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Nadja Sayej

This year’s New York Fashion Week (NYFW) featured a crop of rising Chinese, South Korean and Japanese designers who brought with them Eastern culture and influences – and who, through the themes of nature, nostalgia and cultural exchange, called for more Asian representation in fashion.
Chinese-born, New York-based designer Wei Lin, founder of knitwear brand PH5, showed an autumn/winter collection at a presentation titled “This is not a jellyfish” at a studio in the city.
Outside, a line snaked around the block; inside the showroom, models stood on an ocean-like structure creating wave formations with their arms.
The knitwear collection, inspired by marine creatures and coral reefs, featured curved silhouettes in underwater blue hues, neons and pastels.

“This season is about going underwater with the jellyfish to see how ocean plastic is a big problem,” Lin, who is also a passionate scuba diver, tells the Post.
While diving in the Maldives, the fashion designer saw a plastic bag and thought it was a jellyfish – the same mistake that many marine animals make before they attempt to eat it.
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Lin is outspoken about issues of representation in the fashion industry. One of the major challenges she says she faces is the stereotyping and labelling she gets as a Chinese designer in the US.
“Why do we have to be an American brand or a Chinese brand?” she asks. “My team is from all over the world. Being Chinese is tough because it isn’t loved politically by anyone.
“If you’re Japanese, everyone loves Japan. If you’re Chinese, there’s so much negativity against us. We’re not known for creativity, quality, or fashion or having good taste.”

Taiwan-born designer Malan Breton showed his autumn/winter collection, “Fantome”. The collection, inspired by European craftsmanship and Breton’s past six seasons in Europe, featured dapper outfits for men and women, with tailoring of the sort seen on London’s Savile Row and lush ball gowns made in France.
The collection also tied into Breton’s Asian roots – the designer grew up in Taiwan and is a goodwill ambassador for the Taiwan Tourism Bureau – and marked a continuation of his work championing the Chinese island territory.
“When you grow up [in Taiwan], you grow up around nature. You grow up believing in this idea that nature and the sea, everything flows,” said Breton, who was a dancer for years and who works to create ease and comfort in his tailored pieces.

NYFW also saw interest in Japanese designer Hanako Maeda’s label Adeam, which showed a gender-neutral collection from 2021. Actresses Natasha Lyonne and Lana Condor and stylist Cristina Ehrlich were among those who showed up to see Maeda’s risqué pieces with lace and ruffled shoulders.
Maeda was born in Japan but spent some of her childhood in New York. Growing up in the early ’00s, she listened to pop-punk bands like Green Day and Blink-182, and she enjoyed the punk/grunge subculture’s anti-fashion look.
She can recall dragging her dad around Harajuku in Tokyo in search of X-Girl, a streetwear brand founded by Kim Gordon of alternative rock band Sonic Youth.
While Maeda’s new collection, “Ichi”, is inspired by grunge’s androgynous aesthetic and her own American upbringing, her designs reference traditional Japanese attire – including garments like the kimono.

Also on show at NYFW was the Asia Fashion Collection – an incubation project from Vantan and Parco Co. Ltd featuring looks from up-and-coming designers from the continent.
This year, the project featured looks from five labels: désir by Jun Nakamura, Saika by Saika Sekita and Asato by Asato Kitamura, all from Japan; Taiwanese label Chiahung Su by Su Chia-hung; and South Korean label FromWhere by Lee Young-eun.
A common theme among the designers was oversized clothing, from large comfortable skirts to embellished jumpers and full-length hooded coats.

There were more references to Asian cultures throughout NYFW – the Japanese brand Dokka Vivid, for example, had models carry lanterns as a nod to their heritage.
Private Policy, a New York-based genderless brand co-founded by Chinese designers Haoran Li and Siying Qu, who hail from Qingdao and Xining in China respectively, showed a collection called “We are all animals”.
The duo, whose designs have been worn by model Hailey Bieber and influencers Bret Rock and Kendall Jenner, opened their runway show with a performance inspired by Japanese folk tale The Fox’s Wedding, with models donning foxlike masks and wearing shirts and matching trousers in buttery hues.

South Korean designers were highlighted during the Concept Korea show, with three brands from Seoul showing their autumn/winter collections: Besfxxk, which gives classic garments a more experimental edge; Cahiers, with its clever play on the school uniform; and Ulkin, a brand that takes inspiration from industrial uniforms.
Besfxxk’s collection was inspired by items like the trench coat and the smoking jacket, says Kim Bona, who founded the brand with her husband, Lim Jae-hyuk.
The brand, worn by artists like R&B singer Monica and K-pop group Girls Generation, incorporates design elements from Asian clothing – think plaid school uniforms, woven fabrics, collared shirts and frilly accents.
Kim says Asian designers rarely get the credit they deserve. “It takes a certain level of market understanding … and a strong dedication to brand distribution in different markets [to do well].”

