KidSuper Reimagines an Auction House as It's First Official In-Person Show of Paris Fashion Week

For the Spring Summer 2023 season at Paris Fashion Week, KidSuper debuted "Breathing Life Into The Inanimate," a live auction presided over by Lydia Fenet, Benefit Auctioneer at Christie's Auction House. Under the name of Superby's, impersonating one of the most influential auction houses, the collection hit the runway with oil paintings painted by designer and founder Colm Dillane.

Artists like J Balvin, Westside Gunn, G-Eazy, Alexandre Arnault, Tyga, Mike Amiri, Nigel Slyvester, and Russ took part in the bidding war. All guests were given auction paddles at the door and encouraged to bid on the pieces they liked.

The evening's highlights include the night's headline sale, The Girl That Breathes Life Into The Inanimate (Lot and Look 23) that sold for $210,000. All in all, the KidSuper paintings together "sold" for $529,000, making the live auction a unique work of performance art that cleverly pushed the limits of the fashion show as a visual spectacle.

The fusion of fashion and paintings produced a stunning, vibrant, and exceptional collection that was faithful to the slogan on the KidSuper Show invitation, "real company built on unreal ideas." The show raised various intriguing ideas, such as the prospect that artwork may be transformed into clothes that may function as wearable replicas of original artwork. Menswear made up the majority of the selection, with random womenswear pieces.

The new collection and performance art production fully integrated fashion, art, and audience engagement using non-professional models. One of the models was SNL comedian Kenan Thompson. The KidSuper fashion show was an actual live art auction - without the snobby collectors. Dillane urged attendees to engage and have fun by letting go of preconceived notions about what a fashion show should be.

The final painting, titled The Finale, was stretched on its frame for the KidSuper exhibition with a hole where the on-canvas face of one of its subjects "should" have been. It revealed the painted face of a model. The canvas disappeared from the frame and revealed itself to be the top layer of her tulle pentimento dress as Fenet's gavel fell.

Before being admitted, Colm Dillane first made two attempts to enter Paris Fashion Week. The rejection inspired him to plan his events in 2019 and early 2020 before Covid-19 hit. While the pandemic caused problems for many, KidSuper was already benefiting from virtual shows, which opened Dillane to a world of opportunities.

Dillane outdid himself for his debut live performance during Paris Fashion Week, solidifying his status as a talent to watch in the industry. Dillane was one of the 10 finalists for the 2022 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and received the Karl Lagerfeld Prize at the LVMH Prize last year.

With its unique style and embracing of fashion, music, art, cinema, and play, the Brooklyn-based KidSuper has established itself as one of the city's most innovative and exciting labels.