“This is the only fashion show in Shanghai where you will see handsome guys,” one of Ximon Lee’s friends joked, saying it was the last fashion show in Shanghai. “You will see beautiful girls and classic Chinese wives [a colloquial term for a wealthy, married lady]that kind of model, but only here you can meet handsome guys!
The venue for Lee’s smoke show is the smokier Shanghai Haim Club, which reopened in a new location earlier this year. For the uninitiated, Lee is a Hong Kong-born, Berlin-based menswear designer who launched his Brooklyn-based label in 2014 after studying at Parsons School of Design. He was shortlisted for the 2015 LVMH Prize and became the first menswear designer to win the H&M Design Award in the same year. Lee wields considerable influence, but his actions over the years have been relatively subtle, overshadowed by the vast atmosphere of club culture that has long influenced his clothing.
Lee said backstage that the collection was inspired by coming-of-age stories from Japanese cult films Everything about Lily Zhouzhou. He pondered the idea of personal transformation and seemed to embrace the tension of youth—the pressure to feel invincible, to generate feelings of nostalgia, to have potential—by building a collection that displayed some endearing awkwardness.
If this all doesn’t sound particularly sexy, or like a wardrobe fit for a big party, that’s because Lee’s main focus isn’t sexiness, and neither is the club. Still, some things come naturally, so his proposal was full of cheeky and undeniably cool menswear touches: micro shorts, a one-shoulder draped top or peplum vest, a glossy shirt and a pair of satin boxer shorts, said one attendee The report said the shorts featured a built-in lower body. A series of new and funky tie shirts are the standouts: the short sleeves of one are actually dress shirt cuffs, while another has been woven into longer panels to form full-length sleeves.
This show marked Lee’s return to the Shanghai T stage. “This season has been challenging, but doing a show feels rewarding because I want to be proud,” he said. Lee has been presenting his collections through lookbooks and showrooms. While it’s nice to be able to see his work up close – don’t let the near-existence of Lee’s costumes fool you, he’s a very skilled technical designer – the costumes are best experienced in context .
The after-party after the show was held in the same venue: tech faithful stomped on the previously improvised runway and the fashion crowd gathered outside to catch the end of a long and eventful season, a testament to the Lee brand. Cosmopolitan, orgy sexy opportunity.
