Bob Marley Still Rocking Fashion World With New ‘Cult Of Individuality’ Collab
Five years after being declared by GQ Magazine as an “underrated style god” and 40 years after his death, the legend of Bob Marley as a style continues decades to reign supreme, this time through a new collaboration with denim brand Cult of Individuality.
According to the American brand, it partnered with the Bob Marley’s estate for a Fall 20 capsule that celebrates the Marley family to launch its Bob Marley Collection which features two jackets, one sweatshirt a pair of denim pants and a hat which the company says can be found its online store and participating national retailers.
“We are celebrating an artist In @bobmarley whose influence is Multi-generational and Multi-cultural at a time when we could all use a dose of positivity. This collection, like the quotes from the king himself, will remain undefeated because love always wins,” Cult of Individuality noted on its Instagram page recently.
The line carries two jackets, one crafted from vegan black leather, featuring a classic biker silhouette with embroidery patches and contrast prints front and back prints with Bob Marley lyrics.
It is fully lined, embellished with zippers at the sleeves and an adjustable belt, two zip pockets, one internal pocket, and a zip closure. The jacket has the lines from his hits No woman No Cry, Three Little Birds, Buffalo Soldier, Wake Up and Live and Redemption Song and is priced at US$389.
The second jacket is a rigid medium blue type three denim garb, crafted from a premium vintage wash and Japanese denim. It features the cult signature selvage trim and XX” embroidery on the back and a digital printed applique that is top applied to the back panel and finished with a Bob Marley embroidery signature in gold lurex. It is the highest-priced item in the line at US$449 and carries the names of several Bob Marley albums plus images of the Trench Town Rock singer.
The tops include three t-shirts: a 100 percent cotton tye-dye short sleeve crew neck t-shirt adorned with a digital printed photo of Marley; a Polaroid short sleeve crew neck black tee with all-over digital printed photos of the late superstar and a white crew neck shirt adorned with a large digital printed graphic photo of him. The prices range from a low of US$89 to a high of US$149.
The other garments carry include a black cut and sew French terry hoodie, a mesh trucker cap built from durable wool acrylic fabric in black with a black brim and a rigid medium blue type rocker jeans pants with Bob Marley’s lyrics embroidered at the front and back.
Interestingly, Cult of Individuality has erroneously described the Rastafarian red, gold and green colours used on the garments as “embroidery in Jamaican colours”.
Bob’s daughter Cedella recently showcased the collab on her Instagram page noting: “The New collab from @BobMarley x @CultOfIndividuality. Which of these sleek designs will you sporting in the new year?
In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, Marley’s name continued to rock the fashion world last year. Early in the year, Wrangler unveiled its Wrangler x Bob Marley Limited Edition Collection which included t-shirts and denim jackets. German sportswear company Adidas’ latest line for Winter 2020 was also influenced by the Jamaican legend.
In a style article in 2016 titled Why Bob Marley Is an Underrated Style God, GQ Magazine noted that not only did Marley bring Reggae, Rastafari and the singular culture of Jamaica to the world, but he also “managed to be the best-dressed rock star of the 1970s.”
“He was the rare man who could pull off anything. For his iconic 1976 Rolling Stone cover, he wore a sweater-vest. Nobody had made a sweater-vest cool since…well, nobody. Thirty years before Kanye, Marley was apparently cribbing prep style and rebranding it all shades of black,” the article noted.
The GQ article, which was written by Jamaican novelist Marlon James, described Bob as perfecting casual cool and being able to ‘rock a sweater-vest as if Jamaica never hit 96 degrees in the shade”
“At home, Marley dressed like he was up for a soccer match, which he always was. It didn’t matter if he was wearing ’70s shorts and a T-shirt or head-to-toe sweats: Marley did the job of making Adidas cool long before Run-DMC made it permanent. He might as well have been sponsored,” the author added.
By the time of his death in 1981, Bob’s style influence was everywhere, with him “hitting the stage again in denim on denim” the author wrote.
Some of his trends described by the author, which were set, included windbreakers in Rastafarian red, green, and gold colours; bomber jackets and big cowboy buckles and a Fair Isle sweater, tight military shirts matched with loose bell-bottom jeans; an Adidas tracksuit from head to ankle worn with spit-shiny dress boots and “caps and berets cocked off to the side”.
“His style DNA passed down through punk rockers like the Clash, straight to Bad Brains, Lenny Kravitz, Wyclef Jean, and Gary Clark Jr. When hip-hop went Native Tongues, the rappers looked like Marley children—and when the Marley children grew up, they looked like updates of big papa,” the article noted.
“He still stands as the most convincing and exciting rock star in a decade chock-full of rock stars, in huge part because he had something to say, but also because he looked so f_king good saying it,” Marlon James wrote.