2nd Drop of Yang Li's Samizdat: JAPANOISE
Test your ‘underground’ knowledge here: http://samizdat.live/reference/. What was your ‘alt.’ score? The Paris based designer, Yang Li, launched the 2nd drop of his Samizdat line along with 2017FW menswear and womenswear. While the womenswear experiments with the passage of time (garments treated with technical dying and distressing processes to ‘fast forward’ its time) and the menswear is heavily influenced by the designer’s love for alt. horror films and Goth rock music, Samizdat released its newly updated merch. garments including t-shirts, hoodies and zip-ups.
“No Commercial Potential” is @samizdat_official instagram account banner. Li started this line as his virtual band with on-going collaborations with artists, musicians and writers. At the launch of Samizdat in 2016, Li commented that he sees the line as a platform to make “something exist which we like- and that’s it.” This season, it exists and has kinda proven its commercial potential. Samizdat’s reference tops printed with musicians, film titles or book titles was Li’s best seller last season. This season, the references are back with updates as well as illustrations by Keiichi Ohta. Ohta is a cult illustrator and a song writer from Japan. In 1989, Yohji Yamamoto used Ohta’s music for his Paris collection.
While you won’t see Li up on a stage doing a Bauhaus cover or something, he is emphasizing the importance of music in his designs further. Instead of a traditional runway collection, Li hosted a concert by Blixa Bargeld and Teho Teardo at Palais de Tokyo. Where is this going? Is this really going to revolutionize how collections are presented? I don’t know but so far, his personal taste in music and art combined with his designs are winning us over.
Check out which book or industrial music band Yang Li is obsessing over this Fall.
