Can the Cult of Kiko Kostadinov Go Mainstream?

Rather than dilute his vision for the masses, fashion's wildest young designer is converting fans to the church of the weird.

- By SAMUEL HINE

ON A MUGGY NEW YORK day in July, Kiko Kostadinov is poking around an upscale vintage store in Williamsburg. Kostadinov, 35, is one of the most talented fashion designers of his generation, a tattooed brainiac from Bulgaria whose namesake London-based brand is on a serious hot streak. Kostadinov's left-field runway collections are flying out of stock rooms, and a steady stream of collaborations with the likes of Asics and Levi's is generating ever-more hype for his independent operation. Still, nothing appears to make Kostadinov happier than digging through piles of dusty garments.

He's not here to shop, not exactly. The normally shy Kostadinov is on a research mission, searching for unusual clothes that might inspire his own unusual designs. "I already have a rack of, like, 20 things there," he says, thumbing at a swath of pieces he's put aside, before sticking his arms back into a rack of mid-century dresses. There are plenty of handsome chore coats and second-hand staples nearby, but the designer seeks much weirder source material. “It could be a pattern, it could be the way they washed it," he explains, moving on to some ugly ’80s blouses that are a riot of shiny rayon and shoulder pads and confounding pleats—exactly the kinds of ersatz details he abstracts in his idiosyncratic, futuristic menswear.

As he rubs fabrics between his fingers and turns things inside out, I wonder if this is what it was like to witness Yves Saint Laurent trawling the souks of Marrakech, assembling a radical worldview stitch by stitch. "I don't know why I love these pieces so much," he says, examining an exquisitely strange ruffled pullover that I can almost see morphing into a runway look. Because, perhaps, it already has: "And then I have to go-Stop, I have so many!”