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Chet Lo's spring collection perfectly encapsulates the art of fashion; it's high concept, emotionally compelling and tethered to the identity of the creator. The designer has produced a provocative evolution from his usual brand by creating a love letter to Queer sexual liberation and his foreign heritage. While Lo was loosely covered by the likes of Vogue back in September, this collection (which debuted at London Fashion Week 2023) commands a deeper look into the materials and textures that built Lo's complexly personal narrative on the runway.
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A CLOSER LOOK
The collection begins with a series of designs that represent Lo's childhood; more specifically, his repressed sexual desires as a gay Chinese-American man. He employs light colours and a base of white leather and silk to hark back to the purity that was expected from him as a child. However, his bold prints (such as the white leather jacket which depicts two men kissing) stain these pure materials with sexual images. Chet Lo's silhouettes in these first few looks are of particular interest. The clothes hide a great deal of the models body beneath uncompromising materials to further Lo's relation between these looks and his teenage years.
Now, I can hear the mob shouting from here: what makes this collection's narrative particularly special? To those who ask, my answer is this: Chet provides a level of commitment to his narrative that has been long missed by other designers. By choosing to start the show with exclusively East-Asian models, he hammers home the relation between hidden sexual desires and the expectations on him as a man of colour. As the show continues and Chet takes us on his journey of self acceptance, his models get increasingly diverse.
Beyond these first looks, Lo begins to experiment with traditional Japanese Shibari. He suggestively loops red ropes across the body in intricate patterns between suit jackets and three-dimensional dresses. These additions, when combined with increasingly sheer materials, take us on a journey of self acceptance as Lo expresses his growing comfortability in his sexuality in conjunction with his heritage. His infamous cone texture has a different meaning in this context: the rough spikes on the models' shoes and dresses represents the self-protection that Lo relied on during his journey of sexual liberation.
(Images via Pinterest)
LO'S FINAL MESSAGE
In an exclusive interview with Hypebeast Chet explains:
'For this collection, I really wanted to celebrate everything surrounding Asian sexuality and to communicate that we are beautiful, more than a fetish, and should not be self-conscious that we don’t fit into this masc, mustachio-ed, white-centric idea of beauty.'
(Image via Pinterest)
This message becomes apparent in the final looks of the collection. Now, the self-protecting textures are replaced with the silks and traditional Chinese materials from the beginning of the presentation. However the silhouette has changed: these figure hugging designs suggest a comfortability with personal identity. Lace work accompanies light materials, which symbolise Lo's growing positivity about his sexuality. He uses these garments to write the conclusion to his story and to send a message to people of colour and queer individuals alike: non-white beauty can be celebrated and sexualised without fetishization. Unlike many other fashion week showcases, Lo has created a personal message with his garments that are simultaneously empowering and fashion-forward. For that, he deserves to bask in the glow of this spotlight as both a designer and storyteller.
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