Click Chic

January 6, 2021 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Is virtual fashion a progressive future for fashion brands as we know them, where a designer or label offers more than just fashion product, but also creates an experience, an education and even inspiration? Cue New York-based ready-to-wear purveyor Collina Strada and its “sustainability is a journey” mantra. Set up by Hillary Taymour, the brand is a platform for climate awareness, social awareness, change and self-expression.

Then there’s Collina Land, the video game and virtual space Taymour created at the behest of Gucci designer Alessandro Michele (along with 14 other emerging global brands), which features Collina’s pre-fall 2021 collection – worn on real-world models that Taymour’s team digitally scanned into the virtual space. Viewers or gamers can choose their path and click to play, taking them from Farm World and Ice World to Desert World, Underwater World and beyond, in an experience akin to Chinese artist Yang Yongliang meeting Captain Nemo meeting the Arabian Knights on a League of Legends combat mission.

Images: Photo: Charlie Engman / Courtesy of Collina Strada

Top Tier

January 6, 2021 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Christopher John Rogers is the type of designer any young creative talent would aspire to emulate, given how rapidly his star has ascended the Hollywood firmament. He counts the likes of Lady Gaga, Cardi B, Lizzo and Zendaya among his A-list clientele, along with former First Lady Michelle Obama.

A CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner in 2019 (which saw him receive a cool US$400,000), the Louisiana-born, New York-based Rogers, who worked for Diane Von Furstenberg from 2017 to 2019, created his eponymous label in 2016. With it, he launched a brand that, according to the 27-year-old designer, “creates emotional and sensitive clothing with a focus on effortful dressing, directed towards an individual with a strong sense of self. We deliver clothing with an emphasis on quality and timeless appeal, while encouraging our customer to take up space.” It caters to glamour and the girl-next-door simultaneously in the same outfit.

Intriguingly, Rogers is fine-art centric, too. The Journal section on his Instagram is festooned with works by the likes of Helen Frankenthaler, Lynda Benglis, Ettore Sottsass, Franz West, Raoul Dufy, Willem de Kooning, John Chamberlain and Erwin Wurm.

For spring/summer 2021 (known as “Collection 007”), Rogers turned to drawing, crayons and an abundant use of colour, suffusing his simple yet elevated creations with an almost childlike wonder and energy. “I just wanted to have fun and express myself. It’s about getting back to the way children see the world through very simple shapes,” says Rogers of his inspiration for the collection.

Images: Photo: Emmanuel Monsalve / Courtesy of Christopher John Rogers

When Leica Met Zegna

January 6, 2021 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Image above: Leica Q2 in holster

Fashion meets photography in the covetable collaboration between Ermenegildo Zegna and Leica, with the Italian tailor and the German camera manufacturer producing a capsule collection of highly refined camera accessories. First shown as part of Zegna’s Winter Fashion Show in January 2020, the collection is finally coming to life almost a year later.

Zegna artistic director Alessandro Sartori, a photography enthusiast and Leica lover, thinks the crossover has natural synergy. “Zegna and Leica share the same values, with a very deep integrity and quality towards the excellence of their own products; my wish is to build up a long chapter together,” he says. “The vision and DNA of Leica has always been genuine – an obsessive quest for quality and extremely refined research.”

Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, Leica’s global art director and chief representative for Leica Galleries, shares Sartori’s sentiment. “What a wonderful addition: the creation of a Leica camera, moving images and a Zegna garment is unique and outstanding,” she says. “Both brands share the same humanistic approach in terms of values, design, sustainability and quality.”

Images provided to China Daily

(Re)Making the Bed

November 18, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Image above: Inspired by traditional Tibetan tiger rugs, this limited-edition robe features a tiger motif; the Cynthia & Xiao collection incorporates recycled yarn from The Billie System

Sustainable and regenerative practices have become a modern necessity for those progressive businesses confronting past decades of waste. From an idea first proposed in March, Hong Kong-based fashion label Cynthia & Xiao has teamed up with recycling company Novetex Textiles’ The Billie System and luxury hospitality group Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts to launch a new, meaningful project that repurposes retired bed linens into knitted travel accessories and hotel products.

The Billie System, which merited an honourable mention in Fast Company magazine’s 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards, is an environmentally friendly upcycling process that strives to provide a meaningful impact on textile waste, which is one of the biggest problems currently facing the fashion and garment industries. For the project with Shangri-La and Cynthia & Xiao, discarded bedsheets are broken down into recycled fibres that can be spun into yarn to produce a variety of textiles, all of which is achieved without the use of water or emissions from chemical waste. The recycled yarn has been reconfigured into an exclusive line of travel and hotel amenities including a robe, cape and travel pouch.

“We’re very excited to partner with two wonderful brands in Cynthia & Xiao and the Shangri-La Group in South China,” remarks Ronna Chao, the chairperson of Novetex Textiles. “We believe that circularity is the future of sustainability – and collaborating across different industries will pave the way for all of us.” 

Images provided to China Daily; Photo credit: Cynthia & Xiao (the photo with girl and tree)

Cloud Nine

November 4, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Images: Susan Fang ©2020

Dial M for Maje

November 4, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Images provided to China Daily

On China Time

October 21, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Images: © 2020 Watches & Wonders; all rights reserved

From Africa to the World

October 7, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

If stylish sportswear and geometric patterns are your thing, look no further than South African label MaXhosa, which mixes up velvet on knitted pieces, and showcases the ability for a luxury house to mash up streetwear and leisurewear with hoodies and velvet sweatpants alongside women’s ponchos and trousers. Using patterns with 3D formatting and op art techniques, MaXhosa embraces digital craft as the future of fashion.

MaXhosa’s newest collection taps into the original roots of the luxury brand and reimagines all of its classic patterns over the last decade. It’s modern, elegant and ancient. The name of the collection, Zilimela, stems from Isilimela, the signifier of a new season, which various African cultures see as the time to plant new seeds in the ground. Isilimela is also a constellation of stars that proclaim that a spiritual awakening is at hand.

The Johannesburg-based brand was founded in 2012 by textile designer Laduma Ngxokolo, whose work showcases the beauty, culture, language and aspiration of the Xhosa people, one of South Africa’s most dominant ethnic groups. He aimed to develop a premium knitwear range that celebrates traditional Xhosa beadwork aesthetics and symbolism, using South African mohair and wool. Ngxokolo is an agent of change, shifting and evolving with fast-fashion’s changing times, in which he tries to meld traditional culture with the future. The brand also has a home décor line featuring rugs and cushions.

Regional Stylistas

October 7, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Image above: Part of the 2020 Exclusive Fashion Collections Showroom

Macau sees itself as integral to the region’s Greater Bay Area (GBA) initiative, so much so that last year, the Macao Fashion Gallery (MFG) held its Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area exhibition. The show was described as responding to “the increasingly frequent exchanges in the Bay Area and the joint formation of a new chapter, through which the cities in the GBA will jointly integrate the fashion industry, fashion capital, industry chain and internet resources of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao to create a fashion name card for the Greater Bay Area, thus establishing a cornerstone for further development.”

If you haven’t yet stepped over the threshold of the MFG, which was established in 2012, it’s a great time to visit and view the 2020 Exclusive Fashion Collections Showroom. The event, held in the second half of each year, demonstrates a new retail model by bringing together 34 fashion and apparel brands with great potential, displaying them in the form of a fashion showroom. It allows local brands to gain more exposure and invite potential commercial tie-ups, and simultaneously provides them with substantial help in marketing strategy and service experience.

Meanwhile, the Macao SAR government is committed to advancing the development of cultural and creative industries as MFG continues its annual fashion project with 2020 Brand Story – Macao Original Fashion Exhibition, which highlights a variety of Macau-linked brands and closes this year with local brand No.42. Right now, it’s showing the perfect embodiment of the GBA spirit via the unique bag label Faith & Fearless. Established in 2016 by designers from Macau, Hong Kong and Shenzhen, the team has been nurtured and influenced by Cantonese culture from a young age, including classic ’80s and ’90s Hong Kong movies, golden-era Cantopop, television comedy shows, and cuisine from cha chaan teng and food stalls. Despite sharing common experiences, the brand embraces diversity.

The countercultural Faith & Fearless uses everyday materials such as woven and camouflage fabrics, polyester and PVC for its covetable bags. A young brand, it focuses on fast-fashion to evoke spirit and espouse a more casual feeling in its outlook, encouraging its wearers to buck current trends. This year’s collection goes big on the Macau street-style influence.

In fact, the 2020 Brand Story showcase began earlier in the year with Lexx Moda shoe designer Sanjo Iong, who took the broad concept of “black” as her theme, aiming to return to the essence of the universe with an attitude of inclusiveness. After Iong’s show was Isabella Choi’s youthful and sweet Nega C, which uses bright colours and floral patterns to depict the brand’s fresh and kinetic image across a series of T-shirts, hats and scarves. This was followed by San Lee’s ZICS, with its black, white and grey architectural aesthetics across striped suits, semi-transparent fabrics and an ultra-comfortable silhouette for all occasions.

Costume Drama

September 23, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Shiatzy Chen’s work has always been distinguished by its luxury craftsmanship and individualistic spirit since the brand first launched in 1978. Women who wear the Taiwan label’s wares espouse elegance and finesse, yet are rebellious and sexy in their femininity. They’re highly cultured while being simultaneously cool. They meld classical and modern into a sassy neo-Chinese chic.

Theatre provided the starting point for design director Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia’s glamorous, costume-esque, curvy and playful collection that embodies the brand’s East-meets-West flair. The upper body speaks a variety of languages, with the regal baroque style coinciding with the cloud collar and elaborate headdress common to Beijing opera.

Colourways of blacks, fiery reds and snow whites also add villainous and femme fatale tendencies to this season’s look. Metallic fabrics are used to create a variety of shades often seen in theatre. The finishing touches of gaudy turquoise and multi-colored jacquard totems point to the cheerfulness of a stage play. Jacquard printing on yarn is attempted for the first time, maintaining the brand’s tradition of embracing and experimenting with different textiles. The contrasts in texture, weight and lustre demonstrate both the tender and firm qualities of a Shiatzy Chen woman.

She’s sexy, too. There’s the obscuring multilayered lotus leaf organza crop top paired with red leather shorts; the short jacket with extensive pleasts on the shoulder paired with an asymmetrical flared woolen skirt and net yarn; the snugly wrapping short jacket to go with clean-cut woolen cigarette trousers; and the sheer blouse coupled with a one-side-pleated velvet skirt. Be it the interesting contour of a wide-top-slim-bottom or a slenderly straight contour, the waistline is always accentuated with a belt.

There are also some trophy shoes. Sumptuous domineering lace-up knee-high boots and ankle boots come in leather, satin and velvet, in a sort of elegant-heeled mule-meets-boot. There are lantern sleeves to heighten the volume, drama and theatrical tension and balloon trousers on one look redolent of late Japanese designer Kansai Yamamoto’s looks for David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust tour in 1972/73.

Gao Wow

September 9, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

The Beijing-born, New York-based fashion designer Snow Xue Gao, who upends the conventional notions of feminine and masculine dressing with bold progressive shapes, first came to our attention in Hong Kong when she took part in the Fashion Asia Hong Kong project at PMQ in 2018. The Parsons School of Design MFA graduate in Fashion, who launched her eponymous label the previous year following her debut collection at Parsons’ MFA show, was nominated for 2018’s LVMH Prize. She went on to win the Swarovski & Vogue Talents New Generation Award that year.

Gao’s signature looks combine asymmetrical draping with silk patterns and prints. Her aesthetic is heavily influenced by art and costume narratives between East and West. The concept of duality embodies her aesthetic when it comes to structure and pattern.

Snow Xue Gao’s autumn/winter 2020 collection is suffused with the stories that happened on the legendary Silk Road during the Han Dynasty, in which merchants dressed up wearing garments in multiple ways – a coat could be tied off the shoulder at noon, while fully worn at night, depending on changing weather. Expanding the idea of two-for-one, or double-up dressing, Gao combines the deconstructing and layering of two pieces into one outfit – think a man’s tailored coat (or inside-out jacket) with a bow-tied floral inset, single lapels and half-collars – to create a contemporary vision of the way the people looked and lived.

The murals on the walls of Dunhuang’s famous Mogao Caves in China record the exchange of cultures, religions, philosophies, and how people lived during these times, also influencing the collection. Gao’s prints are derived from Chinese ornamental art such as patterns on silk dresses, porcelains, and the shapes of lotus, peony, cranes, pomegranate, flower branches and leaves.

A Fair of Wonder

September 9, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Time stands still for no one, despite the ever-present threat of pandemic and the chronological irregularity it has wrought. All of which makes Shanghai’s West Bund Art Centre (WBAC) a time purveyor extraordinaire, as Watches & Wonders (previously known as the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, or SIHH) chimes into the Paris of the East for its inaugural edition. The debut Watches & Wonders event in the region was held in Hong Kong in 2015.

