For a generation of young Chinese designers, tradition appears to have come to be a more crucial part of their innovative language, even as they work with a lighter hand and a sense of play. Designer duo Austin Wang and Yansong Liu constructed their spring collection around the idea of reflection, playing with mirrors, sunlight, shadows, and the splashing surfaces of water, which they equated into rather, feminine items. Polka dots, rugged patterns, and cartoon-like drawings of Chinese mountains and seas offered a vibrant energy to clothing whose charm lay in their unforced appeal.
The shapes had an easy going convenience, varying from uncomplicated dresses to more body-conscious forms, streaming tiered capes, and delicate reinterpretations of the qipao Trad recommendations arised in brocades inspired by Song-dynasty court fabrics, while red made its traditional look, with its associations of happiness and good luck. Yet nothing really felt strained by austere cultural relevance. Ao Yes dealt with heritage with a perceptiveness both happy and fragile, offering familiar items a youthful, contemporary inflection.
Considering that releasing the brand, the designers stated, they have actually been discovering what a brand-new Chinese style could look like, especially for a generation much less curious about inherited gown codes than in making them their own. Below, their aspiration formed not as a grand declaration yet as an inviting recommendation: heritage can be a resource of enjoyment rather than a commitment. Even the more worldwide spreading meant a brand name looking past its home market without forgeting its origins. Ao Yes made cultural memory really feel much less like an inheritance to support than a collection of possibilities to have fun with.
