P&Co x Is This Real Life?

At the start of the year, we dropped a limited illustrated version of our beloved Carpenter Pants, which we aptly called the ‘Chaos Carpenter Pants’. The idea came straight from our Creative Director, who’d hand-painted a pair for himself. After we posted them on socials, people went wild asking where they could get a set of their own, so we made them available. The response was bigger than we expected.That got us thinking: what if we handed the brush to other artists we admire? We’d been following Melbourne-based artist Holly Tudor and her studio Is This Real Life? for a while. Her mix of bold illustration, hand-crafted detail and wearable art felt like the perfect fit. So, we sent her a pair and asked her to put her own spin on them. Holly's work sits at the crossroads of function and self-expression. Her style mixes nostalgia, irony, and a bold edge: exactly the kind of energy we wanted to bring to this collab.

Originally from the UK, Holly taught herself to screen print during lockdown. What started as DIY tees soon evolved into a full studio practice. Now, her days are spent painting skate decks, sewing bandanas, throwing pottery and building functional pieces of art - always in limited runs, always with her own twist. Painting directly onto fabric was new ground for Holly, but she took it on the same way she does everything: headfirst. “The texture of the fabric means you never know exactly how the paint will lay down,” she told us. It’s that unpredictability that gives the piece character.

The brief was simple: take our Balance Over Chaos concept and make it your own. Holly pulled inspiration from old French prison tattoos: bold symbols with an undercurrent of danger and beauty. Her design pairs a fierce feminine figure with a tiger: soft and strong in equal measure. She titled it Mes Amours, a nod to both the tattoo flash and the defiant energy that runs through her work.

Holly hopes whoever ends up with the pants will put them to work. “I’d love to think of someone wearing them while creating or making things,” she said. And If she were styling them herself? Baggy pants, small top. Simple as that. She’d throw on one of our baby tees or cropped vests, something easy, something with intent. Clothes you can move in but still make a statement.

Holly’s take on the Chaos Carpenter Pants is a one-off. Just like the best things are.