Earlier in the year, the organisers of Watches & Wonders Geneva cancelled the Swiss show, citing concerns over COVID-19. Given the pandemic and its emerging second wave, the fate of September’s Shanghai fair lies in the balance, but such is the appetite and resilience of Chinese luxury watch consumers and their suppliers that it seems destined to proceed.

As a result, Watches & Wonders Shanghai is an invitation-only event, and organisers promise to implement strict safety measures. Over the course of five days (from September 9 to 13), WBAC will showcase the culture and expertise of 19 hauts de gamme brands inside two halls, against a backdrop of what the organisers – the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH) – describe as “brand keynotes, product launches, talks, panel discussions, explanations of the latest technologies and a hands-on introduction to chronology”, which tallies with the current emphasis on the “experience” and “experiential” qualities in the luxury sector.

The coronavirus pandemic has left many businesses in limbo – and the watchmaking sector is no exception. As a result, the FHH will tackle the subject head-on by reaching out to some of the industry’s leading figures (retailers, consultants and other experts) to gain an understanding of how they have been impacted by the virus and are coping with it, and their hopes for the future of the watchmaking business. This unprecedented situation, with major cities locked down and homes turned into office spaces, is also redefining our relation to time.

Code Mode

August 19, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Fashion brands often talk about melding a fusion of East and West without ever delivering a practical, identifiable gain-line in the cultural crossover. But a relatively new kid on the block, London- and Shanghai-based womenswear label Samuel Gui Yang, helmed by Shenzhen-born Samuel Yang and Stockholm-born Erik Litzén, is a delightful exception to that rule. The two designers mix and merge Chinese and Western codes, as well as historic and contemporary references, in creating a language that both fits and challenges today’s fast-changing fashion dynamic.

With training at Acne and Jonathan Anderson behind them, the two designers meticulously focus on construction and fabrication to create pragmatic wardrobes imbued with strong character and a sense of mystery. Such heft caught the eye of the judges for the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers 2020, for which the pair were shortlisted. (The final was cancelled due to the pandemic.)

“We want to create a fashion brand in which the union of two different cultures stands at the core,” say Yang and Litzén. “We want to achieve true newness. And, being part of a wave of new Chinese designers, we have taken on the challenge of creating for a new generation of Chinese consumers.” It’s not an overly touristic or coffee-table version of China, either. “We aim to offer a vision whereby Chinese history and culture stand for more than just exotic notions or traditional costumes, and we are excited to present our work to a wider audience.”

Samuel Gui Yang’s Instagram account (@samuelguiyang) attracts a high-wattage range of fellow influencers, including ART021 founder Kelly Ying, contemporary artist Cao Fei, and designers Anais Mak, Ms Min and Arto Wong. The brand regularly posts its own sense of aesthetic taste, too. To wit, it just posted stills from three films by Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang, all showing the actress Yang Kuei-mei; then there are shots from a trio of films Maggie Cheung starred in: Farewell China, As Tears Go By and Irma Vep.

Change Agents

August 5, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Dynamic Dutch design duo Viktor & Rolf have used the global pandemic, lockdown and social distancing to their unique advantage with an autumn/winter collection called Change, which comprises three wardrobes for three mind sets in these extraordinary times. Being avant-garde trailblazers, the pair has subverted the traditional catwalk by showcasing the collection in a special haute couture presentation.

Each one of the three mini-wardrobes (which range from high art and fine art to fantasy, freak show and spoof) symbolises a different state of mind and features three outfits: a nightgown, a dressing gown and a coat.

The first wardrobe embodies a sombre mood. A satin nightgown sports intricate lace incrustations with a raincloud motif, a grey chenille dressing gown has an intricate bow and extra-long sleeves, and a majestic coat is clad in animal-friendly faux-leather. Its volume and spiky cone motif impresses and emanates a feeling of socially distanced safety. The look is finished with a face mask accessory.

The second set represents the conflicting emotions that we’re all dealing with. The nightgown is festooned with a polka-dot motif of contradictory emoji, each representing a state of mind. The accompanying dressing gown has asymmetric sashes and bows down the left sleeve, while a maximalist asymmetric coat in pink and yellow pleather with glittery accents completes the look.

