Yahoo Movies EXCLUSIVE: Emerging Asian Designers to Interpret Historical Western Fashions
While cultural influences remain a hot-button topic in fashion, an exhibition in Hong Kong later this year is wading in, involving London’s Victoria & Albert Museum and conscripting six buzzy designers from across Asia.
Conceived by retailer K11 for its K11 Musea’s Art & Cultural Center in Hong Kong, the showcase will see the likes of Tokyo’s Tomo Koizumi and London-based Sohee Park of Miss Sohee design “contemporary responses” to British and French womenswear from the V&A’s historical collections.
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According to K11, it was “an exercise in tracing and understanding how fashion evolves over time and absorbs and assimilates the impacts of cultural similarities and differences. It holds up a mirror to how for centuries, varied cultures have inspired and stirred the imaginations of designers, and the impact on this on fashion throughout the ages.”
“I want people to have a greater understanding of the influence that history has on today’s art and fashion. It’s a continual evolution,” said production designer William Chang Suk-ping, conscripted as artistic director of “The Love of Couture: Artisanship in Fashion Beyond Time,” slated to open on Dec. 7.
“This exhibition should serve as a reminder that craft, in all its forms and techniques, is driven by human touch,” he added.
Chang is perhaps best known in fashion circles for creating Maggie Cheung’s seductive look for “In the Mood for Love,” Wong Kar-wai’s stylish 2000 film, and his Oscar nomination in 2014 for the costumes he designed for “The Grandmaster.”
The designers involved also include Ryunosuke Okazaki from Japan, Yueqi Qi and Sensen Lii of Windowsen from China, and Celine Kwan from Hong Kong.
Each was allowed to choose the pieces from the V&A collection and are to contribute four works to go on display.
“I wanted the designers to be inspired by pieces that allowed them to tell a story through their unique style and techniques,” Chang explained.
He noted the scenography will be inspired by “Love After Love,” a Derek Walcott poem, and involve “the visuals of a brain scan, highlighting in color the synapses that light up intensely when we are in love. There will be 36 pieces that will be thematically split to show an evolution of craft through time.”
The V&A not only provided the archival dresses to the six designers — it will narrate a section of the exhibition charting the “gradual transformation of artisanship in fashion and textiles” via historical artifacts dating back to 1830 and all the way up to 1960.
The exhibition will be unveiled on Dec. 3 on K11 Night, a glitzy invitation-only party that has been described as Asia’s equivalent to the Met Gala.
The exhibition at K11 is the brainchild of Hong Kong-based developer and entrepreneur Adrian Cheng, founder of K11 Group and chief executive officer of New World Development. A proponent of “cultural retail,” Cheng has made art attractions a key facet of his projects, and he’s keen to build bridges of understanding between East and West.
Cheng is also working to rejuvenate fast-disappearing Chinese craftsmanship via his K11 Craft & Guild Foundation.
According to K11, collaborating with the six emerging designers reinforces its mission to “incubate talent, propagate culture in the community and democratize art, culture and design.”
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