louder, but I can still find things that are still
low-key, tasteful, unique, and well-made.”
Since 2013, Supreme has released com-
plete collections twice per year: fall-win-
ter and spring-summer. These collections
include everything from suits and overcoats
to basketball jerseys, leather jackets, and
silk shirts, as well as the famous collection
of random functional accessories and sports
gear (this past spring-summer a Pearl drum
kit, a Super Soaker water gun, and Band-
Aid bandages all brandished the Supreme
logo). New collections are debuted in their
entirety in advance, then divided into the
weekly drops that occur every Thursday
over the course of a few months. Unless
there are leaks (and frequently there are),
you don’t know what’s going to drop in any
given week.
For Supreme fans, a specific thrill is
derived from this system. The hottest items
are decided long before they may be released.
To some—to many—these pieces become
essential to that season’s fits. If there’s a
shirt in the collection that you must own,
for instance, you have to check for it every
Thursday until it arrives—it could be several
weeks into the season—then hope you can be
fast enough to buy it before it sells out.
And sell out they often do. Any Supreme
regular knows that pain. But it only adds to
the thrill. “Everybody feels like they’re part
of this underground society, you know?” says
McKimm. There is a palpable awareness that
you aren’t the only one on the hunt.
Many Supreme pieces are designed based
on reference—tweaked versions of existing
pieces from the past. The truly obsessed
make a hobby of digging deep into vintage
archives to discover the originals, whether it’s
an obscure album cover that Supreme flipped
into a logo, or a hard-to-find vintage military
parka. But often the references aren’t so hard
to spot, especially for those familiar with
skate and hip-hop style of the ’90s. “I feel that
was a golden era for clothes, for music, for art,
for a lot of things,” Jebbia says.
The notion of celebrating individual style
isn’t specific to 1994, and it isn’t specific
to 2019. It’s fundamental to the very act
of coming of age. Which is why the youth
have returned to Supreme, again and again,
for three generations now. “As fashion
editors and fashion directors, stylists,
whatever, you’re always just looking at
what’s happening with the new generation,”
McKimm says, “and Supreme is just always
right there with them.”
Since Babenzien’s departure in 2015,
Supreme has not named another designer
or revealed any information about the struc-
ture of its creative team. Jebbia did appear,
however, in 2018 at the Council of Fashion
Designers of America Awards ceremony to
accept the menswear prize.
- Suit, spring-summer 2018. 6. Tie-dye pullover, spring-
summer 2013.
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