Parsons graduate Ximon Lee brought one home for the boys today. A panel of jurors including Marc by Marc Jacobs creative director Luella Bartley, pop prodigy Lily Allen, and street style photographer Tommy Ton, selected the 24-year-old designer as the winner of the 2015 H&M Design Award, making him the first menswear designer to earn the award since it launched in 2012. Not that Ximon makes such a hard-line distinction between men’s and women’s fashion. “My collection was designed as menswear but I’m excited to see it also worn by women,” he noted. And, following in the footsteps of menswear designers like Shaun Samson and Shayne Oliver at Hood By Air, Ximon chose to wrap his presentation with a female model.
Gender politics aside, it was the clothes that stood out. The judges were impressed by Lee’s strong storytelling and attention to detail. “He had everything; his research was beautiful, the fabric development was really accomplished, and his design was good,” said Bartley. Drawing inspiration from Children of Leningradsky, a documentary about Russia’s homeless youth, and his own recent trip to Russia, the designer presented structured silhouettes cut from denim, plastic, and even cardboard. While the shapes were often high-concept — tabards and oversized fringed tunics anyone? — there were also clear references to sportswear staples like denim jackets and baggy T-shirts.
In addition to receiving €50,000 to grow his brand, Ximon has won the opportunity to develop his pieces into a collection to be sold in H&M stores and online this autumn. While the multi-tiered deconstructed coats might not make it to a high street near you anytime soon, the patchworked T-shirts, metallic striped jerseys, and boxy jackets have clear hit potential. And if his selection as one of four young designers to participate in the VFILES show during New York Fashion Week next month is anything to go by (which, surely, it is), Ximon Lee is someone you’ll be seeing a lot more of.
ximonlee.com
Credits
Text Alice Newell-Hanson
Images courtesy H&M