Last year Malaysian-born but Belgium-based menswear designer Edmund Ooi imagined in his Autumn/Winter 2014/15 a sort of male version of Jane Fonda in Roger Vadim's Barbarella. He did so through strong textures and experimental materials such as wool treated with silicon coating/silicon stamping, and double bonded wool, creating his own graphics in collaboration with the French fabric manufacturer Mahlia Kent. For his Spring/Summer 2015 collection, Ooi focused instead on deconstruction and reconstruction techniques.
His new creations for the next Autumnal season are a sort of summary of these two collections as the young designer (he's 27 years old), played with gender, innovative fabrics and a long process of disassembling and reassembling various elements.
Hosted at the Armani Theatre as part of Giorgio Armani's initiative to support young talents (so far the Italiand designer has played host to Andrea Pompilio, Stella Jean, Christian Pellizzari, Julian Zigerli, Au Jour Le Jour and Angelos Bratis), Ooi's main inspirations for his Autumn/Winter 2015-16 menswear collection were actually historical garments and costumes from the late 1800s and early 1900s. There were actually moments when you wondered if he had actually gone further back in time to the mid-1500s as one midnight blue jacket with little decorative ruffle-like fringing around the shoulder line brought back memories of doublets.
During his journey back through history, Ooi realised his garments were getting too rigid and a bit too architectural and decided to literally disassemble the collection and reconstruct it.
The main challenge was the fact that he had to figure out how the different fabrics of his choice - triacetate, ecological fur/leather, cashmere and neoprene with sprinkles of thermowelded sequins - reacted, a process that ended up taking a long time, yet helped him finding some innovative inspirations and ideas.
As Ooi cut the fabrics into strips and reassembled them together, he created indeed a futuristic and eye-catching three-dimensional scale-like effect that he reproduced also on his geometrically patterned knitwear (mainly jumpers and maxi sweaters wore with bare knees and high socks). Inserts and panels in leather and fabric jackets allowed him to create zigzagging effects (bringing to mind historical costumes once again and maybe the Renaissance habit of slashing clothes to expose the fabric underneath), while a tapestry-like fabric with geometrical motifs introduced a bit of an arty element.
Though the silhouette was sharp it had a camp element thrown in (see not just the skirts/maxi-sweaters, but also the thick ribbons on coat cuffs and the belt-like scarfs matched with tailored jackets), something that may derive from the fact that Ooi actually started as a womenswear designer. Indeed, inspired by his seamstress mother, Ooi studied fashion design, tailoring and marketing in Malaysia, and mainly created womenswear before moving to the Fashion Department at Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Art (spotted by stylist Nicola Formichetti, he then worked for a while at Mugler's menswear, before launching his own brand in 2013).
Ooi actually seems to be better at menswear than at womenswear as he has a talent for meticulously cut jackets (albeit filtered through the clubbing scene...) and for a tailored element that he is able to combine with a passion for modern graphisms. Besides, his interest in historical costumes and garments and old techniques may be what will distinguish him in the long run from other young designers.
It will be interesting to follow the next stages in Ooi's career and see if his studies in combining history with technological materials will inspire him more innovatively modern pieces for a man's day-to-day wardrobe.
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