If you’ve ever wondered what a 23 year-old's life crisis looks like, the summer range from
OKAY! is a pretty good indicator. The eightth collection from the Brisbane label takes on the very best of the eighties and throws fire rocks at Madonna and Boy George. Shazam!
Kicking it since ‘86, designer Gav Parry and 21 year old Kris Small met “through a thing that we both did, that we don’t talk about,” aka scouts, when they were twelve. Too cute. Fast forward past the years of tying knots and whatever else scouts do, and the unlikely pair began OKAY! a name derived from the most quoted movie that is Anchorman.
“We started out doing screen prints and then it started to get really popular. We felt after a while we were starting to do what everyone else was doing and we started to focus on selling so many numbers and how many stockists we could get and it lost its enjoyment,” says Gav, who oversees the label, while Kris (currently located in London) focuses on the design. The pair then took a break and went in a different direction under the label Formally Known As.
This season the boys have returned to OKAY! and their eighties roots with a predominant focus on design over sales and a ‘no holds barred’ direction.
“For this collection we didn’t really take a theme or inspiration. I don’t really think you can link the animals, Madonna, Boy George and fire rocks, but we sort of just form different elements into a design and wherever it goes it goes. Half the stuff is a mistake, and in the end it just works,” says Gav.
The result? Brash and bold prints that look somewhere between Cassette Playa (Carrie Mundane plays a big influence) the mouth watering Gorilla print tees by Christopher Kane and eighties popular culture through the eyes of two young boys. And while the shirts tend to scream next to the currently all-black menswear labels out there, the support of stockists Violent Green in Brisbane and Lenko in Melbourne means us colourful Gen Y kids can get our mitts on some printed goodness.
And for the next range? You might have 99 problems, but looking rad won’t be one.
“When we were designing the winter range we were really into basketball and the NBA play-offs were on,” says Gav, who lists Michael Jordan, the dream team, Jay Z and Madonna (you can never get enough can you?) as star appearances in the winter range.