Growing up in the early 90’s in Guangzhou, China at the height of Japanese and American cultural influences, Feifei Yang’s childhood was dominated by the influx of Western pop music and Japanese cartoons. With nostalgia acting as a strong influencer, her designs innately drew from the two elements.
Parallels in architecture and clothing are endeavours explored in Fei Fei Yang’s eponymous collection. The intentions behind both subjects are simple: to house the human body through design. She spends much of her time extracting elements from both realms, where she develops unique methods of draping, fitting and cutting.
She is often classified as a rule breaker, and rebellion against the traditional is at the heart of her designs. Inspired by juxtaposing styles, that of the English gentleman and Japanese geishas, this paradoxical aesthetic is the brand’s unique DNA.
By challenging traditional menswear tailoring, she literally cuts away at the stiff, straightjacket look of the suit silhouette and encourages movement within fluidity.
Tucked into each piece are layers of colour and with deconstruction as Fei Fei Yang’s signature motif for the season; each swing of the arm and twist of the body unveils these ultra fluorescent slits – each nip and tuck reveals more than what meets the eye. In blurring lines between gender boundaries, her collection highlights yin and yang – softness and hardness, raw and refined, elegance and rebellion.
Despite her deconstructive style elements, Feifei Yang is methodical in her design process. She starts and ends her day checking emails, and in between she allocates her time between research, designing and managing the business aspect of her brand. “I always spend time doing theme research, material research and analyzing the feedback I get from my previous collections. I do a lot of research”. Having just finalized her latest collection for Spring/Summer 2017, the next step for Feifei Yang is to get fully hands-on with styling, product sales and marketing.
Her Spring/Summer 2017 collection draws inspiration from current affairs. Afflicted by child soldiers in the Middle East, she shines a light on the dichotomy of a world seen through the lens of children and one through the adult gaze.
“They are forced into the cruel world created by adults where they must obey the law of the jungle. Their souls are living in and eroding their still-growing bodies”.
