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On February 19 at the Strand in London, a palpable sense of excitement pervades the pristine blue skies on the final day of London Fashion Week, as I.T Group-owned brand Izzue prepares for its historic moment – to be the first Hong Kong fashion label to stage a solo runway show in the capital. But this is no ordinary fashion morning, as it turns into a fashion mourning. News has spread at 10am that famed Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld has breathed his last and died in Paris. Izzue has inadvertently chosen a prophetic day on which to make a triumphant statement of its own.
Outside, the ubiquitous crowds of voyeurs, bloggers, stylistas, influencers, KOLs (perhaps ironic that Hong Kong’s oft-used acronym for “key opinion leaders” also could stand for “Karl Otto Lagerfeld”), the furred and the faux-ed jostle to find focus for the lenses of moment-defining street-snappers. The likes of British singer Lily Allen and fashion designer John Rocha arrive for the Izzue show, as does Hong Kongborn, London-based blogger and writer Susannah Lau aka Susie Bubble.
Not attracting quite the same screen
time though no less Zwirner’s Hong Kong gallery in H Queen’s. “I’ve been in Hong Kong quite a lot recently, so it’s a great chance to see the Izzue cool over here in London.”
Cool and innovative Izzue may be, but behind the scenes two hours pre-show in the lobby of the Me London hotel, I.T’s chief commercial officer, Deborah Cheng, is a combination of pride and anxiety – almost like an expectant mother. “It’s like I’m going into labour,” half-jokes Cheng. “And you don’t know whether it’s going to be a boy or a girl, or maybe even twins! We spent so much time and effort to get the show on schedule for today. I really hope you guys like it.”
What’s not to like? Izzue, set up in 1999, has been on one continuous and experimental mission to pursue design innovation, brand collaborations and projects that pre-empt future trends, along with nurturing design talent by supporting the work of students through top-tier establishments such as Tsinghua University in Beijing and Central Saint Martins (CSM) in London.
Izzue’s investment in London’s creative scene marks the launch of its capsule collaboration with two CSM students, who were chosen following a design competition, alongside the activewear brand Phvlo and overseen by the school’s MA fashion design course director, Fabio Peras. As well as being on the runway, the designs form part of a ten-piece portfolio currently selling in Selfridges.
In keeping with the I.T-owned brand’s “Live it Real” mantra, the show gets underway at exactly 2pm, parading Izzue’s key items (or #izzueessentials) of striped tees, sweatshirts, trench coats, down puffers, bikers and shirts/blazers. The looks and theme reflect the difficulties of living in the now – questioning what drives feelings of insecurity or displacement in today’s youth, and how they can best equip themselves to combat such emotions.
“It’s coming out of the comfort zone,” explains Cheng. “So we pay a lot of attention to our core design elements, which is trench coats, stripes, jackets… all these elements we’ve used for the longest time. And the feeling of the whole British punk thing. It’s genderless. I think it s the whole trend now, that a lot of different brands are doing genderless. You’ve got men doing womenswear and women doing menswear shows, so it’s getting more flexible.”
Cuts and forms on the runway are deconstructed, and the show proposes the notion of repurposing, reconstructing and reusing clothes as a way of reacting to life’s challenges and outcomes. Experimental PVC makes its way into tailoring and a utilitarian military theme underscores the sense of modern urban combat.
In a marvellous finale, model-actress Shum Yuet, who is also the daughter of I.T Group boss Sham Kar-wai and actress Chingmy Yau, led the pack in shimmering white to conclude her runway debut. It’s a champagne moment indeed.
CDLP sits front-row with Piras for Izzue’s show. How does he assess the brand’s culture and the way ahead? “This whole project has been about bringing youth as a creative entity, and bringing young students as the creative entity, to contribute to the philosophy of Izzue – which is about youth, and about movement and a community that needs to buy and wear easy and appealing products,” he says.
Sustainability also doesn’t need to be a complicated matter, he adds, eyes wid open to the idea of another Izzue x CSM collaboration. “At the end of the day, yo want novelty and innovation in material and you want an entity like Izzue to choose a material that is not what they use all the time.”
So what would Piras propose for a follow-up crossover? “I would go with a range of T-shirts, sweatshirts and somethi totally visual,” he says. “At the end of th day, it needs to be fast. It can be a very simple choice, such as which cottons yo use, which nylons you use. You can do something really simple just by using o element that changes everything.”
Which sounds a lot like the ideal tagli for Izzue. Today, London; tomorrow, th world, as the brand activates plans to expand its stores beyond its current stabl in Asia. Hong Kong’s global fashion moment may be at hand at the helm of Izzue and I.T, and we’re certain the anti-sentimental, future-driven Mr Lagerfe would have approved.