KITH x Versace Invades NYC
Bella Hadid partnered with the New York streetwear brand to raid Donatella’s archive.
“Homeboy could get it,” Bella Hadid once said. Besides going viral, the ad-libbed comment (made to Complex’s “Sneaker Shopping” talk show) unwittingly articulated the incongruous, meme-able nature of high fashion’s attraction to streetwear—and foreshadowed another such collision involving Hadid: the Kith x Versace collection, launching February 15, of which Hadid is the face. The visually luxe capsule, feted last night with a shoppable Soho soiree for VIPs, is a potent example of the power of streetwear to make high fashion accessible, reimagining prints and silhouettes from Versace’s unmistakable archive through a streetwear lens (think black slides with gold Versace emblems, outsize black-and-gold puffers). Putting the theory of streetwear’s virality into practice, Kith will “re-brand” several popular New York spots including Carbone, ChaCha Matcha, Sadelle’s. With its ambitious campaign starring Hadid and the highly symbolic logo—a Medusa with a Kith logo eye-mask—this collection proves that, more than a passing vernacular, the streetwear “lens” is becoming the landscape.