Commercial businesses have been experiencing an unexpected fashion moment for several seasons now. Most recently, Balenciaga released a $2,145 blue Arena bag for Fall 2017 inspired by Ikea’s plastic Frakta shopping tote. The house’s creative director, Demna Gvasalia, was spotted outside of the show wearing an Ikea logo shirt, while Off-White’s Virgil Abloh is now officially collaborating with the Swedish chain to reimagine the carryall. Before Ikea, there was shipping company DHL, which entered the spotlight after Gosha Rubchinskiy walked the Vetements Spring 2016 show in a logo T-shirt. Now, Worldnet International, a logistics company that specializes in luxury fashion, is giving DHL a run for its money thanks to its charming logo hoodies.
They’ve become a bit of a casual Friday go-to for industry vets, including PRODn at Art + Commerce senior producer Steven Dam. “It’s a super-witty, smarter (and cheaper) version of the Vetements DHL T-shirt,” Dam explains by email. “Anyone who works in fashion knows Worldnet more than DHL.” Vogue editors have also fallen for it, from Entertainment Media Editor Sophia Li, who wears it in-flight, to Accessories Director Selby Drummond. “We scouted our most recent freelance accessories hire because he came to Vogue to deliver samples wearing a Worldnet hoodie,” she says. “Not only had he styled it perfectly, but we knew instantly that he could get samples shipped across continents ASAP—it’s the ultimate nod to insider fashion.” Thom Browne’s director of brand relations and former Vogue Market Editor Kelly Connor considers it her off-duty piece, sporting it “usually while chit-chatting with them on the weekends from my couch.”
It turns out the bright blue sweatshirt was the brainchild of Worldnet’s branding manager, Gary Craughwell. “It started out with our driver uniform. Our branding manager has a history in the fashion industry, and he wanted to have a new approach to the uniform,” says Noella Wynter, a content creator at Worldnet. “We’d come up with these new fun pieces. Our clients actually love them and they’d request the shirts, and then it morphed into different fashion tees.” So far, Worldnet has received requests from Calvin Klein, Alexander Wang, Dover Street Market, and more brands. The catch? The hoodies aren’t actually for sale. They were a part of an online campaign and could only be requested on the Worldnet site. Right now, they are out of stock; here’s hoping these insider staples make a commercial comeback.
