This time we wanted to dig deep into the archives of the streetwear world to tell you the story of one of the most underground brands of the late ’80s and early ’90s, Anarchic Adjustment.

Founded in post-punk London in 1986 by artist, fashion designer, graphic design pioneer and founder of RAD – Read and Destroy magazine Nick Philip, the brand became popular globally thanks to entrepreneur and designer Alan Brown and Charles Uzzell Edwards, who met Philip when he moved to San Francisco and became part of the skateboarding and BMX scene in Southern California where the brand finally exploded.

Nick worked for a while at Freestylin’ magazine where a young aspiring photographer, Spike Jonze, took his first steps. During that period Jonze made his first works for Freestylin’ and Anarchic Adjustment.

The brand was characterized by cut-and-paste style graphic prints, Akira bootleg graphics and subliminal messages. Success throughout the UK and the US had already become important in the 1990s but it was in Japan, thanks in part to entrepreneur Joi Ito, that Anarchic Adjustment became an absolute cult thanks to the opening of two stores – one in Tokyo in ’94 and the other inside the American Village Parco Store in Osaka – and the endorsement by key figures in the streetwear world such as Hiroshi Fujiwara and DJ Towa Tei.

What made Nick Philip’s work unique and peculiar during the creation phase was a particular contrast in his passions. Nick came from the freestyle scene with BMXs but he followed skateboarding in the same way, but at the time BMX and skateboarding were seen as two opposite extremes and difficult to reconcile. This apparent dichotomy was perfectly reflected in the irreverent and sometimes outrageous aesthetics of Anarchic Adjustment.

An outsider, Philip, who made clothes for other outsiders who, like him, were immersed in the street culture of the time without necessarily identifying with a single movement.

The particular context in which it was born and the spark that drove Nick Philip to found Anarchic Adjustment were also the reasons that led to its slow decline. Philp did his work for the fun of it and following exclusively his own feelings without ever compromising or following the trends as they evolved.

Anarchic Adjustment was a brand of its time but which has left a strong and indelible legacy in the contemporary streetwear scene.