“The concept of ‘Chinese style’ encompasses a vast and diverse world. It defies simplification, as it intertwines historical elements with the vibrant life of contemporary streets, filled with color and humor. This richness makes it difficult to confine our focus to a single culture since, today, everything is so fluid and interconnected.”
Samuel Gui Yang expressed these thoughts alongside his co-founder and co-designer, Erik Litzen. Their recent show highlighted a design language honed over more than ten years, featuring a distinct Chinese influence blended with modern European fashion sensibilities. As 2020 LVMH Prize semi-finalists based in London and former CSM classmates, they are navigating a similar transitional space as their peers from Shanghai Fashion Week label AO Yes, though approaching it from a unique angle.
The collection showcased elements such as strapped fastenings, tubular quilting, frogged buttons, collar shapes, and high double-breasted closures, all reminiscent of Chinese design. The designers aimed to obscure the cultural origins of these features by using less traditional fabrics or incorporating unconventional design modifications. For instance, a silk double-faced qipao was styled to drape from the right hip and flow to the floor like an evening gown, while a stand-collared zip-up shirt and matching full skirt were crafted from washed denim.
In this collection, the designers and their stylist introduced further creative disruptions. A model wore a frogged button quilted tabard in woody brown over a pale green stand-collared shirt and suit, accessorized with earrings trailing scarlet ribbons. A scarlet fringed poncho was tied with a piece of blue string for a deliberately rustic effect. Other elements, such as a tulle and feather cloaklet worn over a raincoat, headpieces seemingly repurposed from other garments, and a square parasol with a black trailing canopy that largely obscured the ensemble, contributed to a vaguely folkloric aesthetic.
The collection seemed to convey a narrative of movement, suggesting a character in transit. This was reflected in silk hip-slung packs, rolled-up blankets, pouches crafted from Bhutanese paper, and dresses carried as accessories. When asked about their approach to modernizing and recontextualizing cultural traditions in their design process, Litzen explained: “We try to always approach it quite instinctively. Then, of course, you need to do some work afterwards to make sure that it doesn’t end up being something that feels too close, or which can even cross some boundaries. We want to be respectful. But we start with intuition, see where it leads us and then edit afterwards.”
