright, flowery backgrounds. The tees don’t need much to stand out against such a strong setting: seeing a man clad in a white T-shirt with the words No Means No written across them is a rather striking thing.
“While our perspective as womxn comes from a specific experience regarding these issues, we hope that other people can relate in their own way because consent goes beyond issues of gender,” they say.
Besides the really-not-at-allcomplicated issue of consent (which is often discussed on social media and in social circles as though it’s a complex philosophy that requires several higher education degrees to understand), another sexist idea that C(lit) clothing attacks is the notion that women dress for men. Spoiler alert: we don’t.
Not Wearing This For You is a slogan that’s on their bucket hats and T-shirts.
With gender-based violence and the treatment of women coming under scrutiny across South African media (and hopefully across our dinner tables, too), the label founders are aware of the contribution their work makes to the current gender discourse.
“We acknowledge that our voices are only a small part in the narrative going on in South Africa right now in terms of social issues. We are striving to create a brand that multiple people can relate to on some level. As womxn, we feel it is important to create something that can be shared with others . . . We hope that some of the texts we use can create discussions around gender inequality, consent issues and the patriarchal culture that is prevalent in our society at large.”
Zimmermann and Reyneke say they don’t have any solid ideas about where their brand will be in a year’s time: “We’re still working towards building our brand up; we are constantly going through processes of learning.”
In the end, C(lit) is about, as one of their slogans states, Pussy Power. And not just the oldfashioned (and insulting) idea that women’s true power lies between their legs, but the idea that women are powerful beings. And it’s about time everyone acknowledged it. *‘Womxn’ is the intersectional version of women, and is growing in use beyond feminist spaces.
• Find C(lit) clothing on Instagram (instagram.com/ c.lit.clothing) and on Facebook (facebook.com/ lit.c.lothings)