Making Waves along the Grease Coast

Wolf Minds Collective’s Grease Coast Lifestyle Clothing line secures retail space at Plan B

Parody art is a delicate balancing act – play it too safe and the entire point is moot, but jab too deep and you risk coming off as a defamer or fire starter. Sometimes it’s the simplest way to break the mould – take something ubiquitous and turn it on its head. And after the dust settles, what’s left could be something entirely of its own. This is the case of Grease Coast Lifestyle.

The limited-run clothing line, produced by Halifax’s Wolf Minds Collective, is a spin on the popular East Coast Lifestyle brand. The signature anchor is turned on its head, sided by neo-gothic runes and glyphs. Until last week, any Grease Coast swag had to be procured from a member of the Collective, who would hand-deliver the goods. Now, Grease Coast Lifestyle clothing will be available for purchase at Gottingen’s Plan B Merchant Coop.

Cory Veino, one of Wolf Minds Collective’s founding members, says they “started talking about how [East Coast Lifestyle cloth- ing] represents such a small part of the East Coast – it started off as a joke, really. I drunkenly went home one night, after playing a game where you had to take a drink every time you saw one [East Coast Lifestyle item]. I postered the design as a joke, but I got a huge amount of feedback from it.”

The Wolf Minds Collective is an arts group based out of Halifax that has expanded to Montreal. According to Veino, the group “is for local artists to have an outlet for their work. We try to work with students, just to break the barrier between graduating and finding a job. We try to get people involved right away. The whole idea behind the ‘Wolf Mind’ is pack mentality – working together to achieve a common goal.”

Grease Coast Lifestyle clothing is the Collective’s first foray into clothing design, and the line has garnered tons of under-the-radar cred since its debut last September. Demands for the clothing often outran the supply and the Collective has been distributing through a wait-list.

However, as one would assume, the proliferation of Grease Coast products on Halifax’s streets has attracted the attention of East Coast Lifestyle represen- tatives.

Veino stated that these altercations have been mostly informal, he has made every effort to ensure that he and his Collective are protected from any sort of legal repercussion. Luckily for them in July 2012, Bill C-11, or the Copyright Modernization Act, was passed into legislature. The Bill states that, “Fair deal- ing for the purpose of research, private study, education, par- ody or satire does not infringe copyright.” As a parody project, Grease Coast Lifestyle products are safe and clean.

“A lot of people think that I have a huge vendetta about those guys,” Veino says, “but that isn’t the case. I have a huge amount of respect for them.”

The opening of their Plan B retail space marks a decidedly different route for the Collective to work through. Whereas before the Grease Coast Lifestyle project was fluid and transitory, with a concrete base of operations, the Collective is able to really flesh out their brand.

“Once the first run is sold out, we’re going to be dropping a look book that has like 14 different designs in it,” Veino says. “We might do a vote to see which one gets printed.

“Then we’ve got this whole new logo – it doesn’t even look like the same logo anymore. It’s still got that same flavour that people would still recognize, but we’re looking to stray into a more original thing.”

This transition from parody to stand-alone concept makes for a unique product and business model. In this way, Wolf Mind Collective differs entirely from the East Coast Lifestyle team. Grease Coast Lifestyle is DIY- minded and grounded at a local level.

“We’re trying to keep it very at-its-roots – we aren’t looking to sell through any major stores or anything,” says Veino.

Whereas East Coast Lifestyle has begun its cross-Canada marketing campaign, Grease Coast Lifestyle is wholly Halifax- focused: it is a trend that has no meaning anywhere but here.