The final three ensembles radiate love in the form of exaggerated heart logos. Red, black and white lace incrustations on a white satin nightgown are used to the opposite effect as in the first mini-wardrobe – melancholy becomes serenity. The dressing gown has a snug bodice and an important skirt, featuring two heart-shaped pockets in quilted red satin. The finale coat in white faux leather features a heart symbol that proclaims unity, suggesting that we all deserved to be loved regardless of age, colour, gender, race, religion or sexuality, and is adorned with glittering hearts.

New Adventures in Style

August 5, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

While the COVID-19 pandemic has seen the fashion world curtail its traditional show format, Louis Vuitton’s artistic director for menswear, Virgil Abloh, has conjured a fast-acting animated antidote with his latest project: a film in which a colourful cast of characters embark on a virtual and literal voyage to discover Louis Vuitton’s spring/summer 2021 menswear collection, titled Message in a Bottle.

It’s not just Louis Vuitton’s new journey into fashion’s immediate future, but could signal a new creative direction for a group of its peers, too. The collection is being presented on a voyage of international events, which began in Paris in July and travels to Shanghai on August 6, then moves onto Tokyo later in the year. The format demonstrates Abloh’s core values of diversity, inclusivity and unity.

The project started out in July as a short film, shot in Asnières, the ancestral Paris home of the brand’s founder. The film follows movers who are packing up Louis Vuitton shipping containers and loading them onto a barge, which sails down the River Seine and departs Paris. Aboard, a loveable group of animated rogues (“Zoooom with Friends”) are hiding as stowaways. They’ve loaded their Louis Vuitton trunks with the finest fineries they could find in the age-old City of Lights and leave a rainbow trace transfixed across the Paris sky behind them as the barge sails into the sun and heads East.

Refashioning Colour

August 5, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Show And Tell

July 22, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Related: PolyU Q&A (Part One); In Their Own Words (Part Two)

Before Chinese New Year, against the backdrop of protest and the onset of coronavirus, Hong Kong PolyU fashion organisers, as is customary, had aligned with the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) for the annual Hong Kong Fashion Week. During this period, a group of final-year PolyU BA fashion students would get to show their collections of six looks each at Wan Chai’s Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. However, in June, HKTDC informed PolyU that Hong Kong Fashion Week had been cancelled. Undaunted, PolyU had to rethink how to showcase the students’ work – and whose collections had already been impacted, or in some cases curtailed, by disturbances to the city.

PolyU decided to play to its strengths and keep things close to home with a July 30 show on campus. “It’s like a sort of homecoming after everything that’s happened,” said Jackie Leung Mei-lai, an instructor at PolyU’s Institute of Textiles and Clothing (ITC). However, just last week that plan was also cancelled when the government announced a new lockdown in the face of pandemic resurgence sweeping the city. Thus, in this fast-changing and fast-acting year, PolyU have instead recast the event as the ITC Graduation Exhibition 2020 at the campus’s newly refurbished Fashion Gallery, which will stage the work of the show finalists and winners of the PolyU online fashion contest, from August 4th to September 25th.

It’s now 25 years since former PolyU fashion design alumni Vivienne Tam showed her Spring/Summer 95 collection in collaboration with Chinese artist Zhang Hongtu, which memorably, and controversially, featured Chairman Mao Zedong. The Mao Print dress, the trophy icon of the collection, is today in the permanent collections of all major fashion museums, including the Metropolitan in New York, and London’s Victoria & Albert. Does it surprise Leung that Hong Kong is yet to produce another Vivienne Tam?

“I think the industry has changed,” she reflects. “Before we had a lot of opportunities but those who got onto the bigger stage had to be super talented and perhaps were more couture oriented. Designers can more easily showcase work nowadays, which should be, and is, an asset but while many students have the talent, they might elect to go more street wear or accessories – they have different directions and categories today, which perhaps weren’t so much the case in Vivienne Tam’s day. That’s why we don’t have a big star as they go in different directions.”

In the Loop

July 22, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Image above:  The Look Loop space

Yishu Yan might not be a household name just yet – but the PhD student from Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s Institute of Textiles and Clothing has been receiving numerous accolades for her innovative work in fashion. Among them, she was named second runner-up at the 5th International Youth Designer Competition at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology last year, then represented Hong Kong at the 2019 Arts of Fashion Foundation Competition at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. She’s also been featured at numerous global exhibitions in recent years, including at the Jill Stuart Gallery at Cornell University in New York and at Yamagata, Japan’s Tohoku University of Art and Design. Her latest designs, “Mermaid Recall”, were acquired by the China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou.

