Naughty Naughty

>> Fashion graduate season has come around again with a new batch of names about to be bandied around as ‘ones to watch’.  I’ve yet to talk up this year’s batch of MA students, specifically London College of Fashion and Central Saint Martins, but some are already out of the starting blocks to strike out on their own with a brand.  ShuShu/Tong (first prize for a pleasingly onomatopoeic name) consists of Liushu Lei and Yutong Jiang, who both studied together on the fashion MA course at London College of Fashion.  Like sister duo Miuniku, who have gone before them, they already knew they were working together and produced pre-collection under the name ShuShu/Tong prior to graduating.   Based on Jiang’s final collection entitled ‘Naughty Girl’, ShuShu/Tong have a bona fide A/W 15-6 collection that looks ripe and ready to sell and wear.

‘Naughty Girl’ is the central character to the collection.  She wears bubble gum pink and lippy bright red for lolz with a dash of white.  She’s all about mixing it up, being mega random and tempering her girliness.  You could say that ShuShu/Tong’s aesthetic is indicative of the 2010s gen of designing where streetwear and sportswear get fused with fashion.  This sentence from ShuShu/Tong’s blurb just about sums it up:  “She can wear eveningwear when riding a bike, she can wear a fur coat on a tennis court, jeans and a T-shirt to parties… She is just having fun.”

And with all that spongey-looking oversized volumes (draped and ruched to resemble lips… which set of lips, one wonders…), exaggerated bows and of course that massive dose of red and pink, fun is exactly what these clothes are made for.