“Spread Love is the Brooklyn Way”—Colm Dillane of KidSuper Took Over Brooklyn’s Borough Hall to Launch Five Emerging Talents

Colm Dillane is the man of a thousand side-quests. The KidSuper designer seems to always be taking on a new thing—a collaboration, writing a play—yet this might be his greatest yet. Dillane is the first-ever Brooklyn Arts Ambassador—what that means, exactly, remains to be determined. Tonight at Brooklyn’s Borough Hall he gave New York Fashion Week a teaser: Dillane worked with five emerging design talents as a mentor, providing them with the space and supplies to work on capsule collections they presented on an outdoors catwalk dubbed The People’s Runway in front of guests including Lauryn Hill, Busta Rhymes, Ne-Yo, and A$AP Ferg.

“I went to high school like five blocks away, and I was always thinking there’s a disconnect between city funding and grants, sponsors, and all that stuff,” Dillane said pre-show, explaining that he’d often find himself wondering how people get those. Once Dillane met Antonio Reynoso, the equally ambitious Brooklyn Borough President, the wheels started turning. Dillane said he thought he could be, given his platform, a “conduit” between budding creatives and the city government. He put out an open call and, hundreds of portfolios later, he had a runway show to plan.

Antonio Reynoso, Colm DillaneMadison McGaw/BFA.com