Max von Sydow’s delectably voiced hypnosis session from Lars von Trier’s Europa saw models onto the runway at the Yang Li show on Wednesday afternoon, instantly making for the kind unnerving atmosphere you’re hoping for at the designer’s shows. In terms of cuts and colours, however, this was a brighter and breezier Yang Li collection where the gloom the designer does so well was more spelled out – quite literally – in the slogans paraded in procession on t-shirts. ‘Bore’ said the front of one, ‘dom’ it read on the back. Another had the word ‘silk’ on the front and the word ‘worm’ on the back, suggesting Yang Li was playing with ambivalence: all was not what it seemed.
It was a theme further explored in the no doubt purposely sporadic application of seemingly random (but again, anything but) material to garments – sticking stuff on stuff, you might call it – and asymmetrical strands of fabric hanging down here and there. If it sounds a bit emo, perhaps it was but that’s never a bad thing. Yang Li belongs to a new generation of young designers for whom saying something through their work is as important as selling garments. And thank God for that. (Also: points for playing Placebo’s Without You I’m Nothing for the finale. Awesome.)
Credits
Text Anders Christian Madsen
Photography Harry Carr