Royalty, Heroism, and the Streets: Ksubi Launches at Glue Store 

The Rat Pack - Australian Launch

Debuting in Australia in 2001 with a bang (or a squeak) Ksubi released 250 live rats onto the catwalk along with the models, causing the crème de la crème of the fashion scene to jump out of their front row seats and clamber over their neighbours to get away. 

Founder of Mercedes Benz Australian Fashion Week, Simon P. Lock, described the cacophony in his book, In the Front Row; “A wave of shrieks and screams followed them as the guests in the front row freaked out. There were people literally climbing over each other to get out of the front row and its eye-to-teeth view of the rats. Others tucked their feet up underneath themselves, fearing a stray rat was about to leap over the Perspex.”

Stepping over the cuddly creatures was actress and model, Alyssa Sutherland, donning low-rise jeans and a furry headpiece with rat-like ears. Following her, a model trudged down the runway attached to puppet strings, baggy deconstructed jeans emphasising his lumbering gait. Another model followed in a crop top and baggy jeans, caressing a rat nestled on her shoulder. 

Going from hustling sunglasses to launching the most coveted brand of the early 2000s wasn’t as simple as they made it look. The designers wanted to experiment with jeans, but they didn’t have access to the industrial-scale laundries required to produce pre-washed and distressed denim. Having little clue as to what they were doing, they resorted to primitive techniques, using angle grinders, sandpaper, and cars as well as their home washing machines filled with rocks and chemicals to subject the jeans to some serious abuse. The result was incredibly distressed jeans – anguished even – that the designers had never seen before, but unanimously agreed looked really good. 

Ksubi brought a sense of rebellion back to fashion runways, employing new ways of exhibiting collections. In 2002, they displayed their range to an audience in London in an abandoned tube station, embracing the grit and grime of city life and lending an aura of unconventionality to their brand. Throughout the 2000s, the brand released a series of wall calendars that often depicted sexually suggestive or explicit imagery, making waves in what was a young and impressionable Australian fashion industry. A particular nudity-centric campaign meant that their in-store signage had to be censored to maintain a family-friendly environment within the shopping mall. 

A string of high-profile collaborations followed from the no-holding-back attitude towards distressing denim. In 2006, Jeremy Scott exhibited a Jeremy Loves Ksubi collection at New York Fashion Week alongside his own collection. Among the pieces were loud, patterned jeans marking a fresh take on the deconstructed trend.

That same year, Ksubi designer, Gorrow, worked with Kanye West on a line of sunglasses for him to wear in music videos, released through his brand, Pastelle. At the time, Kanye said, “George is an incredibly talented designer, and I’ve never met anyone who knew more about sunglasses and other cool stuff.”

With a choke hold on rap culture, Ksubi floats somewhere in between the low-rider Ed Hardy days of the 2000s and the modern grillz and graffiti of trap music. Since the first collaboration with Kanye, Ksubi has burrowed further into the DNA strands of musical subculture, earning honourable mentions in songs by Playboy Carti, A$AP Ferg, Keith Ape, Danny Brown, Lil Uzi Vert, and XXXTENTACION, and Mark Ronson.

I cruise the room without attracting a glance
My Ksubi jeans are more like armor than pants

- Leaving Los Feliz, Mark Ronson

In 2017, Ksubi collaborated on a collection with rapper, Travis Scott, making headlines and selling out worldwide. The campaign shoot channeled the distortion of Scott’s sound with soft shadowy lighting and plenty of dry ice. “Distressed jeans are a sign you’ve been through some shit, more so than a clean jean,” Scott told Vogue in 2017, “Like I’m down to get dirty.” 

In 2019, Kendall Jenner became the face of Ksubi’s Sign of the Times campaign which featured an 8-piece capsule collection consisting of Ksubi’s basics: jeans, tanks and tees. Her involvement opened the brand up to a new generation of young people, legitimising their ties to rap culture via her own proximity to American rap musicians. Thanks to these celebrity associations, Ksubi has been elevated to the same hallowed grounds as luxury powerhouses including Saint Laurent and Prada.