Colm Dillane, who goes by the name KidSuper, was sitting on a stool at the Superplastic flagship on Prince Street in SoHo, surrounded by synthetic figurines such as Janky, Guggimon and Superdackel, the latter, the result of a collaboration between Superplastic and Mercedes Benz. On the wall were $500 Varsity jackets by Vince Staples, while the art toys Dillane designed through a partnership with Superplastic, were in a vitrine in the center of the store.

Fresh on the heels of his debut on the Louis Vuitton men’s wear runway in Paris last month, Dillane cringes when someone in his entourage calls him a prodigy child. “You know what that sounds like, one of those Wes Anderson characters. It’s like, ‘At age 5 he was an Olympic tennis player, at age 7, he solved Smallpox.’”

Dillane’s life does sound a lot like “The Royal Tennenbaums,” the Anderson film about a family of eccentric overachievers. Dillane is only 32 and he’s shown his men’s wear collection on the Paris stage three times already.

The collision of mainstream fashion and street wear is abundantly clear at Superplastic. While Dillane is considered a fashion outsider, when Louis Vuitton announced that he would be the next guest designer, presenting a collection on January 19, the fashion community was rife with rumors that Vuitton was “auditioning” Dillane for the late Virgil Abloh’s role.

For his part, Dillane was coy when asked about a full-time gig at Vuitton, saying, “That’s a crazy rumor.... but it’s not out of the realm of possibility.” Vuitton said Dillane was embedded in the men’s studio. In any case, the luxury brand announced last week that it has named Pharrell Williams as creative director.

Dillane is the founder of the KidSuper apparel store in Brooklyn. He’s the subject of a short film by award-winning filmmaker Alex Morsanutto of Silvermine Productions. Morsanutto captures the ever-evolving life of the peripatetic KidSuper, from the DIY ethos of the brand to his collaborations with rappers such as Flatbush Zombies and Joey Bada$$.

Dillane has his hands full with projects, including a 10,000-square-foot KidSuper headquarters opening in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The multimedia artist and entertainer now operates a storefront and studio in Brooklyn. He started his career selling T-shirts at his High School cafeteria.

“I had a space where I invited photographers and other creative types to my recording studio and store,” Dillane said. “I always had a KidSuper building where I let anyone sleep on the floor or couch. Now, with 10,000 square feet, I’m unfortunately inviting many couch dwellers, but we’ll see. The new place will have a recording studio, store, gallery, photo studio, bar and art studio. If I can make it like a YMCA for creatives, that will be the goal.”

Some of Dillane’s couch surfers have gone on to successful careers. “Yeah, a lot of the people that lived there became quite successful in their own fields,” he said, citing French musician Lolo Zouaï who is a global superstar, opening for Dua Lipa on tour. “Felt, a clothing brand, is a pretty successful brand,” he said. “I don’t consider myself a ‘talent scout’ but I have been good at picking people out.

“I wasn’t obsessed with success, I was more obsessed with finding people that I liked, who were creators. I liked people that worked hard,” Dillane said. “You realize that those two factors are very important and might to lead to success. But if you asked me at the time did I think they would become as successful as they are, I would have said, ‘No.’

“This doesn’t feel like a job, it feels like I’m acting in a ‘Truman Show’ type of reality show — which is a great movie,” Dillane said. “Jim Carey is my favorite person ever. I can do this with my eyebrows, [moving them up and down like Carey]. I thought I was going to be Jim Carey when I was little, so I looked in the mirror and trained my eyebrows. I think it’s a good, like, party trick.”

Through Superplastic, Dillane has his eye on the meta verse. NFTs of Janky and Guggimon are being minted as part of a collection called Headtripz and offered at auction on Superplastic.com. Offers for KidSuper’s comic book, The Super Tales, range in price from $5.84 or .0033 WETH to $251.80 or .151WETH.

“The people behind the brand are very important. They've got some pretty cool people at Superplastic, who are always trying to push what’s possible,” Dillane.

“They sent me a clown for my birthday,” Dillane said. “I don't specifically like clowns, and it was very, very scary, but it was also a wild and amazing decision. I knew I would like to work with and collaborate with someone crazy enough to send me a clown for my birthday. And it was a clown who lives part time in an insane asylum.

“It was wild. He knocked on my door. It seems this is his part time gig and he lives in an insane asylum,” Dillane said. “He would not leave. It was very unexpected. There was a crazy man dressed in a clown outfit at the door to my home. It wasn't even my birthday, it was a couple days before, so it was even more shocking. I knew from that moment that this was a good company to collaborate with.”

“I was so young when I started to sell T-shirts,” Dillane said. “You kind of need this fearlessness and this feeling that anything's possible. Now that I’m doing more things, I’m like, ‘holy shit,’ maybe anything is possible.”

Dillane has led a peripatetic existence. His family settled in New York City when he was 13, but moved a lot when he was between the ages of 3 and 12. The family went from Chicago to Mexico, and then Wisconsin. His parents, he said, “were very supportive in nurturing my creativity.

“My mom is kind of an artist type, so we would always do art projects growing up,” he said. “I remember in first grade, me and my mom made handmade Valentine’s cards for everyone. We cut up potatoes to make stamps. I won a lot of art awards. My mom was the drama coach or teacher at my school.”

An only child growing up, Dillane said he wants 15 children. “But I haven't started yet, so the next 10 years are going to be busy for me. What will my name be then, MiddleAgeSuper, AgingSuper?

The partnership with Superplastic produced three toys, which look something like a cross between a Disney cartoon and Japanese manga. “Obviously, it’s a doll,” Dillane said. “I wanted to design something useful. Not only is it aesthetically-pleasing, it’s holding a paintbrush. It’s my first toy.”