What happened when DKNY took London

Last night, a handful of ‘Dazed Kids’ descended upon London’s Shoreditch Studios to celebrate the long-awaited release of DKNY’s acronym sweatshirts. They appeared on the AW16 runway in a show designed to play with the brand’s iconic DNA. The guys took a playful take on ‘Donna Karan New York’, creating sweaters that read ‘Don’t Knock New York’, 'Designers Know Nothing Yet’ and our favourite (for obvious reasons), ‘Dazed Kids New York’.

The long-awaited sweatshirts are now finally available in London, so naturally, the Dazed team was out in full force to celebrate the launch – co-founder Jefferson Hack, editor-in-chief Isabella Burley, creative director Robbie Spencer and senior fashion editor Emma Wyman. With specially-created cocktails provided by Crystal Head Vodka, guests included DKNY creative directors Maxwell Osborne and Dao-Yi Chow and model Lottie Moss, who took over Dazed’s Snapchat for the event.

Visual artist and creative director Tupac Matir was on hand to create a trippy light installation which blurred footage of the latest runway show with glitchy images of the new sweatshirts and swirling variations of the DKNY signature acronyms. 

Musical entertainment was provided by DJs Siobhan Bell, the Extortionists and Throwing Shade – Croydon rapper Nadia Rose also spit some bars in what was a standout performance. Rose is one of the breakout stars of the UK grime scene – she recently inked a major deal with Sony Records and gained massive online success with her club hit “D.F.W.T.”. In celebration of the event, Rose kindly curated a Spotify playlist featuring star contemporaries Skepta and Stormzy as well as her own hit.

Listen to Nadia Rose’s playlist below: