Kody Phillips is in his bag. Literally. When we meet on a rainy January afternoon in Paris, the 30-year-old designer is jumping around his showroom in one of his Accordion bags like he’s in a potato sack race at a family picnic. He says it’s one of his favorite things he’s ever made. The black leather bag is covered in zippers that allow it to expand to three times its original size when fully unzipped. It took two years to get it completely right. Like all of his favorite designs, it makes what he initially thought impossible possible.
Coming off one of the biggest years for his eponymous label, Phillips is ready for another leap in 2025 as one of the designers defining modern men’s luxury, starting with his first showroom during Paris Fashion Week Men’s.
This Fall/Winter 2025 season was the first time that Phillips showed his collection in Paris. Looking through the racks, it’s easy to see why he finally decided to make the jump. The range is his most complete to date encompassing outerwear, shirts, pants, accessories, and even footwear. The pieces are all rooted in timeless menswear silhouettes, but have been given new life through Phillips’ imaginative design choices and meticulous attention to detail.
Buttery leather bomber jackets with thick faux fur collars are an immediate standout. Button-ups with double-welted flap pockets are made of sexy materials like silk. His Lasso Shirts complete with colorful embellishments on the collar, one of his biggest hits of 2024, will be introduced in long sleeve versions made of crepe wool jacquard. New core offerings include hoodies with snap-button collars, accessories like leather driving gloves, and dressy boots with a pointed toe done in black leather or chestnut suede. After a decade of direct-to-consumer sales, he’s hoping that this line will take him to the next level and even potentially pique the interest of retailers like Sak’s or Harrod’s.
“Direct-to-consumer is tiring. It’s hard, especially with social media,” says Phillips. “Not only do you have to design a great garment, you have to make a funny little clickable video just to get it to sell. And I think we’ve hit our cap. So I really want to get into more retailers to get to more people.”
It’s a giant step for a designer who only released his first official collection in May 2024 and is still operating a brand out of his Brooklyn apartment. His aim is to operate in the realm of premium to eventually reach luxury, with pieces currently retailing upwards of $420 for outerwear. Phillips is very serious about his craft, and he’s making clothing at the highest level he ever has.
“This is our largest cohesive collection,” he says in reference to the 70-piece line on display in the showroom. “We’re trying to really get into the luxury space. I got all of the top-notch fabrics and trims that I could.”
Phillips has been making clothes “his whole life.” He made his first item when he was 13 and sold his first design at 16, with no formal design training. Around five years ago, he started posting tutorials on social media for his followers to learn how to do things like make welts or cargo pockets. It was a smart decision. By coupling his design journey with his eccentric personality, Phillips humanized himself to his audience in a world that sometimes can feel a bit uppity. It’s resulted in a loyal community—153,00 followers and counting on Instagram.
Pants were his first big success. The Mr. Poopys covered in cargo pouches and wavy-paneled Curve Jeans—which respectively debuted in 2020 and 2021—are staple steady sellers to this day. And Phillips wants to keep expanding his line with new pant styles, with or without pockets. For KidSuper’s Fall/Winter 2025 show, Phillips collaborated with Colm Dillane on five pairs of pants featuring his meticulous design elements. A giant brown satin flap pocket was attached to a pair of indigo denim jeans, and in another pair of trousers, raw hanging white threads created a pinstripe effect.
Clothing isn’t the only thing that’s leveling up. Phillips closed out 2024 with a memorable lookbook that got the internet talking. Models with black eyes and bloody noses were laid out on the street as if they had just gotten in a street fight. It was Phillips’ first campaign that he worked on entirely in-house, and he’s eager to expand on that momentum moving forward by creating more original visuals.
As he further dips his toe into the luxury world, he’s had a lot of guidance from Mike Amiri. While they may seem like an unlikely pair at first, Phillips calls the Angeleno one of his biggest mentors in the industry. He was a big reason Phillips decided to show in Paris. Following Amiri’s Fall/Winter 2025 presentation, Phillips gifted Amiri with a custom bobblehead of himself that read “Super Dad.”
“Mike Amiri is that guy, man. I love him,” says Phillips. “He gives me so much advice for free. If I have any question, he’ll be quick to answer. He gives me recommendations or he will tell me what to focus on.”
And what Phillips is focusing on now is continuing to grow his label. “I’m hoping we can expand even further on the basics. I want to do a leather line, footwear. Womenswear is huge on my mind,” he says. “But of course expanding, getting into luxury retailers, and just doing more fun campaigns.”
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