I wish camera phones were as common as they are today when I was a pre-teen. If they were, I would have a vault full of all my Baby Phat moments. I am not talking about the extra bit of chub I dropped right before high school either. I remember every rapper and singer in the early 2000’s had a clothing line or endorsed one. And my poison of choice was Baby Phat. Mostly because I loved Kimora Lee Simmons and all the fabulosity (it is a word; coined by her) she stood for.

Fast forward 10 plus years, I am minding my business when I see Kimora tag, TAG, Baby Phat on an Instagram post. Could it be? It ‘twas. She bought back that brand and did a relaunch and I was ecstatic. Now I am a full adult and can spend my monies as I see fit instead of begging my mom to get a new top for picture day. Not that Baby Phat’s aesthetic exactly matches mine, but I wanted some pieces for nostalgia’s sake. Now that the line has dropped, let us dig into this.

First, a day or so before the re-launch it was announced that this was a Baby Phat X Forever 21 collaboration. Ummm come again Kimora? Forever 21 is not reading fabulosity ma’am. But I understood the thinking here. Prove you still have major buying power in the market. I was not thrilled by it but I digress. The days leading up to the launch we were given teasers with ads and promos only Kimora could produce, dripping opulence just how I like it. So it still felt like the old Baby Phat and that was a good thing. Especially since, I saw her daughters wearing the iconic Baby Phat cat earrings. There is a long story behind these earrings but for your sake, I will make it short. I wanted them back in the day; mother said no, the end.

Launch day is here and to be honest I almost let it slip my mind. But there I was at 7 am on Forever 21.com searching. At first glance, this was not the Baby Phat I thought I was going to get. Everything is minimal, more tamed. Then again, we are no longer in the early 2000’s so time to adapt. There were a few things that stuck out to me though. One was the lack of plus size pieces. There were some but the pickings were slim. And remember my earrings I was so excited to get? They were nowhere to be found…because they were not even produced for this launch. I ended up only purchasing a t-shirt with the logo, in crystals of course ‘cause go big or go home. But for the most part, this seemed like Forever 21 clothes with a few Baby Phat logos sprinkled in. Nothing that would make me overly excited.

I foresee, and am hoping, she will be relaunching the brand on its own without Forever 21 to really meet my inner adolescent needs. Here are my favorites from the drop: