This is what Gen Z is obsessed with right now: Parke, Labubu and more

New York Post

18-06-2025

The scene is like something out of a turn-of-the-millennium teen movie — swarms of co-eds roaming college campuses, all wearing the same sweatshirt.
This time, however, it's not a vintage Gap ad come to life — and modern girls are paying even more for the privilege of looking exactly like their peers.
The object of their fashion affection is a $125 pullover from Parke, an out-of-nowhere online clothing company started by a Jersey girl influencer — and Gen Z's gotta have it.
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'It's almost like a status kind of thing,' Long Islander Gabriella Fischer, 20, told The Post of the spendy sweaters.
13 Parke is a fast-growing online clothing company known for its sweatshirts, which range in price from $125 to $140.
Heather Khalifa for the NY Post
13 Long Islander Gabriella Fischer, 20, said it's a 'status thing' to own one.
Heather Khalifa for the NY Post
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Chelsea Kramer founded her clothing label Parke, which is her middle name, in 2022 and started selling the now-inescapable Parke Varsity Mockneck less than two years ago.
The sweatshirts are pretty exclusive — if you're not on the website when there's a drop, you're out of luck.
Fischer owns four Parke sweatshirts and said most girls in her sorority at Penn State own at least one.
13 A big part of the hype around the sweatshirt is that sense of feeling included, said Fischer, pictured here with friends Samantha Rothseid, Kali Versailles and Ella Szerencsy.
Heather Khalifa for the NY Post
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'You see people with the new sweatshirt, and everyone would be like, 'Oh my god, you got the new Parke,'' Fischer said. 'But I think once everyone has it and it becomes easy to get, it's not going to be as trendy.'
Parke's limited collaborations are the draw — one with activewear brand Set Active was what put the company on Shirel Bendavid's map.
'It was all over my feed, and the aesthetic immediately caught my eye,' she told The Post, adding that she now owns three Parke sweatshirts, one from that collaboration.
13 'It's worth it,' Shirel Bendavid said.
Courtesy Shirel Bendavid
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'Parke sweaters have that 'cool girl' look — effortlessly trendy, comfortable and visually appealing,' she said. 'Plus, being a relatively new brand adds to the excitement and sense of exclusivity.'
The price of the sweatshirt definitely makes the girls pause, but for someone who loves fashion and staying on trend, Fischer believes 'this is the item to buy right now.'
'Once I saw more and more people wearing it and seeing it still be on trend after a few months, I was like, OK, it's worth it,' she admitted. 'If you're willing to have spent $130 on a sweatshirt, I would tell you it's worth it.'
13 Parke sweatshirts drop online — and only the fastest can scoop them up.
Heather Khalifa for the NY Post
Bendavid agreed. 'I only buy items I absolutely love and know I'll get a lot of wear out of.'
Last year alone, Parke netted $16 million in revenue, Kramer told The Cut — and even she finds the cult status 'actually insane.'
'I think there's that element of virality, where…one person's wearing it and then the next,' Kramer told Glossy Pop in October. 'We could probably sell a garbage bag.'
13 'This is the item to buy right now,' Fischer said.
Heather Khalifa for the NY Post
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However, some have accused the brand of selling cheap duds at high prices.
Abby French, known as @sustainablefashionfriend, went into 'private investigator mode' and screenshotted all of Kramer's videos to dig deeper. She believes Kramer buys $15 sweatshirts on Alibaba, puts 'PARKE' on them and sells them for over eight times the price.
'If a brand is telling you that they're transparent, they should at least be a little bit transparent, even if it's in pricing or where it's made,' French, a 29-year-old sustainability consultant, told The Post. 'You should be asking more from a brand that is charging you a lot for something.'
13 Parke netted $16 million in revenue, its founder said.
Heather Khalifa for the NY Post
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'I genuinely feel upset seeing all of these college girls buying this sweatshirt,' Mallory Brooks, @plzdontbuythat on TikTok, who works in textile and apparel design, told The Post. 'You're not buying something that has inherent value… What you're being sold is inclusivity, a sense of belonging.'
But Parke isn't the only status symbol Gen Z is vying to spend money on. Here are some other things the young ones are blowing their cash on right now.
Soho shopping sanctuary
13 Brandy Melville, often referred to as just 'Brandy,' is the cool spot in Soho for Zoomers to shop and hang.
Tamara Beckwith
The name on every Gen Z's lips is 'Brandy.'
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Brandy Melville, the one-size-only stores that had their heyday in the early 2010s, is now being rediscovered.
Lines formed at NYC stores within the last year, partly due to its TikTok-famous employee, Allegra Pinkowitz, who shares her outfits of the day while waiting for the subway.
13 Edikted is another shopping destination for tweens.
Tamara Beckwith
That's what's driven most early 20s shoppers to Soho — particularly on the block of Broadway in between Broome and Spring streets, which New York Magazine dubbed 'Tween Row' — as they wait in lines for Edikted, Princess Polly, Garage and PacSun.
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Along with 'basics,' these stores sell resurrected trendy duds like extremely low-rise shorts, studded denim and chiffon tanks.
Labubu lunacy
13 The status markers are everywhere — dangling from purses, backpacks and water bottles — but they're hard to come by.
REUTERS
No, Labubu is not the new internet slang for lobotomy.
The creepy dolls with a monster-like smile might be the singular It item of 2025.
The round and furry collectibles with pointy ears have been dubbed the 'Birkin bags of bag charms' because they're so exclusive. The $27.99 keychains are exclusively manufactured by Pop Mart and are sold in blind boxes, so the buyer doesn't know which Labubu they're going to get.
The exclusivity around the trinket went into overdrive thanks to known Labubu lovers Lisa of Blackpink, Rihanna, Dua Lipa and Hilary Duff.
13 The internet calls them the 'Birkin bags of bag charms' because they're so hard to come by.
JESSICA LEE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Pop Mart brick-and-mortar stores, like the one in the World Trade Center, have seen hourlong lines of people trying to get their hands on the beloved figure, as have the store's Robo Shop vending machines.
New releases sell out online in seconds, and almost immediately, they go up on reselling sites such as eBay or StockX for triple the price.
They're so hard to find that people are now actively seeking out the knockoff version, dubbed Lafufus, which has garnered its own fan base on TikTok. There's also an entire secondary market of clothes and bags for the Labubus, so you can accessorize your accessory.
Scented sanitizer
13 The Touchland candy-colored sanitizers are $10 each and come in rectangular glass bottles that fit in the palm of your hand.
Touchland
Sanitation is now the ultimate symbol of 'cool' with the $10 Touchland candy-colored pocket sanitizers that come in rectangular glass bottles that fit in the palm of the hand.
Part of the appeal of the sanitizer mist is the minimalist and colorful aesthetic that looks more like a gadget than a typical hand sanitizer.
They've become so popular among teens and tweens that they're akin to Pokémon cards of previous generations, being traded as though they are prized possessions. The craze has gotten to the point where teachers have had to limit them during class.
Lip gloss is poppin'
13 Summer Fridays lip balms cost $24 per tube.
Not unlike the Lip Smackers craze or the millennial obsession with the EOS egg-shaped lip balms, Gen Z can't get enough of lip balms, oils, butters and glosses.
But their go-tos have a bigger price tag than the $3 drug store options.
Summer Fridays, Rhode, Ole Henriksen, Rare Beauty and Laneige, just to name a few, have become a staple for girls in their teens and 20s. Dig into any Zoomer's purse and you're sure to find at least one of these 'lippies' lying around.