On Sunday evening, Kith shut down part of Lafayette Street in New York for its first fashion show since 2019. Some 400 guests (200 of whom were seated) crowded into the strip between Bleeker Street and Bond Street, in front of the brand’s newly reopened Noho flagship, while members of the public looked on from the steps of Joe the Juice and a rooftop across the road.
The brand got the permit to shut down the street four days before showtime. That was cutting it fine: founder and CEO Ronnie Fieg admits he had no backup plan. “I felt like if we were going to get a permit, it would be one of those ‘before and after’ moments for the brand, where it could really make a big impact on our legacy,” he says.
Fieg also had no plan for bad weather. “We’re just praying for it not to rain,” he told me on the Friday. At 6.30pm on Sunday, not long before the show was due to begin, it poured. Guests huddled under a sea of clear Kith umbrellas, and we were all relieved when the sky began to clear. “It’s a real New York experience,” an editor joked as she shuffled past to her seat.
The show cost a lot of energy, time and money, Fieg says, but in the end, “the juice was worth the squeeze”. He hopes it will shift the way that viewers think about and consume the Kith brand. The still-long lines around the block at the brand’s Noho store attest to its ongoing street cred. As Vogue Runway wrote back in 2018, “Ask any style-aware kid under 30 if she or he knows what Kith is: odds are, they’ll say yes.” But, where the brand was once known for Kith-branded tees — with lots of checked and camo overlayers — it’s now grown up, and these kids are now adults. “I look back at the last show and, I shouldn’t be saying this, but I cringe,” says Fieg.
All grown up
In 2019, Fieg told Vogue Runway that, when it comes to the shows, “the event is equally important as the product”. For that last show, Fieg went all in on production, using digital video-mapping technology to make the interior of Cipriani Downtown resemble the base of the Eiffel Tower, the Sahara desert and the Swiss Alps. The year prior, entertainment came by way of a four-part runway show with collabs from Tommy Hilfiger to Versace, coupled with guests including Justin Bieber, Alexandre Arnault and 2 Chainz. Six years on, he’s changed his tune.
“[Back then], it was more for the theatrics,” he says. Now, the product is in the spotlight. “That’s been a very important element for me, is to make sure that the product is showcased in a way where it will be the most memorable part of the show.”
The product looks different, too. What was once ultra-branded, patterned and logo-heavy is now more subdued. The fabrics and textures are richer, the colours more muted. Traces of the OG Kith are there, from fuzzy jackets to plenty of sporty looks (often tied to a New York sports team). But, paired with sleek outerwear and pared-back tailoring, they feel less youth-oriented.
Fieg traces Kith’s current, more refined, aesthetic back five years to when he started working with Vicky Choi, a Phillip Lim alum who is now the senior design director for menswear.
That said, Kith remains reflective of Fieg’s personal style. “There’s something for multiple different styles in New York, which is how I dress,” he tells me at his Williamsburg studio on Friday, two days pre-show. “So you’re going to see [everything from] very different styles of suiting to a lot of different textures and outerwear, a lot of sporty looks and some styles that are really pushing the envelope.” Fieg pulls out a sleek black overcoat with leather detailing. “This thing really fits next level,” he says. “But then you’re also gonna see a moto jacket from us,” he adds, pointing to a Knicks-branded leather jacket. Also in the mix are new bags (he’s doubling down on accessories) and a plethora of collaborations, from the latest suits in Kith’s Giorgio Armani tie-up to new Adidas styles.
Sunday’s show was a reflection of Kith’s strong community and network of brand fans, many of whom have grown up with the label from its early graphic tee days in the 2010s (these are still on offer for those who are keen) through to today. This loyalty was on display, from the family and friends who walked the show, to the Kith clothing worn by many of the attendees — also friends of Fieg’s, rather than ultra-famous celebs — some in Kith-branded caps and T-shirts, others in lower-key Armani collab suits.
To date, it’s been difficult for people to categorise Kith, Fieg says. What once was regularly referred to as a ‘streetwear’ brand now feels very far from this moniker. (Fieg never uses this label himself, even when referring to Kith’s past iterations.) The logo-heavy hype engine has died down in the 2020s also, as menswear customers have begun to gravitate more towards luxe basics and design-first fashion. The intention of Sunday’s show wasn’t necessarily to help viewers categorise the brand so much as to show its breadth. “The strength of the show is how wide the spectrum is,” he says. “Typically a show is put together for a very specific point of view and concept, and I don’t work that way [now]. The red thread through what we do is New York style. In a New York closet, you would see a breadth of many different styles.”
A luxury playbook, of sorts
The refocus on product reflects where Fieg is at in his own life. “I’m 43 now, so I’m dressing a bit differently in the sense of how the product has been maturing, and my taste or my itch for more expensive fabrics, luxe fabrics,” he tells me. “I really want to be able to play in that world.” It’s why Fieg launched sub-label &Kin two years ago, pieces from which were also on display on Sunday. “There’s been a tonne of evolution in what we’ve done,” the founder says, referring to both &Kith and the wider Kith label.
It also comes at a moment when consumers are more discerning, as many pull back spend amid economic constraints and the perception that luxury no longer means quality. Placing more emphasis on fabric and quality may well help curtail some of this ambivalence — and, as Kith’s consumer has grown up with Fieg, many shoppers have a little more to spend than when they were buying $70 graphic tees.
He is leaning into a luxury playbook of sorts. As Gen Z leans into ‘everyday luxuries’ and the fashion-food tie-up becomes ever more potent, Kith treats (launched back in 2015) has the lower end covered. Fieg is also leaning into ultra-luxury lifestyle projects, most recently collaborating with high-performance boat manufacturer Cigarette Racing on three $2 million made-to-order luxury boats (these launched in May), after collaborating on BMW cars the year prior. The lifestyle elements — not just the powerboats and cars, but also offerings like Kith-branded backgammon (which models carried under the crook of their arms on Sunday) — cater to those who now to prefer to invest less in clothing and more in lifestyle and experience.
The show was also a belated celebration of the Lafayette flagship reopening in May, after closing in January for a full renovation to better reflect the brand’s current product offering and aesthetic. “I knew that I didn’t want that to be a come-and-go moment for the brand, because there was a year and a half of design, a long period of time it took to rebuild the space, and it really is the global flagship,” Fieg says. (Kith has 21 retail locations globally, 14 of which are in the US.) “I wanted that to be a bigger milestone than just the reopening of the store.”
On the other side of Fieg’s hoped-for ‘before and after’ moment, will the owner and designer be showing on a regular cadence? Not necessarily. There’ll be capsule collections (as always), more collaborations across fashion and lifestyle, and Fieg is banking on Kith’s consumers to keep the ball rolling. “There’s so much love and attention invested into everything that we do; there’s [an] emotional connection that people have to the different categories of the business,” he says. “It’s been a lot of fun creating products on this level now and it’s very important to make sure that people see it in the best light possible.”
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