Sankuanz – LCM SS15
GQ China lived up to its reputation of picking the most interesting menswear designers in China to bring to the London stage in Shankuanz. If we weren’t immediately intrigued by the invite of a half-naked man surrounded by poodles and hearts with ‘Asian Boy’ written on his stomach in lipstick, we were certainly raising our eyebrows when the models bared their flashing led light grills and by the time they swaggered out with giant monster claws on their hands, every camera was in the air.
Despite the surreal sights set to Russian oom pah music, which was enough to keep even the hardest after party goers awake on the final day of LCM, the clothes themselves had a serious amount of causal cool about them that kept it wearable. White sporty hoodies, mesh jackets, basketball shorts and sheer t-shirts scribbled with black ‘doodle’ prints inspired by 1940s Russian prisoner tattoos were full of attitude. And what did Russian prisoners etch into their skin in the 1940s? Anchors, candles, daggers, barbed wire and ‘no sh$t’ apparently.
A strong motif was that of a cartoonish crying face which took over entire tops and fabric face covers that were tucked underneath caps and safari hats. The masks were styled with black baggy clothes with skeleton prints and brightly coloured faux fur shorts, and not forgetting the show-stealing zombie hands that were so large the models had to turn sideways to pass each other on the catwalk. The final pieces of the show felt like a Day of the Dead celebration.
Shangguan Zhe, the designer behind Sankuanz, certainly made an entrance for his first international show.