CTRL

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  CTRL The Feather Leather Jacket
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  CTRL The Atlantis Nylon Puffer
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  CTRL The Venom Hooded Sweater in Black & White
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  CTRL The Lifesaver Jacket

Items from the Spring-Summer 2009 collection.

Ctrl Clothing specializes in shirts, hoodies, jackets, jeans, pants, shorts, accessories beanies, and hats for men and women who embrace a fashionable yet active lifestyle.

Ctrl Clothing was founded in 1995. At first, the Helsinki, Finland-based label was all about skateboarding, shirts, and illusions. But seven years later when the company ventured into the fashion biz, the label began to gain more recognition a credible fashion brand. Since venturing into the mainsteam, Ctrl has come up with a number of collections and skateboarding accessories.

Freeman, who serves as Ctrl’s Creative Director, is responsible for clothing and graphic design. His fashion inputs are somehow inspired by his frustrations in life. He says in his Format Magazine interview: “I’ve put a lot of frustrating things from my personal life into my designs, it’s therapy in action.”

He gets a little bit of marketing help from Timothy Kuhn, Claudia Cifu and Esa Hytonen, who are responsible for the company’s business planning, sales, and international affairs.

Freeman says, “CTRL stands for blood, sweat and tears. In other words, skateboarding and fashion.” He adds in his interview, “It stands for a huge, epic clothing line for boys and girls around the world. It stands for what M*A*S*H* stands for, it’s about the painless suicide – Hawkeye, Trapper, Hot Lips, Vietnam and the whole process of a brand like CTRL taking over the far east and the whole world. It stands for the dare to resist drugs, speaking with a megaphone and the top three stairs of the pyramid. And it stands for control, too.”

In April 2009, Ctrl Clothing released its Spring – Summer 2009 collection. The impeccable collection includes the Skinfoot Shirt (by Gavin Watson), Semi Button Hood, Thai Dye Press Button Hood, Jakarta Jacket, Black Thai Boy Pants, Alpa Chino pants, Too Short Pants, and Eurovision pants for Boys.

For girls, there are the Rehab Hooded T Shirt, Goodie + bag jacket, Camo overalls, Leech Raza Pants, Questions Leggings, Mystery 3/4 Leggings, and Spot Color Leggings. The accessories department, on the other hand, includes the Knish Bag.

More items from Ctrl's SS09 collection.

Ctrl lives by the philosophy of universal love. With that, the label does not plan on being an “exclusive, small, cool brand.” Instead it aims to be a huge, cool brand and infect fashionistas with its energetic vibe.

So what keeps Ctrl going? Freeman has this to say: “(We Want to keep) skateboarding alive and our friends dressed up the way we feel they should. It’s about love, fame and money for nothing.”

Ctrl Clothing, a major patron of the skateboarding lifestyle, also sells skateboards and other equipments dedicated to the sport. In fact, Ctrl Clothing has collaborated with Adidas to come up with the exclusive and limited edition skateboards. The dashing skateboards feature a good top foil for maximum tanning capabilities. As Freeman puts it, “So, we give some fashion and take some money and then we give some money back to skateboarding by doing boards, hard goods, special events, even stickers and keeping our skate team in gear.”

So what can a Ctrl patron expect in the years to come? Freeman forsees the following: “Our store on the Internet selling clothing and healing stones, and our physical store somewhere, but not in Helsinki, and maybe, shoes.”

Ctrl Clothing can be purchased through select retailers across the United States and in Australia, Canada, Japan, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, France, Finland, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, Germany, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Greece, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, and Italy; and through its official website, www.ctrlclothing.com.