Duolingo Is Turning Fashion's Most Mispronounced Names Into Clothes
Teaming up with Megan O’Cain to help you with everything from Hermès to Jacquemus.
Ever found yourself confidently talking about a designer brand only to realise you’ve been pronouncing it completely wrong? You’re not alone. According to a new Duolingo survey conducted with YouGov, 62% of Americans say they’re confident they can pronounce “Hermès,” but just 15% actually get it right. Meanwhile, Jacquemus takes the crown as the fashion name Americans feel least confident saying.
For New York Fashion Week, Duolingo is taking the confusion from the runway to the wardrobe with “The Phonetic Collection,” a capsule designed with Next in Fashion alum Megan O’Cain. The collection transforms familiar fashion references into playful pieces featuring phonetic spellings, exaggerated proportions and plenty of Duolingo humor.
Classic tailoring, sportswear and accessories are reworked through O’Cain’s signature curved silhouettes, monochrome palette and unexpected typography, turning fashion’s unofficial language lessons into wearable statements.
The collection will debut across New York, including a campaign and presentation by Duo on Canal Street, a fitting location given its reputation for designer goods and lookalikes. A two-day pop-up at Null Object will also give visitors the chance to see the pieces in person and bid their Duolingo streak for the chance to take one home.
Part fashion experiment, part crash course, “The Phonetic Collection” makes a case for embracing the awkwardness of learning and suggests that you don’t need to be fluent in fashion to dress the part.
In other news, Hypebae looks back at the last decade of fashion and its relationship with the body in The Body Issue.
