Viral hoverboard dance star makes fashion debut

Josh Killacky is the 20-year-old dancer and choreographer who shot to internet fame after his hoverboard dancer cover of Justin Bieber’s “What Do You Mean?” went viral – the video now has just shy of four million views on YouTube. Designer and former creative director of Dazed Nicola Formichetti has cast Killacky in the SS16 campaign for his fashion brand Nicopanda, unveiled today.

After seeing Killacky’s video, the designer reached out to him on Instagram. “I fell in love with the way he moved, so I DM’ed him,” he explains. “When I saw him, I knew I wanted to create a Nicopanda video using Fischerspooner’s new song. It all came together at the same time very organically. I love when things like that happen – it’s the universe that’s doing the work.”

For Formichetti, who has maintained a symbiotic relationship with digital culture and emerging creative talents throughout his career, this casting choice is perhaps unsurprising. “I’m always drawn to people who’re a little bit different,” he goes on to say. “Josh is very sweet looking, almost like an angel, but dances really quite hard. He embodies the theme of this collection – the soft and hard, ballerina and punk.”

Debuted at New York Fashion Week in September, Nicopanda’s SS16 collection was about, in the designer’s words, “ballerina punk”. Soft pink tutu-like tulle dresses were juxtaposed with hard black PVC numbers, champagne silk pieces with deconstructed grey marl tracksuits.

“We’ve included lots of ribbons and I wanted to have the collection worn on a dancer, so that it looks really beautiful moving,” says Formichetti. The video sees Killacky and fellow dancers Alex Ditommaso and Evan Moody do just that – perform a routine (choreographed by Killacky himself) to “Everything is Just Alright”, an exclusive track off electroclash duo Fischerspooner’s upcoming album, SIR.

The dancer isn’t the only internet star that has featured in a fashion campaign recently – just last week Calvin Klein Jeans unveiled its new ad starring 21-year-old Viner Cameron Dallas.