Hardcore for Life: The Cult Fashion of Havoc

Upon visiting Havoc’s website, you are greeted with the headline “A Place for Freaks and Outcasts”, a ferocious welcome to a ferocious clothing brand.

Eschewing the predictability and unsustainable practices of so called “fast-fashion”, Havoc and it’s creator/designer Shy Snider follow an ethos that is much more DIY and punk rock than mass produced.

Havoc’s line is a mixture of manufactured pieces and hand crafted items released on a limited-run basis. With scheduled monthly drops, the fashion cultivated by Shy Snider is most decidedly “anti-fashion”, with a heavy emphasis on style cues taken from the sidewalk outside of CBGBs in 1979 and the trash laden dust jackets of grimy 80s metal albums.

“…product shots that take on a voyeur-esque quality that hits somewhere between candid living room BDSM and bus stop upskirt.”

With fitted t-shirts proclaiming “CULT LEADER”, and an array of repurposed religious imagery by-way-of Norwegian black metal, Havoc makes a strong statement for fashion as an ideology that reaches much further than just a simple avenue of personal expression. Their website tells you, in all-caps “THIS IS ANTI-FASHION. THIS IS HAVOC. WELCOME TO THE CULT” and all but commands you to join.

This bleak, hypnotizing serving of daring fringe fashion is presented via web and social media with an edgy, hardcore-inspired blend of product shots that take on a voyeur-esque quality that hits somewhere between candid living room BDSM and bus stop upskirt.

Orders can take 4-6 weeks to ship, but that is part of the brands’ gritty allure; some items are hand-made to order, and created with care and intention. Shein this is most certainly not, and Havoc wears that distinction as a badge of honour.