Dua Lipa Wears the Original Inclusive Streetwear Line

Long before Virgil Abloh brought his streetwear savvy to Louis Vuitton’s menswear operations and decades before Hood By Air offered up a gothic sheen on the fashion signifiers that ruled the Brooklyn streets of Shayne Oliver’s adolescent years, Cross Colours shifted the entire fashion paradigm in this urban direction. As the brand’s founder Carl Jones described in a 2014 interview, the underlying goal was to connect with people. “The positive messages, the colors, coming from the street, coming from the ghetto. It’s clothing without prejudice,” Jones said, reiterating the brand’s motto. “It’s clothing for everybody.”

This universal message quickly gained traction with famous celebrities of the era, including Tupac, Will Smith on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air ( Smith was the first major celebrity to wear Cross Colours pieces), and TLC with their oversize Cross Colours pants that they infamously decorated with condoms.

The brand’s inclusive, positive vibe is clearly resonating with artists of today, too. Dua Lipa just sported a Cross Colours denim bucket hat, accented by pops of bright yellow and red in London (the singer wrote she only got two hours of sleep the night before in her Instagram caption). She wore the accessory with an off-kilter sweatshirt and a pair of high-waisted jeans. Cross Colours is due for a comeback given streetwear’s ascendancy, and Lipa is one of the first from today’s celebrity generation to take up the charge.

Lady Gaga’s Latest Look Is a Powerful Win for Georgian Designers

Lady Gaga knows how to make quite the dramatic exit. Yesterday, as she left her hotel in New York City, the singer served a regular dose of her hip-popping attitude, this time with a little help from the Georgian designer Akà Prodiàshvili. Gaga was dressed in a full leather look that consisted of a tiny sheeny bandeau top for a full midriff reveal and a high-waisted, body-clinging skirt with a fist-size metal buckle smack dab at the navel. For some of that sassy Gaga take on old Hollywood glam, she wore the ensemble with matching opera gloves that recalled dominatrix garb, hulking lace-up platform boots for another slice of BDSM-core, and a pair of large sunglasses.

The look came from Prodiàshvili’s Spring 2019 collection. The 23-year-old was inspired by the small but vibrant drag scene in his hometown of Tbilisi, Georgia. He cited the stars of RuPaul’s Drag Race, including Sasha Velour and Violet Chachki, as inspirations. As for Gaga’s specific look? Prodiàshvili wrote that it was based on “The Matrix’s scene when Neo meets Trinity at the nightclub.”

While this may seem like just another newsy celebrity style look, Gaga wearing a Prodiàshvili design bears heightened meaning in Georgia. Prodiàshvili has expressed his support for the LGBTQ+ community in his designs, a group that is often violently marginalized in Georgia where ultraconservative sentiments are still present. “Lady Gaga is one of my favorite queer artists from my childhood,” writes Prodiàshvili. “She is a big inspiration for any LGBTQ+ representative so for me it is very important to contribute to the community this way.” Call it a very happy and very chic day for Pride month both stateside and in Georgia.

Queen Letizia Wants to Remind You That She Wore Plastic Shoes First

The plastic shoe trend has been embraced by plenty of celebrities this spring. Those clear, foot-revealing styles have appeared on everyone from Rihanna to Kim Kardashian West (who often wears Yeezy heels designed by her husband, Kanye West). But before the movement really took off this season, one unexpected public figure had already been wearing them: Queen Letizia of Spain.

Last year, Her Majesty wore, on multiple occasions, PVC-strap mules by Steve Madden that cost less than $100. Visiting the CaixaForum in Madrid today, the Queen wore the style yet again. She switched up her favorite black colorway in favor of a lighter blush for spring, and then matched the rest of her ensemble to it with monochromatic pieces: a tweed vest, simple tank top, and breezy trousers, which were cropped to show off the shoes. In her hands, she also carried a discreet white clutch.

So, while the plastic accessory may not be new territory for the Spanish Queen, her latest venture serves as a reminder that she was one of the first do it. Will Kate Middleton or Meghan Markle soon follow suit? Only time will tell—but for now, the former seems pretty devoted to her yummy-mummy boots.

Kim Kardashian West Reveals Superhero-Worthy Abs at an Avengers-Themed Party

The season's rise in temperatures calls for a well thought-out approach to transitional spring dressing, but also a seasonal shift in hair and makeup looks. As most would resort to a simple skirt or a décolletage-revealing tank, leave it to Kim Kardashian West to have her own ideas on the subject.

Stepping out in Los Angeles last night for Travis Scott's Avengers-themed birthday celebration, the mother of three showed off her seriously sculpted mid-section in between a Bordeaux-hued crop top and curve-hugging red PVC leggings.

A flash of skin is hardly a surprise for the social media star, who's often seen with an exposed shimmering shoulder, but Kardashian West has put a superhero spin on her classic look. Paired with a swirl of flattering bronzer that's likely the work of KKW Beauty's Powder Contour Kit and a hair full of textured long beach waves, it seems the Calabasas-based beauty is perfectly prepped for spring.

Koché’s Pokémon Collaboration Is Tokyo Fashion Week’s Cutest Development

At Tokyo Fashion Week, the battle for cutest collection is big business; new contenders for the title frequently emerge, but this season’s clear winner is Koché’s Christelle Kocher. The French designer restaged her Fall 2019 collection atop Shibuya’s Tsutaya bookstore tonight, interspersing pieces she already presented in Paris with a series of new looks created in collaboration with Nintendo’s Detective Pikachu series, including bright soccer jerseys, logo-covered baseball caps, and a series of flirty separates in Pikachu yellow.

A fan of Pokémon’s manga incarnation, Kocher wanted to highlight the series’ mass appeal with her designs. “Pokémon is already something people are attached to across generations,” she said postshow. “I used to play when I was a kid, but now it’s evolved into a whole new story.” The popularity of the PokémonGo phone app, 122 video games, and a multitude of films and television programs all based on the same concept means that anyone born after 1996 is likely to have experienced a version of the tale. Ubiquity can be a hindrance, but after riffing on Planet Hollywood T-shirts and concert T-shirts in previous collections, Kocher was unfazed. “This was very special,” she said. “The connection between younger people, older people, and [someone like] me who has always been a big fan of Japanese culture.”

Kocher’s admiration extends beyond cartoons. Having visited Japan five times in the past year, she’s immersed herself in Tokyo’s design scene. In preparation for the Shibuya show, she worked with local patternmakers, had 25 looks created in Japan, and culled her cast of cool kids from the streets near the venue. The all-in approach was something she felt was necessary. “It was important to present this collection in the center of Tokyo, in the Shibuya Crossing and in an electric place with so much culture—fashion, books, music,” she said. “We’re on the top of the world, and you can feel the tension.”

If the idea of Pikachu popping up during fashion month still seems left of field, the collection arrives at a time when Pokémon’s parent company is feeling experimental. Last year saw the launch of a streetwear collab with Hiroshi Fujiwara’s Fragment Design, followed by a limited-edition drop for 10.Deep that referenced the hapless villains of Team Rocket. The video-game giant’s other big gambit is a Detective Pikachu movie starring Ryan Reynolds as a wisecracking and live-action incarnation of the character. Far removed from the monosyllabic cutesy version most are familiar with, the project represents a tonal shift that Hidenaga Katakami, the Pokémon Company’s senior director of animation and new media, says opened the doors for out-of-the-box marketing. “This film is edgier for us—it’s not a cartoon, and you have Pikachu doing things people who grew up with the animation have never seen him do. It make sense to align with a brand like Koché.”