LOWLuxury Fashion Collector Talks Punk Culture and Luxury Fashion in New Haven

Courtesy of Kilian Appleby

New Haven punk scene member Kilian Appleby, known online as LOWLuxury, collects and creates videos about an unusual area of ​​fashion: punk-inspired designer clothing.

With a subscriber base of over 9,000, Appleby has built a small but deeply engaged community of punk fashion enthusiasts who follow his commentary on punk brands and analysis of luxury pieces from his collection.

“My style for me is a natural outgrowth of punk and hardcore, and that stuff is rooted in New Haven,” Appleby said. “For me, it’s my home, no matter what, and I’d like to see it evolve in terms of the things that interest me.”

According to Appleby, New Haven is a city with deep punk roots, with venues like Toad’s Place, Cafe Nine and Three Sheets historically hosting punk bands.

Appleby began playing in punk bands when he was 12. His early interest in punk music, as well as his upbringing in New Haven, largely inspired his fashion identity.

Appleby’s foray into fashion content creation began in 2020 when he launched his own YouTube channel, initially making videos on how to authenticate designer clothing.

As Appleby expanded his content, he discovered a topic that was rarely covered, but which, thanks to his background in punk music, connected him even more to it: luxury clothing brand and art project Enfants Riches Déprimés.

Founded in 2012, Parisian and Los Angeles-based luxury fashion house Enfants Riches Déprimés (French for “depressed rich kids”) puts its rebellious, bohemian narrative at the forefront of its brand. According to founder Henri Alexandre Levy, ERD is “elitist, nihilistic haute couture” with references to violence, politics, religion, drugs and, of course, subversive music. ERD’s clothes are often handmade and produced in small quantities; this business model drives up prices in the slow fashion model.

The brand sells a wide range of clothes at different price points: $700 T-shirts, $95,000 haute couture jackets, blood-red cowboy boots, cashmere loops and more. These prices and the controversial subject matter of ERD clothing have earned the brand both praise and criticism.

ERD’s high price points and rebellious ethos have caught the attention of a number of celebrities, including Kanye West, Jared Leto and Playboi Carti, who embody the brand’s nihilistic, punk-infused aesthetic.

“If the vampire king himself, Playboi Carti, is wearing ERD, it must be good,” wrote Henry Zhang ’26, a self-described Playboi Carti superfan.

Not everyone agrees with this.

Miles Parkhurst ’27 feels that ERD sells “very aesthetically pleasing products” that are “way too expensive for almost anyone who necessarily has grunge tastes.”

But through his YouTube channel, Appleby demystifies ERD’s designs, offering viewers, even those who don’t have direct access to ERD’s designs, a glimpse into the brand’s craftsmanship and the punk influences behind the designs.

The brand has one flagship store in Paris, which Levy says is designed to make customers feel as uncomfortable as possible.

“(Brands like ERD) are deliberately difficult to understand, which makes a certain type of person like them more,” Appleby said. “Like the Stark family from Chrome Hearts, Henri, the founder of ERD. They become almost more than designers. They become trendsetters in a way.”

Using his life experiences and cultural knowledge of the New Haven punk scene, Appleby drops references to songs that even the labels behind them don’t reveal. For example, a recent video highlights Death from Above 1979 and Minor Threat as just two bands from which ERD has pulled artwork.

By democratizing information, Appleby has gained a loyal community of fans.

Appleby’s interest in fashion and ERD began when he was confronted with workplace dress codes and sought ways to express his punk individuality in a corporate setting. So when Appleby discovered ERD and its blasé-chic but gritty references to punk culture staples, he says he felt an immediate connection.

Since starting his own YouTube channel, Appleby has juggled content creation with his day job and regular punk music playing in bands, currently with New Haven collective Dagwood.

“When it comes to content, you have to get into it if you really like it and you love what you do, because it’s slow,” Appleby said. “But regardless of what your goal is, having an original point of view, that’s literally the most valuable thing… Whether you’re creating content, the clothes themselves, the fashion business, figuring out what your position or angle is is absolutely fundamental.”

Last year, as Appleby’s channel gained popularity, he began studying viewing trends to understand how to better serve his audience. ERD’s recent surge in popularity has spawned a slew of other brands, including Paly Hollywood and Marking Distance, that have put their own spin on hyperluxe.

Recognizing these new trends, Appleby is flexible and intentional about his content. He has a backlog of previously edited videos waiting to be released while he strategizes on the order in which they’re released.

“If you look at my stuff, it’s a pretty predictable pattern when I’m covering smaller brands versus a big brand that we don’t cover as much versus ERD, which we cover more,” he said. “I’m always on my bike. I’m always watching.”

Appleby said his content gives residents of mid-sized cities like Chicago and New Haven a chance to experience his niche of luxury fashion, even if they don’t have access to in-person retailers. His videos give viewers a sense of how these luxury pieces will feel and fit, inviting them into an exclusive fashion community.

Appleby has a clear view of the future of fashion content and his role in it. He hopes to see more accessible physical locations for high-fashion brands in places like New Haven, where his niche of luxury fashion isn’t yet readily available to consumers.

2nd Street, a luxury consignment store that already offered Enfants Riches Déprimés products in several of its other stores, plans to open a store on Elm Street in the near future.