the college newspapers cannot agree on kai cenat and honestly same

while kai cenat and his sister kaiya spent thursday doing a close friends only deep dive into vivet and the creative process behind it, the student press was having its own separate argument about whether any of that is good actually.

the webwire writeup of the close friends session describes kai and kaiya getting personal about the brand, the inspiration, and what making something real looks like when you come from where they come from. it reads warm. it reads intentional. nobody in that session was asking whether vivet needs to be reworked.

the stute, which is the stevens institute of technology student paper, published a piece titled 'let's rework vivet, kai' on thursday and that title is doing a lot of work. per the piece, the critique is not that vivet failed to show up, it is that vivet showed up and left room to be better. the piece is apparently written with something close to affection, the way you tell a friend their fit is almost there.

chat, we now have two college newspapers with two completely different verdicts published within 24 hours of each other.

the daily orange ran an op-ed this week calling kai a model for pursuing passion despite pushback. the stute is publishing constructive criticism of the collection itself. these are not the same take. they are not even in the same conversation. one is about the person, one is about the product, and the internet has been gleefully pointing out that distinction all morning.

some corners of the discourse think the stute piece is exactly what a fashion brand needs, that friendly pushback from a thoughtful audience is more useful than cosigns. others think the timing is pointed, specifically because kai literally sat down to talk about his creative vision the same day and the implication is that nobody asked.

a few people noted that kai has now had his vivet work picked apart by fashion press, student press, a former collaborator, an xqc tangent, and at least one yeezy comparison that will not stop following him around. per the close friends session coverage, kai still seems to be in the business of making things rather than relitigating the reviews.

the stute piece is not a takedown. the daily orange piece is not a puff piece. the internet however has flattened both into a bracket and is voting.

anyway. the brand is three weeks old and already has a college rivalry.