KidSuper can now add author to his résumé.
Colm Dillane, founder and designer of the trendy New York-based brand, has partnered with Rizzoli on “The Misadventures of KidSuper,” his first book. Dillane, who is also an artist and filmmaker, is only 33, but already amassed enough stories to fill a 256-page book.
“This isn’t a book about my life’s work or a retrospective on all that I have done…I’m not old enough for that and I have not done enough,” Dillane writes in the foreword. “It’s a book about how to live. A book about life. What do I know about life? Who knows. But what I do know is ideas. And what’s more important than ideas.”
In true KidSuper form, the book is self-effacing. It’s broken down into the runway misadventures from each of his 12 shows, offers 11 irreverent Rules of Design, and is a lesson on how to turn a dormitory dream into a global brand.
“Someone asked me the other day why I am a rule-breaker in the fashion industry,” he writes. “I didn’t even realize I was breaking the rules because I did not know the rules. Everything I have learned in life is from trial and error; from my stubbornness and fearlessness, from the act of just plain action.”
Among the topics Dillane tackles are his runway debut for spring 2020 — “A Bull in a China Shop” — and his Superby’s Auction House Paris show, which featured paintings that were put up for sale as each model hit the catwalk.
The book also features 250 color illustrations of sketches, paintings, handwritten budgets and WhatsApp screenshots that trace Dillane’s evolution from selling T-shirts out of his dorm room at New York University to a stint creating a menswear collection for Louis Vuitton.
Interspersed are candid conversations with key people in Dillane’s life including former Vuitton chief executive officer Michael Burke, soccer star Ronaldinho, and comedian Andrew Schultz, along with a few Rules of Design including: “Humor is progress, mistakes are funny, boredom is laziness,” and “tinker.”
Interestingly, Dillane’s spring 2026 in Paris, titled “The Boy Who Jumped the Moon,” was a children’s book brought to life on the runway, perhaps giving a hint for what was to come.
“This book isn’t about me,” Dillane writes. “It’s about ideas, and what happens when you chase them off cliffs.”
“The Misadventures of KidSuper” will be available beginning Friday at the KidSuper store in Brooklyn and online. It will cost $65.
