Cover Story · Interview
Marlowe Vex on building a brand without apology.
The BADBIITCH founder talks quitting her day job, the politics of being "too much," and why her next collection is printed entirely in red.
Issue No. 142 · The Confidence Issue
Unapologetic since 2019.
A 184-page editorial archive of interviews, lookbooks, manifestos, and style dispatches from 412 verified creators — written, photographed, and edited by women who refuse to be polite.
In This Issue
Four features we're not shutting up about.
Hand-picked by the editors. Read in any order — but start with the lead.
Lookbook
Plaid is a political act.
Manifesto
On looking in the mirror and not flinching.
Streetwear
The 38 brands actually worth your rent money.
Departments
Pick your department.
Four ways in. None of them polite.
Photo · Lior Mendelsohn · For BADBIITCH Studios, Brooklyn
Cover Feature · Issue 142
Marlowe Vex on building a brand without apology.
"I didn't start BADBIITCH to be liked. I started it because every brand I loved as a teenager was founded by someone who didn't look like me, didn't fuck like me, and wasn't trying to."
Vex — born Marlowe Okonkwo in Lagos, raised in Peckham, now based out of a converted laundromat in Bushwick — has spent the last four years building one of the most-cited independent streetwear labels in alt-girl media. Her fourth collection, RED HANDED, drops the same week this issue goes to print.
We met her at the studio on a Tuesday. She was wearing the same leather jacket she's worn in every interview since 2021. There were zines on the floor. The kettle was on. We talked for three hours.
What follows is the unedited version — including the part where she walks out mid-question, the part where she comes back, and the part where she tells us exactly what she thinks of every major streetwear publication that has profiled her in the last 18 months.
Read the full interviewFrom the Body Autonomy Manifesto
"We are not bodies to be optimized. We are not projects to be completed. We are not outlines someone else gets to fill in. The stretch marks, the scars, the hair we did not ask permission to grow — these are not flaws. These are receipts. Proof we lived through something, and came out louder. "
— 18 & Nasty Girls Media, adopted by 60+ creator collectives worldwide
Read the full manifestoBy the Numbers
The Network.
No filler metrics. Just the receipts.
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- 412 verified freelance contributors in our directory
- 22 countries represented across our creator network
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