Those of you who think that Julian Assange has been enjoying a leisurely sabbatical holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy, think again. It turns out that the Wikileaks founder is turning designer with a Wikileaks fashion collection. In fact, he's already working on tying up a line for Indian customers, in partnership with local company Franchisee India. Maybe Assange caught the fashion bug from his modelling debut for Ben Westwood?
Wikileaks representative Olafur Vignir Sigurvinsson told the Times of India: "India is one of the countries where awareness about WikiLeaks is the highest and Julian is excited about the proposition."
Sigurvinsson said that the idea is to sell "high-end fashion apparel, accessories, household goods, paper goods, that kind of stuff", with retail plans including both physical stores and online e-commerce. Another reason for selling official merch? To protect the Wikileaks logo from abuse, something that the organisation says is a growing problem.
Fashion fans can expect to see typical anti-establishment merch, including slogans such as "leaks exposing justice" and "enemy of the state". Catchy! As of yet, there is no indication of how much the clothes will sell for.
Wikileaks is traditionally funded by donations, but its move into fashion might be sign of a growing acceptance that even the best whistleblowing organisation needs a little financial backing. Even if it's with a line of Assange-branded clothes.
A New Delhi-based brand expert hit the nail on the head when he outlined his concerns about Wikileaks selling clothes for profit: "WikiLeaks and Assange are great brands. But don't you think that trying to monetize them will defeat the whole ideology of what they stand for?"
