“That is the one present in Shanghai the place you’ll see some scorching boys,” joked a good friend at Ximon Lee, the final runway presentation on the Shanghai collections. “You’ll see fairly women and traditional Chinese language Tai Tai’s [a colloquial term for a wealthy, married lady], these sorts of fashions, however solely right here you’ll get scorching males!”
The venue for Lee’s steamy procession of smoke-shows was the smokier Shanghai membership Heim, which reopened at a brand new location earlier this yr. For the uninitiated, Lee is a Hong Kong-born, Berlin-based menswear designer who launched his label in Brooklyn in 2014 after research at Parsons. He was shortlisted for the 2015 LVMH Prize and was the primary menswear designer to win the H&M Design Award that very same yr. Lee has a fair proportion of well-earned clout, however has for years moved comparatively subtly, shrouded by the cavernous membership tradition ambiance that has lengthy knowledgeable his garments.
This assortment, Lee mentioned backstage, was loosely impressed by the approaching of age tales within the Japanese cult movie All About Lily Chou Chou. He ruminated on the concept of private metamorphosis, and appeared to embrace the tensions of being younger—feeling invincible, creating a way of nostalgia, the strain of potential—by setting up a group that projected some endearing awkwardness.
If none of this sounds significantly attractive or like a wardrobe ripe for a superb celebration, it’s as a result of Lee’s major preoccupation isn’t intercourse enchantment, and neither is the membership. Some issues come naturally, although, so his proposal was filled with cheeky and undeniably cool menswear kinds: micro shorts, one-shoulder draped tops or embellished tank tops, shiny shirting, and a pair of satiny boxer shorts {that a} fellow attendee reported characteristic a built-in jockstrap. A run of novel and funky button-downs have been probably the most compelling: The brief sleeves on one have been truly gown shirt cuffs, whereas one other’s have been knitted to longer panels to create full-length sleeves.
This present marked Lee’s return to the runway in Shanghai. “This season has been difficult however it felt significant to do a present as a result of I need to really feel proud,” he mentioned. Lee had been exhibiting his assortment by way of lookbook and in showrooms. Whereas it’s good to have the ability to see his work up shut—don’t let the barely-thereness of Lee’s clothes idiot you, he’s fairly the deft technical designer—these garments are all greatest skilled in context.
The after-party that adopted the present befell in the identical location: Between the techno faithfuls stomping in place the place the makeshift runway had been earlier and the style crowd gathering outdoors to catch up on the tail-end of an extended and eventful season, it was an opportunity to bear witness to Lee’s model of metropolitan, rave-ready sexiness in full throttle.
