You may not know this but I am part Chinese, my dad's side of the family are pretty much exactly what you'd see if you were walking around Beijing or any Chinatown. My last name is Chow and my first name is Lee-Jean, this roughly translates to
Zhōu Li Qióng (last name first and thank you Google Translate). I'm probably not alone in saying that I've been keeping an eagle eye on China both as an economist and as a follower of the industry and witnessing its monumental growth in the past 10 or 15 years has been staggering.
On the back of all that I present to you, my lovely readers, Yang Li.
Yang was born in Beijing; raised in Western Australia and now based in London after finishing his studies at Central Saint Martins. In his 3 years of design Yang has held positions at Raf Simons and Gareth Pugh, and much like them he designs with a raw edge juxtaposed against hand-finished, tailored silhouettes. He looks to the future whilst having appreciation for the past and the results are fantastic.
Much of his tailoring work is done using double-faced wool that sits alongside sportier, technical fabrics which are on display in a number of his oversized tops. The same double-faced wool is seen across his current collection and is the product of much synthesising - the material is a blend of traditional virgin wool and mohair, this is then fused with man made fibres such as lycra and elastane which lends to the fluidity of movement rarely seen in pieces with such meticulous structure. The fabrications are sourced from a small number of factories in northern Italy where artisans work on them.
Yang Li heavily referenced the MA-1 bomber jacket for the Spring 2012 collection and you can see the influences in the colours that he used. Jet blacks and navy are prominent and as an accent as is orange, this is present on the interior layer of the double-faced wool. Apart from his snappy designs he also presents two pairs of bench-made, formal black derby shoes, one in full grain, textured leather and one in smooth black leather. These were made in collaboration with Northhamptonshire shoemakers Joseph Cheaney and Sons, who have been making footwear since 1886, so any buyer can rest assured that the shoes will endure wear after wear and still be mint. It's great to see a Chinese designer on the up and with his work doing the talking I'm sure he'll only go from strength to strength, perhaps we'll see him at the helm of a fashion house in the future, we'll have to wait and see. You can shop both the men's and women's collection at LN-CC.
