From custom creepers to hardcore fleeces: The best in alternative style this month

Welcome back to Kerrang!'s monthly style column, with me, Kitty Cowell! Each month I'll be bringing you the latest releases, collabs and trends in alternative fashion – and as you can see below, we’re only two months into 2024 and killing it already.

If you don’t know me, I'm a nu-metal, emo and hardcore kid, and I style music videos and photoshoots for a bunch of your favourite artists – like this week’s NOAHFINNCE cover!

And I’m here to reignite your love of alt. fashion, keeping one eye on what’s happening right now and the other on nostalgia for a misspent youth of Myspace, big fringes and the jeans so skinny they defy logic.

Let’s jump in to this month’s hottest trends…

The queen of creepers Underground England have collaborated with London-based artist Olli Hull on a new collection, in which they want you to “punk off.”

Olli Hull is an artist and designer who creates one-of-a-kind pieces of wearable art, hand-painted and created in (arguably) the home of punk: London.

When designing the collection, Olli says he thought a lot about his own experiences growing up as a queer person, feeling somewhat “underground” or outside of the “norm”. Which makes total sense; I think a lot of people in the alternative scene find ourselves here because we are – in some shape or form – outcasts. As misfits we come together to create these incredible bubbles of underground culture, so this collaboration speaks to us weirdos perfectly.

The collection features a pair of creepers and a pair of tall boots custom-painted with the fiery rock’n’roll artwork applied at Olli’s studio in London. It’s available from both the Underground and Olli Hull online stores as pre-orders, which is nice and sustainable!

From the catwalk to your local dive bar, Swedish cult fashion brand Our Legacy bring us a bloodcurdling dose of horror for spring. Of course, for us alt. kids, spooky season is a year-long affair…

Mixing the moodiness of spring with horror imagery birthed the inspiration for the Snow In April collection. Speaking about this mash of styles, creative director Cristopher Nying said: “I always liked the idea of watching horror movies during summer daylight to soften its intent. The mixing of the film’s visuals and sunlight causing it to be faded and overexposed has inspired the prints present in the collection.”

So, if you are a horror fan who loves a high-end fashion look that will get heads rolling from Fashion Week to the graveyard, check out the collection now. But be warned, they are inve$tment pieces…

I could talk for hours about how streetwear and hardcore mix so seamlessly. It’s the most organic crossover there is. Us hardcore kids have been adopting streetwear/sportswear since the ’80s when Youth Of Today said they didn’t want to look like punks, they wanted to be clean-cut yet rebellious. And bang the jock-looking, sneaker-wearing, NYHC kids were born, inspiring hardcore all over the world to this day. There’s a lot more to it than that, of course, but I’ll get into it more another time…

But that very brief history leads us to High Vis and The Hundreds creating a limited-edition collection of a T-shirt and hoodie.

High Vis fit somewhere between hardcore, punk and indie, creating their own sound but with the heart of the hardcore community at their roots.

Bobby Hundreds is a self-proclaimed punk and hardcore fan, who loves to support independent bands and champion underdogs. He always seems to have his ear to the ground, so it makes sense this collaboration would come about. Where other big streetwear brands wait for a band to blow up, The Hundreds work with them first and put their money where their heart is. Something I will always respect.

With the graphics being designed by lead singer Graham Sayle’s partner, Marina Inoue, it really feels like an organic partnership.

So, don’t choose to lose and miss out on this limited collection before its gone!

Nike apparel and footwear are an essential in every HC kid’s wardrobe – just ask Sheffield bruisers Malevolence, who were hooked up by the sportswear giant a few months ago, after years of wearing Airmax, TNs and tech fleeces in music videos.

Speaking of which, 2024 marks 10 years of the iconic tech fleece. Yes, the one you’ve seen at countless dingy shows throughout the years, keeping moshers cool in the pit and warm on their sweat-drenched way home.

This year, Nike is honouring the tech fleece heritage, and they have improved the material even further to deliver legendary lightweight warmth and comfort like never before. Moshers around the world thank you for your innovation, Nike. Moshing is a sport, after all.

This reinvention is just one way the brand continues to push into the future – not only with cutting-edge fabric but through popular collections like Nocta (by Drake) and Reimagined having their own take on the fleece with contemporary designs and looser-fit silhouettes. With the sports version offering more room for spin-kicks and headbanging, Nike have inadvertently given us the perfect gym kit for two-stepping.

Do I see a Drake x Malevolence collab happening anytime soon? No, but I’d love to hear that remix if someone wants to bootleg it…

From full-on fitted caps to flat peak snapbacks, Fred Durst’s favourite head accessory keeps on rollin’.

As we know by now, nu-metal is already in a full swing revival, and the early ’00s are trending. So, it only makes sense for the fitted cap to make its return. Of course, for many people it never went away, but in regards to trends, we have seen trucker caps and bent peak dad caps dominating the scene over the last few years.

With OG brands like New Era to high-end brands like Louis Vuitton getting in on the trend, it’s time to ditch your bent peaks and relive your nostalgic nu-metal memories.

In New Era’s 2024 collection, they are celebrating iconic styles of the past and have included their New Era Script Brown 59FIFTY Fitted Cap, which comes with a 100 years pin badge and embroidery detailing. Of course, this isn’t the classic red cap Limp Bizkit’s frontman loves so much, but it’s a current take on that trend.

However, New Era do have something much closer to Ben Stiller's Favourite Motherfucker's style with their Lunar New Year collection, featuring a red velvet satin New York Yankees fitted cap. I wonder if Fred will be rocking it at Download this summer? Someone at New Era needs to make it happen – I’m calling out to the fashion gods and hoping they hear me! We need to see Fred and his iconic cap in an updated style. My white vest and baggy jorts are ready. I just need some Osiris D3s next…

Are you ready to wear a fitted again? Or would you rather stay out of style?!

Santa Cruz have just launched their Spring 24 collection and I think you guys are going to be into it. What aligns better with alt. music than skate fashion?

Packed full of OG skate collabs feeding into the rich heritage of Santa Cruz skate culture, the collection has loads of fun colour palettes too, including tie-dye tees fit for an acoustic session on the beach after a day of surfing. And (of course) the iconic ‘screaming hand’ features heavily.

There’s also an awesome skate collab from leading board hero, Fabiana Delfino. Her bold and androgynous style translates beautifully into a limited line of apparel, and just like her commitment to breaking down gender stereotypes in skateboarding, the collection is unisex. It includes a baggy tee, cropped tee, and sweatshirt with prints featuring a cheeky female devil and the screaming hand flower being plucked apart – just like my heart every time I’ve dated a skater boy…

Another standout collab is the Dressen Rose Crew Two print jumper with ’80s skate icon Eric Dressen – the back-to-back World Street Champion (1987-88), who invented the salad grind (aka Salad Dressen). Not only is this an aesthetically-pleasing jumper that will fit perfectly into your emo wardrobe, it’s a piece of history designed with a skate legend. So, whether you can skate, or you just wish you could, you can at least pretend you’re as cool as Dressen by wearing his collab!

Read this next:

• Bob Vylan, Witch Fever and High Vis are propelling punk into a vital new era
• The 20 greatest Limp Bizkit songs – ranked
  
• Malevolence: “I speak from the heart. As a community, that’s something we should all try to do”