Calling all fashion freaks! Korean menswear designer sends models down the runway with old Razr and Nokia CELL PHONES stuck to their mouths
- Keenkee’s Fall 2020 show was held at Men’s Fashion Week in New York City on February 3
- Seoul-born designer Kee Kim, a former graphic designer, launched the brand in 2018
- Male models wore multiple obsolete cell phones across their mouths
- The phones were attached to ‘mouth plugs’ and made for the presentation
A South Korean designer making waves in the men’s fashion world may have been called a ‘rising talent’ by Vogue — but while his clothing is innovative, he doesn’t seem to understand how cell phone works.
Seoul-born designer Kee Kim, a former graphic designer, launched his brand Keenkee in 2018, and on February 3 debuted his Fall 2020 collection at Men’s Fashion Week in New York City.
During the show, models walked down the catwalk with old-school mobiles like flip-phones and clunky Nokias — but rather than holding the phones to their ears for a chat, they had the devices stuck to their mouths.
The not-so-smartphone! Men’s brand Keenkee debuted Fall 2020 collection at Men’s Fashion Week in New York City on February 3
No butt dialing here! Models walked down the runway with old cell phones affixed to their mouths
Gives new meaning to ‘bluetooth’! The phones were ‘mouth plugs’ and includes a piece that went inside each model’s mouth
Call me, maybe? Some wore just one phone, while others wore two or three
The male models wore one, two, or even three separate phones on their faces, covering their mouths.
One had a single blocky early-90s cell phone with an antenna covering the bottom half of his face, while others had two flip phones a piece criss-crossing over their lips.
One had two Razr flip phones, the first closed over his mouth and the second open and vertical, obscuring the left side of his face.
Not one seemed to acknowledge with facial expressions that this was an odd thing to do.
Keenkee hasn’t posted anything from the show on Instagram, and hasn’t offered up any sort of explanation for the styling choice.
However, two people have taken credit for the phones on Instagram: @mal.co.lm and Shalva Nikvashvili.
That’s not how they work! The phones were relics of the early ’90s to mid-00’s
‘We provide series of tweaked conventions and filtered surreal extremes in multiple scales — relevant layers,’ the designer said
Hello? Two people have taken credit for the phones on Instagram: @mal.co.lm and Shalva Nikvashvili
The designer added: ‘The brand will introduce fresh wardrobe which the wearers could freely interpret with their own language’
The two call the phones ‘mouth plugs,’ implying that they’re adhering to the models’ faces not with adhesive but a plug inside their mouths.
Kim, the designer, is into pushing boundaries.
‘We provide series of tweaked conventions and filtered surreal extremes in multiple scales — relevant layers,’ he told the CFDA last year.
‘We believe in personalization in which each person may create their own system and logic within a mixed-up situation, and the process should be playful. Ambivalence is normal, and we play with it.
‘The brand introduces new textiles and graphics. Unorthodox details and conventions are injected within menswear vocabulary, and even sometimes proportions and details come from that of womenswear.
‘The brand will introduce fresh wardrobe which the wearers could freely interpret with their own language.’