Pair of Kings: A Fashion and Culture Podcast · Pair of Kings

13.4 - Inventing Health Goths (not a joke), Partying in New York Fashion Week, and Professional Basketball with Caitlin Cunningham (@caitlepillar)

·1 hr 22 min·5 clips

Caitlin says early “health goth” posts were gym selfies and that people now call her a pioneer.

1. Pair of Kings: A Fashion and Culture Podcast centers this episode on Caitlin Cunningham, health goth, basketball, and fashion week. 2. Saul Thompson and Michael Smith host Caitlin Cunningham, a former WNBL player and musician whose tall goth look matters to the fashion conversation. 3. The episode asks what happens when a professional athlete, a fashion-week guest, and an early internet aesthetic all belong to the same person. 4. Caitlin says she turned professional at 16 and was selected for the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. 5. She describes moving into the athlete village for three years and then signing straight into the WNBL. 6. Caitlin says she stopped playing at 26 because she was “fucking burnt out” and focused on music. 7. She explains that the pandemic brought basketball back when teams called asking whether she still played. 8. Caitlin says she only takes contracts that suit her and sometimes gets flown in for games and flown back. 9. She lays out a day from age 16 to 19: 6 a.m. weights, school, 500 shots, team training, and study hall. 10. She says the Australian Institute of Sport system produced names like Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills, and Ben Simmons. 11. Caitlin spends time on Basketball GM, a spreadsheet-based game that uses real players and probability analysis. 12. She says she starts leagues in 1955, simulates about 12 straight hours, and once won 13 straight titles on expert mode. 13. She also explains Australian football league rules, cricket test matches, and why five-day cricket seems bizarre to her and Saul. 14. Caitlin says “health goth” started with black sports gear, goth roots, and gym posts tagged with the phrase. 15. She says the term went viral around 10 years ago and later got picked up by articles and by social media users. 16. Caitlin says fan DMs now tell her she helped them feel they can be themselves in sport. 17. The interview style is loose, reactive, and full of side quests, with both hosts constantly asking follow-up questions. 18. The tone stays playful even when the episode moves into fashion politics, New York stress, and logistics like fittings and casting calls. 19. Listeners who like fashion, basketball, and internet subcultures. 20. People wanting a tight, topic-focused interview. 21. Caitlin says New York feels harsher each year because of visible rough sleeping and mental-health strain. 22. She says New York Fashion Week has become expensive, crowded, and shaped by parties as much as shows. 23. Caitlin says she walked Elena Velez while still handling a packed schedule of travel, fittings, and a club show in Los Angeles. 24. She says the next stop is Paris Fashion Week, with a Rick Owens casting on the 28th and 29th of the month. 25. Caitlin says Australia has strong underground designers, but Melbourne and Sydney fashion weeks feel weak to her. 26. She names Isabella Charles, Color Laid Law, Catholic Guilt, and Distill Flanix as examples of Australian creative work. 27. Caitlin recalls meeting Anna Delvey at a New York Fashion Week event and joking that she had heard she “got a law.” 28. The conversation stays fast, humorous, and detail-heavy, with frequent interruptions, clarifications, and quick pivots between fashion and sport. 29. Saul and Michael sound most engaged when Caitlin compares runway pressure to basketball pressure. 30. Fans of model interviews, queer fashion, and Australian sports culture. 31. People who only want polished industry talk without detours.

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