OriginalFake: KAWS, Medicom Toy, and a Streetwear Legacy
OriginalFake wasn't a counterfeit label. Created by KAWS and Medicom Toy, it brought the artist's visual world into clothing, collectible toys, and a Tokyo store between 2006 and 2013. Its story connects streetwear and contemporary art through distinctive designs and collaborations.
A T-shirt, a figure, or a record sleeve can each be someone's first encounter with an artist. OriginalFake made that connection tangible: this was art people could wear, collect, and live with.
From Street Ads to an Artist's Visual Language
KAWS, born Brian Donnelly, began as a graffiti writer in Jersey City before becoming known for his interventions in New York advertising. During the 1990s, he removed posters from bus shelters and phone booths, painted over them in his studio, and returned the altered images to their public displays.
Fashion photography became the setting for unexpected characters and cartoon-like forms. The result could make a passerby look twice: familiar advertising, interrupted by an unfamiliar presence.
That tension between recognition and reinvention carried into his later work. Rather than treating every reference as a counterfeit, it is more useful to distinguish his early advertising interventions, his reworking of pop-culture imagery, and his collaborations with established brands. Together, they reveal how one artist's visual language can travel across different settings.
The Tokyo Store Made OriginalFake Tangible
OriginalFake's Aoyama store opened in May 2006. Masamichi Katayama of Wonderwall collaborated with KAWS on an interior organized around a large, partly dissected Companion figure.
The sculpture divided the space, while changes in the flooring helped express the contrast between original and fake. Even the custom tiles rewarded a closer look. Wonderwall's project description connects these details to the store's central idea: bringing an imagined character into the physical world.
The store offered more than a place to buy clothing or toys. It let visitors step into the same visual world they encountered on the products. The architecture was part of the experience.
2013 mastermind JAPAN x OriginalFake T-shirt
OriginalFake x mastermind JAPAN: A Design Worth a Closer Look
The 2013 OriginalFake x mastermind JAPAN T-shirt shows how a collaboration can bring two recognizable styles together without losing either one.
Its graphic places mastermind JAPAN's skull and crossbones inside a ring of rounded teeth associated with OriginalFake's Chomper motif. The skull gives the design its center; the teeth turn it into something more playful and slightly unsettling.
Medicom Toy's announcement listed the collaboration tee at 8,400 yen, including tax, for a March 2013 pop-up at OPAQUE GINZA. That release record gives the piece a specific place in the label's final year.
The design is worth discussing on its own terms, not simply as an expensive object. Its appeal comes from the way two familiar motifs become a single, readable graphic.
Why OriginalFake Closed in 2013
The closure was announced in January 2013, and the store shut its doors on May 31, ending a seven-year run.
KAWS later described the strain of producing seasonal clothing collections and managing the business. In a 2025 interview, he explained that he preferred shorter collaborations with other brands, followed by a return to painting. That is a more precise account than saying he abandoned clothing altogether.
OriginalFake now represents a defined chapter in his career. Its clothing and objects document how his artwork moved into everyday life, but the label's history should not be confused with the whole of KAWS's practice. A later KAWS collaboration is not automatically an OriginalFake release.
The signature "XX" eyes and skull motif, seen here on a VMA Moonman redesigned by KAWS, became the definitive hallmark of OriginalFake's visual identity. (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons / Anthony Quintano | CC BY 2.0)
Beyond OriginalFake: KAWS and Album Artwork
Music packaging offers another way into KAWS's work. These collaborations belong to his broader career, including projects made long after OriginalFake closed.
Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak (2008)
KAWS contributed artwork to the deluxe edition of 808s & Heartbreak.
In the pictured artwork, white-gloved hands hold a crumpled red heart against a pale background. The contrast between a fragile-looking object and cartoon hands gives the image a tenderness that suits the album's emotional world. It is a reminder that a small graphic can carry as much feeling as a large sculpture.
Clipse – Till the Casket Drops (2009) & Let God Sort Em Out (2025)
KAWS created artwork for Clipse's Til the Casket Drops and returned for their 2025 album, Let God Sort Em Out. The connection spans sixteen years of the duo's recording history
The pictured white picture-disc edition of Let God Sort Em Out pairs a pale pink anatomical character image with a graphic printed on the record itself. The official store identifies this version as a white vinyl picture disc with gatefold packaging. Here, the disc becomes part of the visual presentation rather than disappearing inside the sleeve.
j-hope – Jack In The Box (2022)
For Jack In The Box, KAWS's imagery meets j-hope's own presence. The pictured artwork shows the musician seated among oversized, brightly colored hands, wearing a black-and-white patterned outfit.
The contrast keeps j-hope at the center while surrounding him with a recognizable KAWS world. This collaboration also entered a museum setting: the Art Gallery of Ontario included the album's vinyl record in its KAWS: FAMILY exhibition.
The Legacy Is in the Details
OriginalFake's story becomes more interesting when you look beyond the word "hype." A ring of teeth on a shirt, a sculpture dividing a shop, or a pair of hands on an album sleeve can show how an artist makes a visual identity recognizable across very different objects.
That is the lasting appeal of this chapter of KAWS's work: the invitation to look closely, whether the object belongs in a wardrobe, on a shelf, or in a record collection.
Which OriginalFake design or KAWS music collaboration would you put in your own collection? Tell us in the comments.
