This is the Hoodie for Every Occasion

We found the perfect black hoodie to pair with any and all looks.

Image courtesy of Centiments.

People often say they “live” in pieces of their wardrobe, but I have an entirely new standard for what that means. The Centiments sweatshirt is my go to for just about everything. From lounging around the house, to pairing with a relaxed fit for a plane ride, or dressing up a blazer for an edgy dinner look, I can’t seem to take the thing off. It’s unquestionably comfortable, but also reads polished. I caught up with the brand’s designer, Billy Arora, to get her take on what makes this piece the holy grail of hoodies.

While in the midst of your modeling career you've launched a clothing brand. What is it like taking on both at once?

It’s honestly been refreshing, I am a creative person by nature and while I'm incredibly grateful for my modeling career, Centiments has been a really nice creative outlet for me. I’ve been able to combine a lot of both worlds. Recently I have put a little more focus into Centiments than modeling which, for me, has been fulfilling in a new way. I am still learning how to navigate both while maintaining balance.

The creative direction of your campaign and imagery seems very intentional. What is the creative process like when conceptualizing how you will showcase your brand?

For me it’s simple because I have a really strong vision of the aesthetic I am going for.

I have a wall I made into one large moodboard—I seek inspiration in many things wether it be imagery, fashion, words, writings, music and so on. I tend to get very specific visions of what I want to do in terms of creative direction then I start to piece everything from imagery, writings and locations together so I can bring it to life. A big part of the brand is literature, I really wanted to combined fashion and the expression of emotions through words, so that is where a lot of my inspiration stems from.

What sets your sweatshirts aside from others on the market?

From day one the vision for this project to be all about quality, I feel a lot of times ‘hoodies’ are spoken about in a merch type sense, which is not what these are. I wanted Centiments to be the highest quality pieces that you could wear casually but also style up. The material is a heavy weight organic cotton. I spent a lot of time going through different fabrics and seeing what I personally would want to wear. Organic materials are very important to me, they may be on the pricier side for a hoody but I created them with a quality standard to last. I also will not do re-runs of styles, once a style is sold out it will not be reproduced - in my opinion that makes something more valuable.

Can you tell us about some of the poetic lines featured in your pieces?

Each of the writings on the hoodies are original by an artist. I love literature and I love to write but I also want to make Centiments a brand where I can showcase different artists work. Going forward I will keep the baseline of the writings the same aesthetic, Centiments to me is a bit dark & melancholic. I created this on the basis that I wanted people to feel something, what is anything if it’s not to feel?

What is your take on fast fashion and where does your brand fall on the scale?

Fast fashion is very real and very detrimental for the world, not only for the planet but if you really dive deep into how its created, it’s really sad what goes on. I think a lot of society values quantity over quality because people love to consume and that’s where fast fashion makes it easy because it’s so incredibly inexpensive. In terms of sustainability, I think the most sustainable thing would be not create a brand. There is also a lot of greenwashing that going on within fashion. I have done everything I can to be as sustainable as possible with Centiments, all of our packaging and tags are made out of recycled materials. Where I have been able to reduce impact on the environment, I have.

What is your favorite way to style your sweatshirts?

I live in hoodies so I’ve styled them every possible way I could think of. The fit is so great you can really style them how you want. I think wearing a thin long sleeve turtle neck underneath is really cool which i’ve been loving. The sleeves are extra long and the hoods are very oversized so they look great under a really cool jacket because the sleeves will poke through & you can still see the writings on the cuffs. I’ve even seen someone wear one very oversized with some tights and combat boots which i loved.

Peak moment for the brand thus far?

Just seeing an idea that was thought about while sitting on my couch come to life has been really special. It was a long process for me so having everything come to fruition has been amazing. I’ve loved seeing the pieces on people i love and how everyone styles them. A highlight for sure was seeing Irina Shayk wear Centiments, in terms of brand aesthetic I think her style is really fitting

What can we expect out of your next drop?

I have started working on the second drop, while the hoodies will stay the core collection, I wanted to create some other pieces which i am really excited about. As I mentioned before, I want to involve different artists each drop and help create visions that have not been brought to life yet