Sundae School Embraces the Highs of NYC (Pun Intended)
Of course, Sundae School staged its first runway show on April 20, a.k.a 4/20 (a holiday celebrating marijuana). After all, the smokewear label is no stranger to "high" fashion. Get it?
Anywho, the fashion show went down at the House of Cannabis in New York to celebrate the city's first legal 4/20.
While the brand was birthed in Seoul and is currently based in California, Sundae School and its founder and creative director, Dae Lim, has deep ties to the city that never sleeps.
"New York is the first city that brought light to Sundae School — it is the first city that we debuted our brand," Lim told us.
"We started working on the brand in January 2017 in Seoul and launched our first line on 4/20 in Soho. It was a no-brainer to celebrate our 6th birthday and the first legal 420 in the city that raised us with the community that first embraced us.
Personally speaking, New York was the first city I immigrated to from Seoul. It helped me shape my views and truly help me understand what diversity means — not just defined by race, ethnicity, gender, or preferences, but also by perspective, ideas, and identities."
With the latest collection, Sundae School embraces the Big Apple's highs (again, pun intended...sorry), marrying the city's cultural icons with cannabis culture. The result? A gathering of one-of-a-kind looks that the brand likes to call "cannabis couture."
A reimagined Knicks jersey boasted psychedelic patchwork detailing on the runway, surrounded by trippy visuals. The construction worker's uniform has been transformed into a corset and baggy trousers with reflective trims (while the model carries a Carhartt bag filled with joints). Meanwhile, a plastic-looking black suit is conveyed as the "trash bag of Wall Street."
"The story we wanted to capture via our first show was celebrating the burning desires of New York (all puns fully intended) and how different New Yorkers find light in myriads of avenues of life," Lim said.
"We looked back on our personal memories of lighting up in NYC and crowd-sourced moments from our community of how they find their light."
There were plenty of other memorable looks from Sundae School's show, like the "nugkini," a clear bikini set featuring, well, cannabis chunks, coordinated with nug boots and an embellished bong purse.
Lim thinks of this look as a little something for the "fancy weed girlies on the go."
In addition to the return of the brand's Smoking Chills tops as seen in Spring/Summer 2019, we witness Sundae School issue a literal blunt 'fit. Seriously. It emerged as a brown quilted long puffer jacket styled with a broccoli print morph suit to look like a life-sized blunt.
After a couple of burnt-up garments, Merrell clogs boasting cannabis flowers, "Nugs 4 Hugs" graphics, the show came to a close with a graduation look — of which the model wearing the ensemble lights one up on the catwalk — as a nod to brand's Korean and cannabis roots.
'Tis a high achievement, if you will (last one, I promise).
"New York is the city that taught us to be a higher version of ourselves," Lim states. I see what you did there, Lim.
"Cannabis culture in New York has a very idiosyncratic taste to it — the gas-y sativa energy that epitomizes the phrase 'high-functioning,' juxtaposed with the smoky indica haze that amplifies the gravitational force to put us down to the ground from the craze of New York."
That deserves a puff in followed by moment of saying "deep." Nonetheless, Sundae School has done it again.