“Aqualoop”, her winning work in Beijing, is a series of colourful knitted yarns, based on her digital knitting research, which focuses on the fluidity and transparency of water, while also highlighting the attractive colours of underwater life. The colourways of fiery red, scuba blue, solar golden yellow and bright white predominate in the shape-shifting garments.

Yan has further developed that idea and its research into an online exhibition of textile and fashion designs at PolyU’s Fashion Gallery, called Look Loop: Transitional Knitting by Yishu Yan, curated by Qingxin Peng. Yan’s research focuses on developing innovative textiles with integrated stretchability and three-dimensional surfaces through digital knitting technology. On that basis, she creates fashion that meets different dressing requirements – and that ultimately becomes a fashion art form in itself.

“Yishu is elevating knitwear to a new level at which a passion for both art and fashion is exhibited,” says Peng. “As such, knitwear affirms our shared conviction and vision that knitted textiles can be successfully and seamlessly merged, and that a creative spirit, combined with intellectual vigour and fearlessness, is essential for the development and advancement of both designs and commercial products. I’m confident that Yishu will soar to even greater heights in her future endeavours.”

Out of the Bubble

July 8, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Staffonly is a forward-thinking contemporary menswear label set up in 2015 by two lifelong friends and designers, Shimo Zou and Une Yea, following their respective graduations in London, after which they relocated to Shanghai. The label offers a fresh take on traditional menswear by harnessing sharp concepts, and by incorporating a variety of innovative materials in creating functional and sculpted silhouettes. 

In keeping with much of contemporary Chinese fashion design, the brand is eclectic, witty and bold. The Staffonly man the pair design for “always has an abundance of curiosity, a sense of humour”, and is willing “to break the rules and explore today’s unknown era of the world”.

Explain the designers: “Our design team looks into topics and themes relevant to everyone – at least the people in cities of China at the moment. It’s about the current lifestyle and thinking bubbles. What we have done is to reflect what we have seen and heard, in our own witty and ironic narrative way.” 

Such a fluid fashion mindset has seen the accolades flow thick and fast in China’s booming fashion market. Part of the Labelhood platform in China, which showcases emerging designers, the brand was most recently selected as one of six finalists for the Business of Fashion China Prize; the label currently sells in prestigious retailers including Lane Crawford, Machine-A, Dover Street Market Beijing and I.T. 

Last year, Staffonly collaborated with Japan’s Onitsuka Tiger, updating the Serrano sneaker for the 70th anniversary of the sports and fashion brand. Among a series of intriguing design innovations, Zou added buckles on the front of the sneaker, inspired by traditional Chinese robes, for novelty. 

Zou and Yea are acutely conscious that China’s global fashion moment, despite the global pandemic, is now at hand. “The term ‘Made in China’ no longer equates with ‘cheap’ and ‘large-scale production’ now,” they say. “With more and more creative thinking and design forces merging into Chinese brands, the term ‘Made in China’ has gradually become a symbol we can be proud of. ‘Made in China’ means something very different to people today and brings with it a new message to the world.”

Zou grew up in Shenzhen, then studied womenswear at London College of Fashion, followed by an MA in Menswear Design. During that time, she honed her design skills at prestigious fashion houses such as Alexander McQueen, Erdem and Tom Ford. Likewise, Yea obtained a Masters in Accessory Design at the Royal College of Art and won Best Fashion Item in Paris in 2014 for her “Are We Slaves of Objects Around Us” collection; she also worked as a menswear designer at Armani’s Milan headquarters. 

Keeping It Cool

June 17, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Eastern and Western cultures alike have embraced the traditional handheld fan, not only as a temperature-cooling instrument, but also as an accessory that adds a delicate silhouette to any look. For a long time in Europe, these beautiful items were essential accessories in high society and marked a true fashion statement for women.

The earliest hand fan was called flabellum and first appeared in ancient Egypt as a tool to keep insects away; one striking example was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. In their modern incarnation for air flow purposes, handheld fans were first seen in Japan around the sixth century CE. However, it wasn’t until the 17th century, when huge quantities of folding fans were exported from China and Japan to Europe, that they became true fashion staples. In that era, nobility and royalty had multiple fans for a variety of uses – one in the morning, another at night, yet another in the street and a top-shelf option for important occasions. 

