If a 2016 revival is really and truly upon us, then we must prepare to reevaluate any and all hypebeast-golden-era trends with clear eyes, and, most importantly, full hearts. Especially when those eyes and hearts align.
Last night, actor and lifelong hypebeast Timothée Chalamet made moves towards this end as he continued his Oscar campaign with a Q&A panel moderated by his A Complete Unknown costar, Elle Fanning, in Los Angeles. For the occasion, he donned a nostalgic garment: a blue-and-white-striped button-up shirt from Comme des Garçons PLAY, the influential Japanese fashion label’s once-ubiquitous, since-maligned diffusion line that first launched in 2002. The sub-brand’s emblem—a little heart with eyes—felt inescapable a decade ago, but is a rare sighting today. Chalamet styled his with light-wash jeans and box-fresh white sneakers—another style seemingly resurrected from the late-2010s trend graveyard.
There was a time in the not-so-distant past when high fashion and hype felt indistinguishable. Splashy, limited-edition items like a hoodie from the graffiti-inspired GucciGhost collaboration and zip-tied sneakers from Off-White’s partnership with Nike were among the most enviable acquisitions in menswear circles at the time. Around the same time, Comme des Garçons mastermind Rei Kawakubo found a hungry mass audience via PLAY thanks to the sub-label’s cheeky, basics-with-a-twist line, whose relatively accessible price point made it popular among young consumers. The heart-stamped pieces have gotten a bad rap in recent years, inspiring eye-rolls among those who’ve “graduated” from streetwear to more classic fashions.
But as a lover of anything that disrupts a classic silhouette with a bit of cheek, PLAY’s basics have always felt timeless to me. And, evidently, Chalamet concurs—which makes sense given that he has never been shy about his love of flashy, nostalgic brands.
In the past three months alone, he has worn head-to-toe Chrome Hearts to a headline-generating effect: once, in a persimmon-colored leather number he coordinated with his partner, Kylie Jenner, for the Los Angeles premiere of Marty Supreme, and again with a velvety three-piece suit and matching Timberland boots, which he wore while he accepted his first Golden Globe for his performance in the said ping-pong epic. But he’s worn all sorts of timestamps over the years, from slim-fitting Adidas joggers befitting a “Gallatin student on a hungover bagel run,” to his documented True Religion obsession, to his Y2K-coded Bapesta dupe sneakers. He has also, of course, already worn CDG PLAY’s most notorious grail: the high-top Chuck Taylors from the brand’s hugely popular Converse collaboration.
Chalamet’s wardrobe has always done its own thing, toggling between buzzy new designs and deep-cut throwbacks. But he seems most at ease in pieces that carry the residue of a specific internet era—garments that remind me, for one, of Tumblr moodboards (King Kylie’s, perhaps), Hypebeast comment sections, and the pre-algorithm thrill of a limited drop. (He is, after all, a 2014 graduate of New York City’s infamous Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School.) The Comme des Garçons heart was once shorthand for entry-level cool, but it reads differently in 2026. It’s no longer the uniform of a guy camping outside Supreme. It’s that of someone who has an established, trend-averse sense of style, but remembers what it was like to save $185 for a long-sleeve shirt with a sentient, winking embroidery.