Katseye Paid Tribute to this Iconic ’90s Supermodel Runway Moment at Jingle Ball

What do you get when you combine an iconic ’90s supermodel moment, a boundary-busting global girl group, and co-founder of former cult-favorite brand Opening Ceremony? A viral moment, that’s what. Since its debut earlier this year, Katseye has proven that the perfect recipe will create a delicious pop star stew. And the wintertime varietal—displayed at a Jingle Ball performance on Sunday—has proven to be just as tasty.

During the event, held at TD Garden in Boston, Katseye performed songs from its first EP, SIS (Soft Is Strong). For the occasion, the sextet dressed in coordinated, vintage-inspired, yet festive ensembles—custom pieces courtesy of Anna Sui. Humberto Leon, who has been working with Kasteye for three years as the group’s creative director, came up with the idea for a collaboration with Sui, his longtime friend in fashion. “I was excited to bring Anna into the mix because we’re old friends and she’s one of my biggest inspirations,” Leon tells W.

Katseye, a musical group created in collaboration with Geffen records and Hybe, features Lara Raj, Sophia Laforteza, Manon Bannerman, Megan Skiendiel, Daniela Avanzini, and Yoonchae Jeong, young women between the ages of 17 and 22, hailing from the Philippines, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United States. It’s truly the girl-group equivalent of “sugar and spice and everything nice,” with Leon cast as Professor Utonium. The designer joined when the sextet was still in training. “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into to be honest,” he says. Previously, Leon’s only experience in the music industry was directing The Linda Lindas’s “Racist, Sexist Boy” music video. Now, he helps Katseye with “everything that’s not singing or dancing.”

Of course, that includes fashion, a topic on which the designer is an expert. Coming up with a concept for the Jingle Ball look, his direction was clear: Sui’s spring/summer 1994 collection meets Mean Girls with a modernity added to keep things squarely in 2024. Sui admits she was unfamiliar with Katseye when Leon first approached her. But when she brought the opportunity to her staff, they immediately convinced her. “A lot of the girls in the office love the group,” she says. “They were like, ‘You have to do it.’” The chance to reference her past was also too enticing to pass up. “I just thought, ‘Fantastic,’” Sui says. “This is exactly how everybody’s dressing right now, so I was thrilled to reference some of the older styles.”

Fashion historians already know the collection we’re talking about—the one that saw Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, and Naomi Campbell close out Sui’s show in babydoll dresses and showgirl headdresses. After Evangelista walked, she opted to wait at the back of the runway for her fellow models so the three could all strut together, leading to a now-iconic moment in fashion history. “I didn’t even know what had happened until the models came backstage afterward,” Sui says, reminiscing on the 30-year-old memory. Back then, the designer’s father would take pictures during each of her presentations and the two would get the images developed later that day. Upon seeing her father’s images hours after the show, Sui finally understood the impact of the models’ decision. “I looked at my father’s pictures and thought, ‘Oh my god, this is a moment.’”

And while none of the members of Katseye were even alive to witness the ’94 runway in real-time, they were still inticed by the idea of paying homage to it in their own way. “Katseye is hungry to learn about fashion,” Leon says of his young pupils. “I’ve always felt like my mission in life and fashion is to talk about where things come from. Kids these days all shop vintage, so I love to give historical context to these styles that are popular again today.”

The styling helped to keep the group looking modern. Leon—with help from stylist Imaan Sayed—put each of the girls in a pair of thigh-high black leather boots to ground the ensembles and create some uniformity. The choice of shoewear, along with the red dresses, however, does allow for another reference: the famous “Jingle Bell Rock” scene from Mean Girls.

“I’ve always been a fan of that movie,” Leon says. “And the fans have been asking for that.” The girls even recreated the scene for TikTok. In fact, the “Eyecons,” as the group’s fans are called, are getting a fashion history lesson along with Katseye, much to Leon’s delight. “These silhouettes are constantly replicated today without knowledge of their origins,” he says.

But which one is Sui and Leon’s favorite? As a mentor for the group, it’s difficult for Leon to single out one look, but Sui had no problem sharing her pick from the six: the lace baby doll dress worn by Skiendiel. “The baby doll is iconic,” she said, and Leon agreed. To be fair, it is the silhouette that started it all.