How Still Kelly Evolved From a Viral Hoodie to a Full Streetwear Collection
After two years of production, streetwear label Still Kelly is debuting its first full collection on Thursday.
Helmed by art director Marc Kalman, whose career includes creative direction for Travis Scott, Still Kelly’s first collection comes two years after the brand produced a graphic hoodie depicting its logo with an image of a storefront that immediately sold out. Kalman explained the collection has taken this long because he wanted to take a slower approach to create something that reflected his design aesthetic.
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“I never wanted to be a T-shirt and hoodie guy,” he said. “Bless whoever is that guy — I have so much respect for it — but I always wanted to design clothes, so I started just developing these ideas and figuring out this process of making clothes and building a team around it and just started going through the motions.”
Still Kelly’s debut collection offers 39 styles ranging in price from $85 to $1,650. The collection is meant to exude a high-low feel, with traditional streetwear styles like a graphic T-shirt with a screen-printed photo of a baby’s face and sports jersey-style shirts along with higher-end styles such as oversize leather jackets and boxy denim sets.
Kalman described the collection’s aesthetic as “ultra super centric cult punk pop energy,” explaining that he wanted to leverage subcultures and interpret them through his own design codes.
“I was just trying to harness and build this language of these specific subcultures that I’m into and tell those stories and narratives through graphic Ts or certain prints or things like that,” he said. “I’m not the kind of guy who is going to yell out the reference and explain everything to you, but I get excited knowing that it’s there and the energy is kind of injected into it without having to shout about it.”
Kalman explained he’s bringing an elevated feel to the brand by leveraging his background and connections as an art director. For the collection’s look book, Kalman enlisted photographer Winter Vandenbrink and stylist Pau Avia.
“I’m telling really high-end fashion stories, so when I get someone to style or shoot it, I know the way that I’m putting it out and these images I’m creating through campaigns and storytelling,” Kalman said. “It’s a higher-end storytelling approach. I made these clothes so that I could do this other part, which is part of my background of making images and communicating that, and the way it comes out is a really big part for me.”
Kalman explained he’s already working on Still Kelly’s second collection and is excited to see the evolution of the brand.
“The collections are going to get bigger and the quality is going to get better,” he said. “The things that we’re developing — all of these details — it takes a village and it takes time. It’s playing the fashion game of seasons and getting ahead of things and even this first [collection] taking me so long, I think we’re just constantly evolving and growing. And also being present in that moment. That’s the best part.”
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