HAPPY99

(USA)

NYC-based design duo Nathalie Nguyen and Dominic Lopez founded Happy99 in 2018 to build an alternate virtual fashion universe for the children of the internet. Rejecting the environmentally damaging and self-serving logic of fast fashion, the brand interrogates our relationship to consumption with an exhilarating narrative-based approach to design. Garments and accessories are launched as digital renderings, with only a small selection of knitwear available for IRL wear as well as URL enjoyment. Quirky cuts and futuristic details inject T-shirts, vests, and shorts with a flirtatious rave-revival quality and, inflected with ‘90s video game nostalgia. Jacquard-knit textiles feature rapturous graphics from the label’s digital universe in an explosive, glimmering colour palette befitting a line of collectible toys. With its conscious disruption of fashion industry tropes, Happy99 is charting an exciting sartorial dreamland that transcends the on- vs. offline divide.