The origins of xTOPIA

Most of our experience of the suffix -topia comes from "utopia" and "dystopia", which, being imagined and extreme states, exist more in the realms of Philosophy, Arts and Literature than our typical day-to-day. 

First coined in the 16th century, the term utopia refers to a community or society with highly desirable or near perfect qualities. It is a contradictory ideal, given the inconsistent nature of our civilisations, having desires which conflict and cannot be satisfied all the time. But as the saying goes, maybe some of the time...?

Dystopia tends to be more front of mind due to its ubiquity in many genres of fiction and film. From George Orwell's novel "1984" to Ridley Scott's movie "Blade Runner" and many more besides, we can easily make our own definition of what dystopian worlds might comprise.

For me, the idea of being chased by a mysterious glowing orb down a narrow, neon-lit street, in clothing which suggests the atmosphere is less than ideal, is square-on dystopian.

But enough about the two extremes, what about the ground in-between?

The suffix -topia is taken from the Ancient Greek word topos, meaning place. To open up the potential breadth of our brand, we have paired it with the universal symbol for the unknown, or anything: little 'x'. This defines our brand name "xTOPIA".

xTOPIA: From utopia, to dystopia and anywhere in-between.

The visions that we carry forward to our clothing are varied and widespread, but they are all connected by the simple idea that they come from a place. An example of how varied (or random) these -topias are is this one below - a -topia where everything is made of glitter-ball!

We hope that you'll love, (or love to hate), these visions, places, -topias enough to join the xTOPIA customer community. We are not promising a Shangri-La, nor an Arcadia, but we hope it is more pleasant than Room 101.