Hello Moto!
The last few years have seen fashion grab the 00s in a metaphorical chokehold and basically refuse to let go. From tiny sunglasses, Ugg boots, and the iconic Dior Saddle bag, to Juicy Couture making a high-profile comeback on the Vetements runway circa SS17, the industry has picked apart the era’s aesthetics and repackaged them for a brand new audience not old enough to remember the wild panic surrounding the Y2K bug (lol).
Seemingly, the obsession with all things 00s isn’t yet over if menswear label Keenkee’s New York Fashion Week show was anything to go by. Making their debut as part of the brand’s AW20 collection were a series of subversive mouthpieces made from some of the early 2000s most iconic phones, including the holy grail: the Motorola Razr (I mean: that snap!). The work of Georgian artist Shalva Nikvashvili, the mouth-plugs also featured recycled old-school Nokia burners ripe for a game of Snake, as well as obsolete devices with aerials(?!), which preceded even the 00s.
Founded by Korean deisgner Kee Kim (who cut his teeth at Prada, FYI), the rest of the Seoul-based label’s offering was tinged with a sense of nostalgia for the era. “2020 was the future when I was a teenager and the collection was initiated from future nostalgia,” he explained of the offering, which was made up of oversized, utilitarian overcoats, baggy, python-embossed pants, panelled sweatshirts, and loose roll-necks. As styled by Malcolm Mammone, boxy bowling shirts with seeping, gradient finishes were teamed with ankle skimming trousers, while the pixelated motifs that punctuated the collection harked back to the early days of the internet and its blocky, rudimentary graphics.