What Happened To Designer Adam Kimmel?

In 2012, the young menswear designer Adam Kimmel was, as they say, poised for greatness. The label he started in 2005 was growing steadily. He had popular cross-over collaborations with Supreme and Carhartt that were making waves beyond the high fashion world. He had shrugged off conventional ways of showing his collections, and instead staged creatively ambitious presentations that garnered critical acclaim and sent his star rising higher: David Blaine swimming with sharks, a casino full of models wearing oversized masks designed by George Condo, a tuxedoed rodeo cowboy riding a bull, and a motorcycle-riding Sasquatch playing master of ceremonies at an art gallery in Paris. He had cosigns from some of the coolest guys on the planet, many of whom he used as his models, including Glenn O’Brien, Aaron Bondaroff, Dennis Hopper, Ryan McGinley, and the seminal American artists George Herms, Larry Bell, and John Baldessari. Kimmel’s Fall-Winter 2012 collection featured an Area 51-inspired set with models wearing fighter pilot flight masks. It may have been his greatest, according to Style.com critic Tim Blanks. “He’s like a great moviemaker in the way he can find and tap American myths to contextualize and elevate his product in his presentations,” Blanks wrote in his review. Read GQ Style.