I had a few superheroe and heroine designers that saved my eyes and head from falling into a deep deep sleep when I came back from New York and was bunged up, groggy and a general mass of phlegm, but one quite literally gave me superhero hives. Trust Yang Du, Chinese-born, London-based surrealist, humourist, lets-not-take-it-too-seriously fun time designer to make it all ok with her S/S 11 'He is a Superman' collection. Trust Yang to incorporate Superman, Batman and Astroboy into one collection together with other tidbits from Asian toy world as well as err... squid seen at a fish market in Korea all into one collection (which makes full sense when you see her drawings... ) and for it all to sit together in cartoonish harmony. Trust Yang to make superheroes look EXTRA super by putting them on oversized t-shirt dresses.
Firstly, her installation at the LFW BFC New Gen tent made by Jonny Buttons forced my peepers to open wide... a note about that, sitting on the panel for New Gen for the first time this season, I was trying to bite my tongue NOT to be biased about Yang Du but fortunately everyone was also incredibly enthusiastic and excited by Yang Du's world, showcased by her wonderful drawings and illustrations so there was no hard sell needed there and I was therefore super chuffed to see her in the New Gen showcase.
I ALWAYS always love the sense of FUN (a particularly prominent theme for S/S 11...) in Yang Du's lookbooks but this time, taking her models out into the big bad world, just validates the need for more of these dresses to have a life outside of a studio. Yang Du has few stockists at the moment but I'm hoping that changes if people see that a robot, Astroboy, monster or Superman enlarged face on a t-shirt dress isn't ACTUALLY going to be that distracting to the real world. Or even if it is distracting, perhaps it's a good thing to be spreading some cartoon loving around the world...
Or just the very fact that Yang Du requires big smiles and arms stretched out wide is a good thing indeed. Come on, I know everyone of you has a very good Teen Vogue-esque jump in you that these dresses definitely benefit from...
As well as the dresses, Yang's knitwear skills gets applied to these oversized animal knitted hats as well as gloves that have the sort of fun finger tips that I remember from yesteryear...
I'm not quite onboard with superheroes yet though I have my eye on some Astroboy eyes boring out of my chest but I have been waiting a while to break out with this cashmere t-shirt dress adorned with A/W 10-11's oversized zebra. I'm never gonna be the kind of lass to wear S/S 11 Louis Vuitton type Chinoiserie-infused zebra print of course so this will be the zebra that I'm donning... with a jump, a skip and a smile of course!
(Yang Du A/W 10-11 cashmere t-shirt dress, Topshop tights, See by Chloe bag via Beso, Lacoste leather visor, Suno x Loeffler Randall shoes)
Oh, and yes, after walking about in these Suno x Loeffler Randall shoes, I declare them STREET-friendly. I needed another gratuitous shot of them back at home just to affirm that I do indeed have them in my possession...
Also, if REAL superheroes aren't your thing, I have a feeling that Yang Du's superhero inclinations lie towards the maligned and the slightly random... I think one of the dresses were DEFINITELY inspired by Suppaman from my all-time-fave-guilty-pleasure-cartoon, Dr. Slump...