Cahiers’ uniform-like looks tap into the nostalgia that surrounds teenage culture while evoking themes of “regulation, control and uniformity”, says designer Kim Ayoung. The brand, worn by the likes of K-pop artists IU and Bae Suzy, reflects a Korean sensibility through its silhouettes and colour palette.
For Ulkin designer Lee Sung-dong, the brand’s new, industrial-inspired collection is all about safety. “We often face many risks and threats, but there are times when we don’t even realise that we are in danger,” says Dong.
The upcycled collection, which mimics details and silhouettes from workwear and construction uniforms, centre around these blind spots. The hibiscus flower, the national flower of South Korea, features in many of the pieces.
“We believe using elements that represent the nation and culture empowers brand identity and [heritage],” says Lee.
Though Ulkin has been worn by the likes of BTS’ Jungkook and Blackpink’s Jisoo, Lee’s goal in attending NYFW was for the brand to reach a broader audience.
“Being successful in each market is about competitiveness and opportunity, which comes from a strong business model and strategy,” he says. “NYFW is a global show, so it’s a great opportunity to reach out and expand.”


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Fashion

‘Being Chinese is tough’: New York Fashion Week’s Asian designers on stereotypes, and the statements their collections make

A model walks the runway wearing Adeam, by Japanese designer Hanako Maeda, during New York Fashion Week in February 2023. Photo: Getty Images 

A look from PH5’s autumn/winter collection. Photo: Stephanie Geddes

A look from Malan Breton’s latest collection, “Fantome”. Photo: Danny Chin | Omega Photo Studios

Models walk the runway at the Private Policy show during New York Fashion Week. Photo: Getty Images 

Siying Qu and Haoran Li at the Private Policy show during New York Fashion Week. Photo: Getty Images 

A model “walks” the runway for Cahiers during the Concept Korea show. Photo: Getty Images 

Knitwear designer Chet Lo wants to dress Michelle Yeoh and have people wear his clothes ‘to the office, grocery shopping, on a chill Sunday’

Backstage at Chet Lo’s spring 2023 show. Photo: Chet Lo

Chet Lo’s autumn 2023 runway show. While Lo’s spiky knitwear is known for its bright colours, the designer’s autumn 2023 collection was a darker, more sombre display. Photo: Chet Lo

A look from the Chet Lo autumn 2023 collection. Photo: Chet Lo

Backstage at Chet Lo’s autumn 2023 show. Photo: Chet Lo

Chet Lo taking a bow at his autumn 2023 runway show. Photo: Chet Lo

‘I need to save my culture’: Ukrainian fashion designers put on defiant show at London Fashion Week

Ukrainian fashion designers Ksenia Schnaider, Ivan Frolov and Julie Paskal pose backstage with a Ukraine flag ahead of the Ukraine Fashion Week show during which they presented their labels’ designs at London Fashion Week in Britain. Photo: Reuters

A model presents a creation by Ukrainian designer Ivan Frolov during the Ukraine Fashion Week show at London Fashion Week, featuring three labels from the war-torn eastern European country. Photo: Reuters

A model presents a creation by Ukrainian designer Ksenia Schnaider during London Fashion Week. Photo: Reuters

A model presents a creation by Ukrainian designer Ksenia Schnaider made out of surplus stocks of neckties now that Ukrainian men have swapped them for military fatigues. Photo: Reuters

A model presents a creation by Ukrainian designer Julie Paskal during London Fashion Week. Photo: Reuters

A model presents a laser-cut appliqué “butterfly” creation by Ukrainian designer Julie Paskal during London Fashion Week. Photo: Reuters

A model presents a creation by Ukrainian designer Ivan Frolov. Photo: Reuters 

A model presents a look from the collection by Ukrainian designer Ivan Frolov presented during London Fashion Week. Photo: Reuters

Japanese fast-fashion giant Uniqlo on a mission to conquer the US and replicate the success enjoyed in Asia and Europe

People shop at a Uniqlo store at The Hudson Yards development in New York City, US, in 2019. Although Uniqlo is a fixture in shopping streets in New York and other coastal US cities, it is less well known elsewhere in the country. Photo: Reuters

Daisuke Tsukagoshi, Uniqlo’s chief executive officer for the US and Canada, plans to open 139 stores in the US in the next four years. Photo: LinkedIn / Daisuke Tsukagoshi

Shoppers at a Uniqlo store in Chicago in 2021. Photo: Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Shoppers enter a Uniqlo store in the SoHo neighborhood of New York, on January 21, 2023. Photo: Bloomberg

4 women’s fashion trends for 2023 seen in menswear runway shows, from layered knits to leather gloves, and how to style them at home

A model walks the runway during the Hermes ready-to-wear autumn/winter 2023 fashion show as part of Paris Men’s Fashion Week in January. Womenswear will continue taking cues from men’s catwalk looks this year. Photo: Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

A model walks the runway during the Egonlab show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 17, 2023 in Paris. Photo: Getty Images

A Lemaire women’s autumn/winter 2023 look. The label’s designer, Christophe Lemaire, often keeps everything within the same colour palette and softly tailored, says Richard Biedul, creative director and menswear model. Photo: Lemaire

The Hermès show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 21, 2023 in Paris, France. Photo: Getty Images

A look featuring leather opera gloves on the Rick Owens runway. Photo: Getty Images

Lifestyle

Fashion & Beauty

This year’s New York Fashion Week featured a crop of Chinese, Korean and Japanese designers who, through their collections, called for more Asian representation
They speak about the stereotyping and labelling they face, putting their culture and heritage in their collections, and how they can reach a bigger audience


Asian designers at New York Fashion Week confront stereotypes and labelling, and use their collections to make statements.


New York Fashion Week