Lucire

Lucire: fashion magazine homeLucire Fashion FeaturesLucire Living and Beauty Lucire Volante: travel, accommodation guide Lucire fashion news, bulletins and events Fashion shopping guide and directory
Lucire Community: interact with us, read letters to the editorLucire Updates' service: sign up Lucire Feedback
  Shopping Guide Return to home page Previous page

Lucire spring 2003: Alvin Valley

Previous page CONTINUED

Yeohlee Teng stayed true to showing a collection that generated some useful discourse about fashion

 

 

   Yeohlee, too, went with stripes in her collection, though her design rationale was very different. Starting with the American arts and crafts' movement—where simplicity, forthright materials and workmanship rule the day—Yeohlee transplanted its ideas into modern design.
   This approach deserves some examination. The arts and crafts' movement was about championing the individual craftsman, so how is that replicated in an age of mass production and machinery?
   The answer seems to be in the design and the choice of fabrics. While Yeohlee doesn't aim to replicate the movement's products exactly, there are woven and loomed yarns of cotton, linen, silk, mohair and alpaca. Colours are purposely kept muted.
   Yeohlee's spring 2003 collection was not old materials only. Lycra blends make their way into the designs, for example.
   As with Perry Ellis, there is an exploration of the past, brought bang up to date for the present season. However, Yeohlee manages to make her work slightly futuristic as well. She recognizes that modern customers might not have the opportunity to change between day and evening clothes, so her designs suit both periods. Construction is championed along with practicality—another 2000s touch that arguably has its roots in the arts and crafts' movement but also in eastern design (hardly surprising, given her Malaysian roots).
   We were delighted that Yeohlee Teng stayed true to showing a collection that generated some useful discourse about fashion. For those who understand design movements—whether it is the arts and crafts' movement, the Bauhaus insistence that design should not be for the rich only, or the universality of natural proportion—Yeohlee has delivered once again this season. •

Emilio Cavallini
Perry Ellis
Yeohlee

LEFT, TOP ROW: Emilio Cavallini’s gym-wear. CENTRE ROW, LEFT: Emilio Cavallini spring 2003, demonstrating that this collection would be unforgiving to all but the leanest, fittest figures. CENTRE ROW, RIGHT: Lycra has been blended into this coat design from Yeohlee. BOTTOM ROW: Yeohlee spring 2003, emphasizing the natural, arts-and-crafts approach to her designs this season.

 

Contents  Spring–summer 2003  Lucire Fashion index  
Subscribe to Lucire Updates: email updates@lucire.com, subject line subscribe
 

Home page
Lucire: fashion magazine homeLucire Fashion FeaturesLucire Living and Beauty Lucire Volante: travel, accommodation guide Lucire fashion news, bulletins and events Fashion shopping guide and directory
Lucire Community: interact with us, read letters to the editorLucire Updates' service: sign up Lucire Feedback