"CHILL OUT was printed live on location at Transcentral Los Angeles (the spiritual home of CHILL OUT RELAXING CLOTHES.)

Don't bother trying to wear this garment if you have neither first switched off the lights then laid your body to rest on the floor. Hopefully then the trip will be complete.

WARNING - drugs can seriously impair/improve your judgement.

Delete where necessary.

CHILL OUT WILL BE OUT IN EARLY 1990." 

 

Hey Oliver, how did CHILL OUT RELAXING CLOTHES start?

I've always loved Chill Out by The KLF. In a way, CHILL OUT RELAXING CLOTHES is just an example of another possible thing you can do with a record . Listen to it, make art about it or in this case , design a brand around it. 

I think CHILL OUT became an extension of that. Simply asking myself - "How would that work ? A brand that was strictly about Chill Out - What would that look like ? What would it make ?". The further you are willing to look into the record, the more it presents itself to you. Take this to it's logical conclusion and you find yourself designing a hat based on a catalogue number or an obscure sample. 

 

 

It seems like everything around the brand is heavily influenced by THE KLF. How important are they to CHILL OUT RELAXING CLOTHES ?

Despite being a fan obviously, The KLF are pretty much irrelevant to CHILL OUT RELAXING CLOTHES in so far as everything they did beyond making the record 'Chill Out' of course. The money burning, the brits performance, The Manual, etc.. is all brilliant, but largely  irrelevant for our  purposes.

But then again, to make a clothing brand that is completely governed by this guiding  principle of only being about Chill Out by The KLF is in itself a very KLF like thing to do.

 

 

Aside from your own brand, you also have also designed and have done work for Supreme and PALACE. Do you approach these projects the same way you approach CHILL OUT RELAXING CLOTHES ?

Thematically they are all very different, but they may employ a similar approach. I am pretty analog and lo-fi in how I make stuff and that doesn't really change no matter what I'm doing or what it might be for. 

 

 

Your personal work seems to deal with future and technology and how it interacts with society. Do you try to create the same dialogue with the clothes you make? - How much of what you do with your art crosses over with projects you do for outside projects/CHILL OUT?

The ideas come from quite different places. Chill Out itself is always supplying us with themes for products - every sample, lyric, location and technical detail of the record is potential subject matter for us. Whereas my work tends to mainly be about whatever I am thinking about at the time (which, to be fair is often video games and future). 

The similarities lie in that I am drawn to using rules, restrictions and limitations in my work and also fandom is a recurrent topic I like to explore. CHILL OUT RELAXING CLOTHES is a prime example of both of these things. 

 

 

 

Photos from CHILL OUT RELAXING CLOTHING

Questions by Anthony Kwang