In 1709, the Worshipful Company of Fan Makers was incorporated in London under the Royal Charter of Queen Anne. Its aim was to help expand the local fan business – paper styles were developed and many artists painted on them, creating a plethora of artworks. 

At around the same time, artisans in France were making fans using imported Chinese bamboo sticks, ostrich feathers, parchment, silk and lace, then mounted on ivory or cane with mother-of-pearl. Paris soon became the centre of the fan craft and led the craze among European royalty. 

During the Victorian era, the fan reached the peak of its success as it became more accessible for the emerging middle class. Later on, the slimmer silhouette in fashion encouraged a new style: cockade fans. The leaf could open into a complete circle, but came with a more simple design. As the times changed yet again, in the 20th century they began to fall out of favour, and were primarily used as souvenirs, decorations or advertisements.

Breaking the Waves

June 17, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

above image: Lobby card for Stanley Kubrick’s 1962 film Lolita, starring Sue Lyon

It’s fairly indisputable – French screen siren Brigitte Bardot is the pinnacle of boho beach chic. She paired her signature wide-brimmed floppy hat with striking bikinis, blonde beach locks and kohl eyeliner for an effortlessly cool look. Her beach style was epitomised in the 1962 film A Very Private Affair; the St Tropez style launched the two-piece as an iconic swimwear garment that endures to this day. In the same year, Sue Lyon controversially wore a patterned bikini and a wide-brimmed hat in Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita, creating an innocent and playful beachwear look.

For a more pristine look, style icon Grace Kelly was always a portrait of elegance. She wore white bikinis, and even a leopard-print bathing suit. The one-piece was a favourite of 1950s stylistas from Sophia Loren to Elizabeth Taylor; the latter paired hers with striking red lipstick. Marilyn Monroe famously posed in a flattering white swimsuit, as a sweetheart neckline one-piece in various hues became her favourite splash. Movie star and synchronised swimming icon Esther Williams glided across the screen in desirable swimsuits during her 1950s blockbusters, even launching a swimwear brand that offers women the chance to emulate her beach attire and continues to this day.

Sandra Dee’s role in 1959 comedy Gidget saw her in cute red swimsuits and orange two-pieces, paired with her sporty blonde ponytail. In 1967 romance Two for the Road, Audrey Hepburn wears cotton shirting over her swimsuits, as well as red-and-white tops layered over red swimwear. In 1958 drama Bonjour Tristesse, Jean Seberg dons an oversized denim shirt over her swimwear, showing an effortless stylish choice for those not keen on a kaftan. 

Images: Silver Screen Collection/Moviepix, via Getty Images (Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn); Jean-Pierre Bonnotte/Gamma-Rapho, via Getty Images (Brigitte Bardot); Pierluigi Praturlon/Reporters Associati & Archivi/Mondadori, via Getty Images (Stanley Kubrick)

The Evolution of Men’s Swimwear 

June 17, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

We humans have been taking to the water since time immemorial, but the two-century history of bathing and swimwear has involved several revolutions in style, fit and fabric. For centuries, swimming was a male-only preserve and the first swimmers thought nothing of jumping in the water dressed as nature intended.

In the late 19th century, many male swimmers would don cumbersome, boxy woollen garments, but by the 1920s water-clogged woven flannel swimsuits had become a sodden memory. The de rigueur fashion for suntans meant both men and women wanted more revealing, tighter-fitting costumes, and so American swimwear company Jantzen developed unisex knitted wool costumes; they became the suits that changed bathing into swimming. The Olympic swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller famously sported one of the first pairs of trunks in the ’30s and by the end of the decade, most fashioanble men swam away from the one-piece silhouette.

Numerous scientific advances and, in particular, those in the realm of textiles, led to the invention of tiny nylon and spandex briefs by US swimwear label Speedo in the late ’50s. Jumping forward to the ’90s, the same company led the emergence of super-fast full-length and half-length body suits. A red trunk-clad David Hasselhoff stomping around the babe-filled Los Angeles beaches in Baywatch helped to make trunks a must-have swimwear item for men worldwide in the ’90s, but at the same time, the surfing revolution ushered in the knee-length, loose board shorts that are one of the most common silhouettes on the world’s beaches today.

Colourful Cowgirl

June 3, 2020 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Images: Photo: Nadine Ijewere / Courtesy of Mira Mikati