The casting of an 8-year-old girl in Babyghost’s Fall 2018 lookbook was not a random afterthought. Joshua Hupper and Qiaoran Huang chose her to model their non-kids’ line because of her age: She’s been alive as long as the designers have had their label. Eight years is a long time in this business. When they launched, the hypebeasts and underground club kids hadn’t yet infiltrated the high-fashion realm. There weren’t lines around the block to get into Kith, and Virgil Abloh was still deejaying for Kanye West. Babyghost was one of the first brands to fuse streetwear with high-fashion design concepts, and sell it at an affordable price. Today, they’re continuing to evolve that aesthetic with a see-now-buy-now approach. This collection was actually less about recognizable pieces like their riffs on the Versace and Chanel logos and their cool hoodies and tees.
Instead, Huang and Hupper focused on richer fabrics and prints, on pieces like a midnight blue velvet coat with oversize sleeves and a pastel floral jacket layered under a beautifully tailored blazer. The knitwear was impressive too, especially a baggy red-and-green cami top and a cropped cardigan. The graphic T-shirt printed with the words “faux is over” was clever and ironic, but not totally necessary when there were so many other pieces that really highlighted Huang and Hupper’s talents as designers. Babyghost is an OG member of the crafty, underground streetwear movement and as this collection indicated, they’re only getting better with age.
