It’s Chelsea Parke Kramer’s World and We’re All Just Living in It!
Welcome back, fellow fans of fashion and fashion drama! Here at the Fashion Stock Market, we are all about giving our raw and unfiltered view on the latest, juiciest fashions, events, and controversies. This week on the chopping block is none other than Chelsea Parke Kramer, best known for her claw clip hairstyle and relatively new fashion brand Parke. If you don’t know Parke as a brand that well, you might recognize the popularized mockneck many of your favorite influencers have been sporting. If you’re a college sorority girl, you may have a few friends who anxiously wait at their laptops before each launch, refreshing and refreshing until they can buy the latest drop of $130 sweatshirts (which are notorious for selling out in seconds, by the way!).
If you have no idea what I’m talking about…I mean, have you even been on TikTok lately? No worries, I am here to give you all there is to know about Chelsea Kramer and Parke, from the viral pop-ups to mixed reviews about the crewneck everyone’s dying to get their hands on.
The Now Iconic Parke Crewneck, With Chelsea Kramer’s Middle Name Plastered Across the Middle.
Photo: ParkeOfficial/Instagram
Let me paint a picture for my visual learners out there: it’s 3:00 AM in Soho, NYC. You’re a young girl in your twenties with a few friends who have one goal and one goal only for the day: to be first in line for the Parke pop-up. The event doesn’t start until 10:00 AM, but you have decided to get there as early as possible, since the lines are known for being hundreds of people long. When you get there, you aren’t surprised to find other groups of girls already in line, camping out for the rest of the night until the sun comes up. Everyone is wearing their favorite Parke sweat sets paired with trendy sneakers and cute accessories to match. After all, Chelsea Kramer will be there! You want to make a good first impression for the iconic influencer turned CEO.
When you finally get into the pop-up store, you are obsessed with everything you find–once again, Parke has outdone herself! You and your friends leave the event exhausted, but with a sense of accomplishment for your dedication to fashion. You decide to reward yourselves with matcha lattes from Blank Street and BECs. At the end of the day, you only have one thing on your mind: when will the next pop-up be?
Chelsea Kramer, Social Media Influencer and Founder of Parke
Photo: ChelseaParke/Instagram
Now, I know us fashion-crazy people can get in over our heads sometimes, but the Parke craze demonstrates something quite out of the ordinary, even for the average shopaholic. The big question is why? There are many factors at play, from Chelsea Kramer’s loyal social media following to Parke’s exclusive drops that resemble a shopping version of the Hunger Games. But if you ask me, I think Parke is an excellent example of TikTok’s influence on consumers, particularly young women who view clothing as a status symbol, or perhaps even a rite of passage.
Parke launched as an online store in 2022, with a focus on repurposing vintage denim. When Chelsea Kramer switched her approach to instead create unique and trendy staples, the Parke mockneck was born. According to Pinterest trends, over the last year searches for “Parke” have skyrocketed, increasing on average by 745.75%. The search term popularity had an index of 11 on June 2, 2024–now up to around 94 by June 1, 2025. We have seen a similar trend on Google, with the popularity of the search term increasing on average by 380% and the search term popularity having an index of 15 on June 2, 2024, compared to an index of around 72 on June 1, 2025. Searches spiked around January 26, 2025 and May 18, 2025, most likely due to the NYC spring pop-up that was going on that weekend. The distinguishing factor of the Parke sweatshirts that set it apart from any other crewnecks are, well duh, the giant letters that spell out the brand’s name on each item! The new drops are typically just a new combination of colors, without much else being altered from the previous drop. We’ve seen this before, of course, with trends like the Juicy Couture sweat set, PINK sweatpants, Vans, and even water bottles like Hydroflasks and Stanleys. People love wearing things with brand names on them. The difference is, these companies had a much larger presence in the fashion world before they blew up. Chelsea Kramer herself is what put Parke onto people’s timelines.
