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CREDIT: Photograph by Davida Nemeroff, Courtesy of Simon Wilkinson and Jeremy Stewart (Photo of a woman laying down on the floor.)

There is, at this very moment, a revolutionary force of men and women around the world who are wearing nondescript grey sweat suits as an act of consumerist resistance and ideological solidarity. In truth, there are likely thousands of people on earth clad in grey sweat suits at the moment, but for the men and women of whom I speak -- who, at last count, numbered around 30 -- their apparel is more than mere high-utility workout wear.

They are members of the Grey Sweat Suit Revolution. Led by two Toronto graphic designers, Simon Wilkinson, 24, and Jeremy Stewart, 26, the movement represents an odd hybrid of anti-aesthetic and revolutionary dogma. "The goal of The Grey Sweatsuit Revolution is to kill fashion!" explains Wilkinson via e-mail, the group's preferred mode of communication. "But our aim as artists was to inspire more critical thought on the idea of clothes and their role in the construction of our identities."

No small feat. And yet the Grey Sweatsuit Revolution is slowly gaining power, propelled by coverage in cool magazines and egged on by curious passersby, all interested in the shlubby anti-fashion movement. The idea germinated a year ago at a lecture that Stewart and Wilkinson, both newly out of art school, attended on branding and youth marketing. "What would happen if you just wore the same shit all the time, as a way of messing with the system?" they wondered. Thus was a consumer revolution born.

For sheer subversiveness, the activity couldn't be simpler. One has only to purchase a standard grey sweatsuit and wear it as often as possible.

On their Web site, thegreysweatsuitrevolution.com, Wilkinson and Stewart provide a guide to finding a good grey suit, along with a capsule history of the iconic ensemble, one of whose seminal moments occurred in Grease when John Travolta abandoned the posturing slick of his T-Bird leathers for the mainstream athleticism of the classic grey sweatsuit. Anyone who has seen the movie will attest to the power of this suit: In no time at all, Olivia Newton-John dumped her lunk of a boyfriend, opting instead for milkshakes with sweat-attired Travolta.

Today, the revolution has followers in London, Paris, New York and Los Angeles, most of whom have discovered the cause through word of mouth. "My friend Harry told his plumber about the revolution and he told his daughter about it and now she's one of our most devout followers!" says Wilkinson. The followers, among whose number are his parents, send photos of their grey-clothed selves to the Web site, and the combined snaps create an alternative landscape of fashion, a cotton-blend world of comfortably clad individuals in a range of locales.

But it all raises a question: Does John Travolta in a grey suit represent non-fashion? This conundrum is at the heart of the Grey Sweat Suit ethic, and inevitably prompts the very discourse that Wilkinson and Stewart seek to inspire. Is the concept of afashion possible, and, if so, does wearing a sweatsuit with recommended fanny-pack and kung fu slippers represent its finest expression?