Cross Colours - History

History

Cross Colours was the brainchild of Carl Jones, an entrepreneur who studied fashion at Otis Parson's School of Design and Trade Technical College in Los Angeles, then worked in various fashion enterprises before starting his own T-shirt company.

He eventually started a company called Surf Fetish, which rode the wave of beachwear trends. He also hired Thomas Walker, a graphic designer who would eventually become vice president of Cross Colours. For Jones, Cross Colours was a way to broadcast political and social messages-such as denouncing gangs or calling for racial unity-to the African American community, and eventually other communities as the clothes' popularity spread.

The label, whose baseball caps, baggy jeans, and message-bearing T-shirts were to prove enormously influential, also introduced such future designers as Karl Kani.

In 2007 Cross Colours made a fresh start as a multi style street fashion label. Cross Colours doesn’t specifically target the African-American youth but targets a broader multicultural group with different social and cultural backgrounds. The original mission, to make clothes without prejudice, was incorporated into a broader mission. Cross Colours remains an oldskool street fashion label that has a social conscious background with a focus on culture, music and the environment.