KidSuper’s Colmdinho, Art, Legacy, and the Cost of Success

Last October, the apogee of a decade-long career emerged, the culmination of a successful childhood dream. Colm Dillane, the visionary and founder of the fashion brand KidSuper, signed a deal with Brazilian football legend Ronaldinho, releasing sets of football-themed clothing titled Colmdinho that celebrate both Brazilian culture and encore artistic expression. It seems, however, as though KidSuper’s recent success is gilded; while Dillane’s dreams may have been fulfilled, the essence of the brand has been sacrificed. Of course, this success didn’t bless Dillane by mere chance; rather, it was a result of years of determination, passion, and an innate understanding of the intricacies of fashion and art’s ability to transcend mediums of expression.

Dillane’s story began in New York City, specifically at Brooklyn Technical High School. Although STEM adept as a high schooler, it was clear Dillane was destined for the art world; he’d spend any free time screen printing hand-drawn faces on pale Gildan tee-shirts, spray painting public walls, and even transforming his NYU college dorm into a temporary store for his expanding brand (though the college shut it down, kicked him out of the dorm, and repainted his colorful walls a drab white). While under the creatively stifling STEM education, Dillane frequently experimented with visual arts—painting, drawing, and sewing—and eventually enrolled in the Parsons School of Design. After graduating from Parsons, Dillane founded KidSuper in 2015 after unofficially creating and self-distributing his products to close friends since high school. The brand exploded in popularity, gaining heavy traction in the fashion community for its unconventional designs and artistic approach, a breath of fresh air amidst the era of Supreme and Louis Vuitton’s logo-fashion. KidSuper’s storytelling through wearable art—like the lavender Doodle Faced Embroidered Blazer, which features melancholy faces stitched into the torso and sleeve—adds a personality to each garment and is a visible rejection of giant luxury brands that dominated the market, and thus, resonated with a wide audience who were weary of monotonous fashion. 

KidSuper emerged as a rising clothing line in the 2020 Paris Fashion scene alongside Off-White, Dior, and Louis Vuitton, casting aside traditional runway shows with the brand’s first-ever fashion show. Dillane’s rising reputation had finally earned the brand a spot to showcase his collections. COVID-19 inhibited many in-person shows, so Dillane, in an outrageous display of ingenuity, orchestrated a complex stop-motion fashion show, “everything’s fake until it’s real,” which aired that year on July 12. The miniature show features dolls that dance, gallop, and stride down the runway. They don a range of vibrant garments, from lengthy, quilted blue and yellow robes to Dali-esque mustaches paired with two-piece suits littered with designs of various orifices (eyes, noses, ears, and mouths). Rather than the traditional prêt-à-porter fashion shows that strive for viewers to both attend the show live and watch at home to engage with the brand with a purchase, Dillane’s approach was avant-garde, a bold spectacle that prioritized originality over traditional norms. Similarly, KidSuper’s SS25 “IT’S ALL UP IN THE AIR” show was their most successful yet, challenging the sluggish modernization of fashion. Unlike most shows (a culmination of outfits that stroll down the runway), KidSuper’s SS25 is a performance, commencing with a euphoric display of acrobatic excellence from the group Circ du Soleil, where dancers spin from a string attached to their hair, accompanied by rapturous instrumental music. Subsequently, models on stilts wearing masks, clown-esque makeup, and brilliant clothing prance across the runway.

Dillane’s provocative and performative approach to fashion has been the main reason KidSuper has hit the ground running. The brand takes a unique approach to recognizable clothing, particularly distinct to brands like Louis Vuitton and Gucci, which are known for iconic logos or monograms that symbolize luxury and are force-fed from all types of inexplicable angles into the customer. As a result, logo-based designs are purely focused on emphasizing a luxurious status symbol rather than conveying a personal or artistic statement.

On the other hand, KidSuper’s emphasis on painted artwork ties back to the fact that Dillane is an artist rather than an imported celebrity who has control over the freedom of creativity a luxury brand has. Dillane uses abstract painted faces that construct a unique narrative, which tailors to the customer in a way luxury brands struggle to do. In a sense, Dillane’s work is transcribed into wearable art, which is easily recognizable, just as one can pick a Picasso piece from 100 candidates. However, the slow construction of the brand’s identity has been diluted by the recent mediocre Colmdihno collection, letting down fans with garments that are bleached of the hard-earned KidSuper identity. While recent collections have underscored the brand’s motifs of wearable art, Colmdihno features garments like sweaters and white shirts with Ronaldihno’s face plastered across and flimsy soccer jerseys with no real meaning, a tacky way to cash in. With ventures like the Colmdihno collection, the brand risks diluting its original essence, veering towards a market-driven approach instead of the conventional story-telling and stunning artwork. 

While KidSuper has experienced a lucrative rise to fame in recent years, it’s hard to ignore that the recent Colmdihno collection has been out of touch with the brand’s roots. Dillane’s recent ventures prove to be too commercial. Despite KidSuper’s divergent Colmdihno collection, the brand has garnered attention through Dillane’s innovative blend of fashion and art, transforming each piece into a beautifully eccentric expression of creativity, setting itself apart from luxury giants, and paving the way for revolution with wearable art.