THE GENESIS: Behind the Creation of WCU (Part One)
In early 2019, fashion designer and curator Oxphur, pieced ideas together for his clothing line, Tropix, a trendy streetwear brand that took college campuses by storm. With the momentum on his side, he released the “HUMANITY” collection. Being conscious of world events and issues, oxphur wanted to ‘bring everyone together’ with his latest ideas. This sparked a whole new wave of inspiration. Oxphur decided it was time to grow past the Tropix brand and make something meaningful that could impact the entire world.
The first piece from World Cleansing Unit came into fruition about a month after the “HUMANITY” collection release; Oxphur was working on a custom (one of one) janitor jumpsuit. Air pollution, droughts, wildfires, and the endangerment of sea life inspired the idea to construct a janitor jumpsuit to raise awareness that we needed to ‘clean up' our act. Its purpose was to draw attention to the way we are living as a species. He wanted to shift the focus on what is important for improving our environment. This led to the official branding of the World Cleansing Unit (WCU). Oxphur continued to ride his wave of janitorial pieces. In addition to his Hazmat inspired jumpsuits, he assembled face masks to protect our breathing from airborne pathogens and pollutants, along with many other one of one pieces.
Understanding the importance of what he was developing with World Cleansing Unit, Oxphur decided to put an end to the Tropix line and focus solely on his newfound creation. For most of 2019, oxphur took the year off from releasing any pieces. “The more I designed, the more I felt as if it was a story of the future and not the present. God led me to keep developing and be patient,” he stated when referring to why few pieces released in 2019.
Late 2019, while working on design concepts for a T-shirt, Oxphur created the design that would launch the brand. He continued to work on the design through the New Year; perfecting it, being attentive that it was ‘developed to its maximum potential.’ Come February 2020, Oxphur was curating the first World Cleansing Unit collection titled “TERRA FIRMA”, which released on February 29, 2020. This was the start of a new beginning, not only for Oxphur and WCU, but also for the entire world, as we once knew. February 29, 2020 was also the day of the first death in the USA, due to the rapidly spreading novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
This led to the creation of the COVID-19 “WORLD TOUR” T-shirt, which released (through World Cleansing Unit) on March 11, 2020. A shirt created to ‘be the light in darkness’ during this global pandemic. It immediately sparked conversations upon its release, leading to the actualization of what is truly going on in the world today. In response to feedback on WCU’s latest piece, oxphur stated, “I believe cataclysmic events as such should be what strengthens us as a humanity and that’s what the COVID-19 shirt represents. The World Cleansing Unit brand is a safe haven that proselytizes togetherness. It’s so much more than just clothing.”