Kai Cenat has already conquered the Twitch world, becoming the platform's most-subscribed streamer with over 21 million followers. On Saturday, Sept. 12, he made his official foray into fashion as his clothing label, Vivet, held its first-ever runway show at New York Fashion Week, which was attended by Ms. Lauryn Hill, Law Roach, and Jaden Smith.
The 24-year-old influencer livestreamed the show across his social media channels, bringing in close to 800,000 viewers from Twitch alone. He's accumulated his following from livestreams where he'd do everything from acting out comedic skits, playing video games, talking to his fans or interviewing A-list celebrities like LeBron James, Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj, Kevin Hart and Ice Spice.
But back in January,
Cenat put out a video on YouTube titled "I Quit," where he announced that he planned to stop streaming on Twitch for a while to take some time away from an intense broadcasting schedule and focus on other things he's also excited about, like his own clothing label, Vivet. He talked about his pivot to fashion in a recent interview on The New York Times' "Popcast," sharing what inspired him to create his own clothing line and whether he ever saw himself leaving streaming behind.
Cenat told the interviewers, Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, that during his break he immersed himself in the world of fashion by watching designer interviews, reading books about different fashion houses, talking with people in the industry, and attending shows in Paris. "I realized all these shows are livestreamed," Cenat said during the interview. "I thought, 'I can do this — I want to do my own fashion show, and debut it in my world of streaming, Twitch, YouTube, everything.'"
Cenat said that this is an entirely self-funded project and he doesn't have any investors. Cenat responded that he didn't feel comfortable sharing how much he spent, but it was much more money than he expected.
He said he was able to make his collection a mix of luxurious statement pieces and more accessible ones that his fans can purchase right away. "The show is see-now-buy-now," he said. "Every time I went to a fashion show and saw something I wanted on the runway, and they told me it wasn’t releasing for six months, it upset me. That’s just the culture – they display it, see what people like, then decide what to release."
He continued, "I’m a streamer; I have an audience that’s very interactive when watching something live, and I know if a kid at home sees something, they want to get it now."
Cenat said it was important to him to keep his items affordable because he understands his audience. Although some of his fans have started making memes joking about his brand, the 24-year-old said he was of two minds about it: "At first it made me feel like my back was against the wall, like nobody believed in me, and I felt bad," but then he said something clicked.
"I realized, never in a thousand years would this many people be talking about clothes and a brand that’s not even been seen yet," he said. "I started being grateful. The biggest thing it taught me was to evolve in silence. I remember printing out a lot of the hateful comments – I made a hate wall of it, and I’d wake up every morning sipping coffee, using it as motivation."
As for whether or not he ever saw himself not streaming, he said, "When I stepped back, I was able to learn a lot about myself — a lot of things in my life I was missing, because I’ve always committed to streaming 24/7," adding, "I truly do love streaming, I adore streaming, I would never stop."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kai Cenat explains his pivot from Twitch streamer to NYFW fashion designer
