Naomi Klein Releases New Range of ‘No Logo’ Casual Wear

December 2003

toronto - Bestselling author and anticorporate activist Naomi Klein is making a splash in the fashion world with a new range of designer casual and active wear under the No Logo label, named after her first book, which railed against the takeover of public space by branding.

The No Logo collection features such items as a black tank top decorated simply by an offset red and white square bearing the legend ‘This Is Not A Logo’, and hemp jeans with an invitation to ‘Brand Me’ printed on the seat pocket.

Vogue columnist Janice La Paglia is impressed with Klein’s foray into fashion. “I like the simpicity of the lines” she said. “It’s really a breath of fresh air, after the busy prints that dominated last summer’s collections. There’s an edginess, a sense of rebellion that, I think, appeals to the anticorporate activist in all of us”

Klein herself was unavailable for comment as she is believed to be working on finishing her third book, No Relation to Calvin. But her publisher confirmed its support for her venture au monde de la mode. “As long as Naomi keeps the crusading journalism coming, we’re right behind her” said HarperCollins spokesperson Rachel Burns. “It’s entirely consistent with her promotion of consumer choice that she should increase that choice by making available an innovative range of hard-wearing, non-branded casual and active wear”

No Logo clothing is made only at a few surviving mom-and-pop Toronto apparel manufacturers, utilising fully unionised labour and distributed through selected independent retail outlets. Klein herself has insisted that what she calls “monopolistic” high street chain stores be prevented from stocking the line.

This has not prevented soaring sales of No Logo garments. According to factory manager Marla Weinburg, “the orders just keep coming in, and we’ve ramped up production, but we’re struggling to meet the demand. At this rate we're going to have to outsource a lot of this offshore”

Stephen Dyer, Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Ontario, said Klein had confirmed that the fashionable could be political. “Naomi’s new range articulates the hegemonic relations of capital vis-à-vis the hermeneutically nested discourses inherent in the logo/no logo juxtaposition, insofar as it interrogates the intertextualities within the postcolonial consumerist paradigm” he explained. “I’m quite impressed. My fourteen year-old daughter loves the tank tops, too”