The increase of Parke searches on Pinterest over the past year
The brand never needed an expensive marketing budget to ensure its success, because Kramer’s social media presence is what drew her fans in. Her followers feel a personal connection to her and thus her brand. Parke pop-ups, for example, are an opportunity for people who have watched her popularity grow to meet her in the flesh–and maybe even get a selfie with her to post on their stories. As Allie Sisco, a 21-year-old, diehard Parke fan put it, “I’ve been following Chelsea for so long. She’s a role model and someone I aspire to be like…Just seeing the actual store with the sign and her pictures on the wall, I was like, Is this real life?” The allure is clear; what Chelsea Parke is selling, girls all over the country are quick to buy. A Parke sweatshirt is like an initiation into a community of Kramer’s own little cult of “clean girls.” Not only do young women gain a sense of belonging when they wear their mocknecks, but they stand out from their peers who couldn’t buy the drop in time, or who had to work instead of attending the latest pop-up.
Countless Young Girls Have Waited Hours in Line to Attend Parke’s NYC Pop-Ups, With Some Queuing Up at 3:00 AM. The TikTok Girlies Don’t Come to Play!
Photo: The Cut
While many praise Parke for their cute and comfy designs, others are more skeptical, digging deep into the dark side of the brand. For starters, the sweatshirts are obviously overpriced, considering many buyers have noted the material is not the best. The mocknecks have been accused of being cheaply made and sold at a ridiculously high price because the demand for them is so high. Chelsea Kramer has been accused of whitelabeling, which would support this idea. If you are unfamiliar with that term, whitelabeling would imply Kramer rebrands and sells clothing made by a manufacturer, often resulting in poor and inconsistent quality. The practice is controversial due to the misleading tactics involved and lack of transparency. Some customers have taken to TikTok to show how their recent purchase had been mysteriously ruined once they washed it or was not up to par with the quality they rightfully expected. Kramer denied claims of whitelabeling, but that hasn’t stopped people from criticizing the brand.
In addition, TikTok users have pointed out that Parke sweatshirts may not be timeless, and the company functions using an artificial scarcity tactic to draw young, impressionable buyers in. The mocknecks are a fad that may be considered “so last year” when the next trend rolls around. The thought of putting the time, energy, and money into something that will be dumped like last season’s trash is not worth it to many social media fashionistas. At this point, you’re either a Parke lover or a Parke hater.
Many Critique How Expensive Parke Crewnecks Are, Considering Their Simple and Frankly Unoriginal Design
Photo: Kenna/Pinterest
Now that all those pesky history and statistical facts are out of the way, I’ll finally tell you what my take is on the matter, with a little smarty-pants theory of my own. I never said fashion girls can’t be intellectuals! I think Parke is, unironically, a recession indicator. There, I said it! It’s plain as day: people are buying into small luxury purchases because they cannot afford bigger ones in this economy, like cars and designer purses. Parke is expensive enough to be considered a luxury for college-aged girls, but affordable enough that it won’t necessarily break the bank for the average SEC girl. Small luxuries aren’t evil (except Labubus, those are a little freaky), but I think they should be genuine with a mindful approach to consumption. We should be buying things because we truly think they will be an asset to our closets, keeping high quality and longevity in mind.
Parke Is Not Just a Brand, but a Mindset. A ‘Parke Girl’ Is Effortlessly Cool, Loves Denim, Exudes Confidence, and Has That Trendy NYC Vibe About Her. When You Buy Parke, You Buy Into That Image, and Hope to Become a Parke Girl Yourself.
Photo: Emma Jones/Pinterest
Either way, I beg of you to get some sleep instead of waking up before the crack of dawn for a sweatshirt. I have a feeling sleep deprivation doesn’t lead to the wisest spending habits. But who am I to judge if people want to buy a trendy crewneck? I’m wearing a camo, off-the-shoulder sweatshirt from Hollister as I write this conclusion; I am a trendy trend analyzer, after all!
