Though the chintz-couture style, which has been dubbed everything from “blipster” to “hip-hopster” to the “Kelly Bundy look,” may feel like a fad, Missbehave editor-in-chief Mary H.K. Choi, 27, says that her mag targets a specific niche. “They’re girls who approach fashion with a certain nerdiness,” she explains. “They don’t just like a designer; they like the spring 1999 Miu Miu collection.” 

Photo courtesy of missbehav

Choi, who devoured Jane Pratt’s Sassy throughout her Bedazzled teen years, collaborated with Samantha Moeller, then an editor at hubby Adrian’s graffiti mag, Mass Appeal, and together they hired a small stable of Lower East Siders to launch a new kind of women’s magazine.

Nowadays, Missbehave boasts heavyweight advertisers (Kid Robot, Puma), boldface cover stars (Mena Suvari, Lily Allen), spreads featuring designs by Claw Money, Betsey Johnson and H&M, and features on everything from Hello Kitty bath products to using the lexicology of luh that and knawmean without sounding like a total asshizzole.

And while the crew has big plans for the future—a Missbehave clothing line, for one—they’re more about keeping it “sickly rad.” Says Choi, “We’ll be at edit meetings and be like, Okay, we’re really into smiley faces. Then the next week, we’re over smiley faces. Then we’ll be like, purple! But a certain Pantone shade of purple...”