A Toast to Planet Hollywood and Its Kitschy, Collectible Merch—In Honor of Koché’s Pre-Fall Show
Planet Hollywood Merch
On October 22, 1991, La-La Land came to Times Square. It was the opening night of Planet Hollywood, a theme restaurant backed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis and his then-wife, Demi Moore. They all turned up for the big event, as did many of the major stars of the decade, including Wesley Snipes, Michael J. Fox, Kim Basinger, and Glenn Close. As additional locations opened around the U.S. and in London, other actors and even some supermodels endorsed Planet Hollywood—Whoopi Goldberg, Geena Davis, Drew Barrymore, and Cindy Crawford, to name a few.
Inside the restaurant, you could chow down next to a piece of movie memorabilia, like the Terminator’s leather jacket or Freddy Krueger’s claw. When the meal was over, you could walk out with some heavily logoed, rainbow-hued clothing. Planet Hollywood bomber jackets and tees became collectible items in the ’90s. Like the Hard Rock Cafe equivalents of a decade earlier, they were tourist trophies.
Today, the Paris-based designer Christelle Kocher paid homage to the kitschy magic of Planet Hollywood and its merch when she showed her Pre-Fall 2019 Koché collection in the original restaurant in Times Square, complete with her own take on the iconic logo. “I started looking at those old photos of the first big Planet Hollywood party and I couldn’t get them out of my mind,” the designer said over the phone the day before the show. “It was the era of big blockbuster movies and the era of the supermodel, and the restaurant was so glam at the time.” She adds, “These movie stars, models, and athletes were drinking Champagne with the Planet Hollywood T-shirts on, and they just had fun.”
Kocher celebrated American culture with her last Pre-Fall collection, which she showed inside Manhattan’s storied bookshop the Strand. This outing offered a different kind of nostalgia, one that’s surprisingly well timed. With the Costume Institute’s upcoming exploration of camp, Planet Hollywood just might be ready for its close-up again.
