You couldn’t say this KidSuper show lacked narrative. For his latest runway chapter, Colm Dillane wrote and self-published an illustrated children’s book entitled The Boy Who Jumped the Moon. Owing a fair bit to Le Petit Prince, it was an allegorical retelling of Dillane’s own (self-penned) creative storyline: that of a little kid with big dreams who against all odds makes them come true—but only just, and by the seat of his pants!
Dillane then made that book jacket his show, working with Thierry Dreyfus to create a set that saw three two-storey high editions of the storybook line the runway. In a concept that owed a little to his (IMO) greatest show moment (the painting that came alive from its canvas, look 23 of Spring 2023), the models walked out of the pages of the book (through hidden advent calendar-ish doors) as the story was narrated over the PA by Craig Ferguson, with Dillane (of course) voicing The Boy. It was a tricky choreography to pull off, involving page turners, wheeled staircases and around 12 or so exit points onto the Musée des Arts Décoratifs runway. Backstage afterwards, Dillane said that vexing technical issues had loomed until almost the last minute, but once the show opened all the models walked happily ever after.
As for the collection, it also often expanded on an earlier Dillane notion: the excellent Letter Suit and Letter Bag that were shown during his fairytale fall 2023 cameo as Louis Vuitton menswear’s guest designer. Of tonight’s expansion, he said: “Part of it was securing what is a KidSuper concept: I think this letter idea, the storytelling idea, even script writing and all of that stuff, and how to apply that with clothing.” Books as fashion objects have in the past perhaps most literally been explored by Olympia Le-Tan, and were even a passing theme at this Paris season’s hottest show, however the notion was fully and innovatively read into here.
At one point during the show I chuckled thinly when realizing that almost the entire audience (me included) had raised smartphones to video a show about the magic of print. The tailoring-led collection featured many illustrations drawn from and inspired by Dillane’s book, as well as book bags aplenty. There were a pant and shirt that looked like a bottom drawer novel, patterned with intense cursive and furious scribble. There were paper hats, a pencil with a bag strap, and pencils worn as ties, but sadly no typewriters. Pieces that looked to reference Dillane’s back catalogue of chapters were dedicated to painting, puppets, unravelling whatever semi-apocalyptic topic last season’s weather event was about, and the imaginative process. A very literal flower hat was a funny piece worn above a very handsome embossed leather overcoat. You could see from the differing quality and feel of the pieces that parts of the collection had been ghosted by different collaborators with varying specialisms. The closing look was worn by the mercurial Italian soccer star Mario Balotelli, a casting that reflected another of Dillane’s abiding passions.
It was a strong show attended by an enthusiastic and vibey crowd which—even as this garrett-bound loser is writing up the runway—is living it up at the KidSuper post-show party thrown in partnership with Outlander, which has been bigging up Dillane since its biggest audience was on the platform formally known as Twitter. Before he left for that party, Dillane said: “The only problem now is: what am I going to do next?”
Personally, I suspect that a KidSuper scripted reality show that shapes its dramatic arc around just that question could work rather well. Dillane’s fashion-tainment is so anti-exclusive, and so open to collaborations from all comers (this collection included contributors ranging from Mercedes-Benz to Papa Johns) that a bit more mainstream media exposure of his entrepreneurial, Peter Pan meets Willy Wonka persona could really take him to the moon. And what a story that could be.