'Hot' isn't Enough
How do you pivot towards "cool"?
When my feed inevitably flooded with the Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty looks last weekend, the one look that stopped me in my tracks was Camila Cabello’s dress with a big Luar logo plaque on her hip. I thought it clashed a little too much with the red and yellow colors of the carpet, but it looked quite nice shot in a dark hotel room on her grid. And plus, it’s Luar! A brand that’s still sort of up and coming and fashion-insidery in my brain, is on the Oscars afterparty carpet! Obviously, there is no way that out of all people in Hollywood, Camila Cabello is the one who knows what’s cool in capital-F Fashion — someone must have pulled it for her. And of course, it was Jared Ellner, a celebrity stylist who made a name for himself working closely with Emma Chamberlain.
The biggest power move in Hollywood (and any other industry, really) is to surround yourself with a network of cool, talented people in all spheres of creative work — from fashion designers and makeup artists that can make you look hot and relevant, to creative directors, writers, and photographers that can spin story out of anything. At least, that’s the strategy that’s propelling people like Kim Kardashian and her brand Skims up — both in creative circles and mainstream consumer culture.
Skims brand campaigns have gotten more and more editorial over the years. It’s hard to believe that just a few years ago, it was just another Kardashian brand that mostly starred Kim, looking snatched and hot. This year alone, we’ve seen Skims work from Charlie Dennis who shot Risa Linna for ES Magazine, Frank Lebon who directed Kenzo’s SS24 campaign, Heidi Bivens who is most known for the Euphoria costume design, and Nadia Lee Cohen who just directed this video for Beyonce’s country album. The casting has also been very timely and smart — Simona Tabasco and Bea Granno of The White Lotus, Lana Del Rey, Kim Cattrall, Usher, and Dylan Minnette are just a few people whose Skims campaigns made headlines in the past year.
As Amy Odell writes in
, “the brand is fashionable and zeitgeist-y enough that the ads have become media moments of their own, which will encourage celebrities to continue doing them.” In a way, Skims isn’t only a shape wear and intimates brand anymore, it’s also a massive media outlet. Creatives want to work with Skims, celebrities want to pose in Skims, and consumers want to watch Skims, even if they don’t buy Skims. This is the type of creative work that makes people outside of the industry flood the comments with praise for the team and forget about Skims scoring lower than Shein on the 2024 Fashion Accountability Report.
On the surface, it looks like Kim’s sister Kylie Jenner is following the same bulletproof strategy of getting close and working with young, talented creatives…except it’s not working at all. Just like Kim, Kylie spent the last year infiltrating the world of high fashion and making connections with designers, creative directors, and photographers everywhere — from the Schiaparelli show where she wore the lion head dress that took the internet by storm to the Acne Studios denim campaign she starred in last fall. All leading up to the launch of her own fashion brand Khy that promises to deliver “creativity, collaboration, and quality at an accessible price.”
The very concept of Khy is appealing. Based on what was communicated during the launch, it sounded like every Khy drop would feature affordable pieces made in collaboration with other fashion studios and designers. As high fashion pricing becomes more and more delusional, it would be nice to have someone with a large young audience, like Kylie, putting a spotlight on emerging designers and giving more people an option to participate. Except, from the very launch of Khy in November, the team faced constant allegations of stealing and copying creative work. Multiple fashion designers and artists stepped forward to share that they got approached by Kylie’s team who ultimately passed on their pitches and instead, made a poor copy of their work. Plus, by drop 003, Khy departed from the very idea of collaborative pieces all along and started putting out pieces designed solo.
Plagiarism allegations are serious, especially when collaboration is marketed as part of the brand. But the unfortunate truth is that it barely ever impacts the success and public image of fashion businesses, especially in mass fashion. However, even when you put this and the fact that every Khy garment, except for stretchy basics, seems to have some serious material, sizing, and construction issues, the brand work itself has a ton of plot holes.
Despite seeing four Khy drops since the launch in November, we’ve learned practically nothing about the brand or the designers and creatives Kylie collaborated with for the first two. There is a brief page about Namilia, the Berlin-based designer who co-created pieces for the first drop with Khy, but it mostly paraphrases Khy’s and Namilia’s brand lines. By drop 002, we don’t even get an explainer paragraph at the top of the “shop the drop” page about the second collaborator Entire Studios. Maybe the only thing we know about the first four drops and the brand overall is that Kylie looks melancholically hot in these clothes.
There are a couple of interesting pieces in Khy’s branding — like this Kylie in Paris video directed by Samuel Rixon that features a comically large croissant and a cute ending, and the overall branding and art direction done by Special Offer. But none of these pieces ever come together to tell any kind of story about this new era of Kylie and Khy. Majority of the storytelling is done externally by the press, like WSJ and NYT, while on Khy’s accounts, it’s just Kylie playing dress up again, and again, and again. It almost looks like Khy exists to continue changing Kylie’s personal brand more so than serve the designers it was meant to spotlight. But who knows, maybe the brand story will develop with Set Active’s ex Senior Brand Director Leslie Dwight joining Khy as the Brand Director. Although, what is the brand story of Set?
The rush towards luxury, arts, and sophistication is happening everywhere. Celebrities are flocking to stylists, like Jared Ellner and Danielle Goldberg, as if they are real life fairy grandmothers who can magically turn them into “people’s princesses” and “it girls” overnight. Commercial brands are dabbling in editorial shoots and intricate brand campaigns, trying to elevate the perception of their product towards “luxury” without changing its quality. But far from everyone seems to get that being “cool” isn’t quite the same as “aesthetic” or “hot.” Cool sometimes means wearing something kooky, putting Stewart Little on your reference board, and taking “hot” and making it look a little freaky. And most importantly — it means a lot of hard work from a whole army of genuinely cool and talented people.
FROM MY SAVED TAB:
- interviewed Arin Delaney and Madison Palasini of FONZIE, a copywriting agency that has worked with brands like rhode, A24, Netflix, Kosas, FX, and more. Their portfolio is hot.
Ayana Nicole Sprowl shoots these insane brand videos that make me want to eat lip glosses. And you are telling me well-produced videos don’t work on social!
I haven’t stopped thinking about this Bella Michlo’s sponsored post for Soft Services since it dropped.
“[Stacy Greene’s] The Lipstick photo series comprises 20” x 24” color close-ups capturing used lipsticks, each print annotated with the owner’s name, revealing striking variations in form and texture due to individual application techniques.” Straight to the reference board.
Still Here The Ex-Jean Valentine’s Day promo— one of a kind and embroidered by Eva Joan. The team has been doing lots of fun stuff lately, like this Still Here Club Card and the Danya Merkulov dance video.
I don’t know how I got to the Sciuraglam account but I don’t want to leave. I am going to be a chic old lady in Milan when I grow up!
I really enjoyed this article, I've been thinking about the comparison between Khy and Skims myself. I was eager to see how the Khy brand would develop, but it's seriously fallen short. The whole brand just feels very flat, in turn I really enjoying seeing how the Skims campaigns roll out, no thanks to the creative visionaries they hire. It's been nice to see that evolution of the brand and marketing evolve. I saw Kylie's perfume video you posted below, couldn't agree more, it feels cold, corporate and very detached. And also her latest beverage release? Where to begin? I was so surprised, none of it seemed to hit the mark, neither as an extension of her brand or even as a stand alone brand.
Also love this post love that your account is growing 🥰🥰