Final thoughts on Kara Liu and Jason Alexander Pang

It's so rare to have the opportunity to chat to a designer who is still organic and has not yet been influenced by the pressures of production and the notion of excess is better, there is a certain sense of transparency in well-established  and serious emerging designers that many of the top designers in the world have unfortunately lost. Kara herself told me that right now, her and Jason are just both trying to establish a name for themselves in the fashion industry and that right now, it's not about money. Nonetheless, she and Jason both recognise the importance of generating a revenue in the long term to be sustainable as a brand and creative force in the industry.

I asked them both what stores they would like to see stocking their respective brands in Melbourne and Kara replied "Green with Envy" and Jason, "General Pants" (although I still think that he could definitely go for Marais - I believe that sort of demographic would respond extremely well to his brand). It shows that these two designers are not just your typical self-proclaimed "passion for fashion" designers, but instead through their brands they are trying to say something and present something unique to present to the fashion industry.

Jason listed his influences as Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci, Mary Katrantzou and Dries Van Noten among others and Kara, Céline by Phoebe Philo, Jil Sander (presumably by Raf Simons as well as Jil Sander herself) and Marques Almeida. Their influences are extremely obvious in their work if you are familiar with the designers' but at the same time, their work is far from being a copy of their influences' work. It was interesting that Kara listed Marques Almeida as being one of her influences as it shows that she is not simply a clean-cut minimalist designer - she is also fascinated with deconstruction, which once again displays her knowledge and want to truly know the fabrics she chooses for each collection.

They both have strong ethics attached to their fashion brands and they also truly believe in their brands. I have a lot of respect for both of them to try and establish themselves in an industry which is notorious for habitual scepticism at a time when fashion is struggling with it's identity of quality vs. quantity.

I was so fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet both Jason and Kara, they are both idealistic young designers with so much to offer the fashion industry.

Thank you both so much for having me and welcoming me into your showroom. I was extremely honoured to have had the opportunity and it was inspiring to have met you both. I wish you all the best in the future and encourage you both to keep progressing and growing as designers. I look forward to meeting both of you again!

To view more of Kara's work head over to her website and head over to the AM.XANDER website for Jason's work.

AM.XANDER Spring/Summer 14

Yesterday I was invited to the showroom of KARA LIU and AM.XANDER's 2014 collections and I had the absolute pleasure of meeting two extremely creatively and conceptually elevated passionate designers, Kara Liu of KARA LIU and Jason Alexander Pang of AM.XANDER. As graduates from Melbourne's prestigious fashion institution, RMIT, they both have strong directional aesthetic envisioned for their respective brands.
I'll be featuring their collections separately, first up is AM.XANDER Spring/Summer 2014.

AM.XANDER by Jason Alexander Pang

Following an internship with one of fashion's most respected print mavens Mary Kantrantzou, Jason launched his Spring/Summer 2014 collection and it is nothing short of astounding.

Jason manages to perfectly encapsulate high fashion menswear and street menswear thus, offering a dynamic equilibrium between the two. He wanted to strip down the culture of print in the fashion industry - taking it away from the floral plague and regress it back to the basics. Jason's work contends the interplay of commercial, approachable fashion with the innovation and progression extended by high fashion labels. Although his work is primarily concentrated on prints, he equates prints with surpassing detailed tailoring and textiles.

His Spring/Summer 2014 collection featured a collection of prints that were each more individualistic, futuristic and culturally relevant than the one before. The basis of his prints were inspired by the male dominated sci-fi gaming culture of modern day society. The contrasting notions of rawness and liquidity between his prints and textiles provided the perfect basis for the consumer of his garments to be worn without extreme extravagance and flamboyance. The relationship he develops through his collection with his consumer is a rare one as he portrays modern culture and values of society in a specific time frame through his garments, his consumer is ultimately wearing the past, present and future.

The fabric composition of his collection, polyester, is a choice which demonstrates his mature understanding of fashion as a designer. Working primarily with a medium of print on garments, Jason is able to recognise the importance of textiles and the importance of be able to advance the longevity of his garments.

AM.XANDER is a label which recognises and bridges the menswear gap between candid street wear and high fashion which represent the two notions of commercialisation and conceptualisation, while exploring the necessitated respects of today's society.

AM.XANDER is a true and honest representation of the democratisation of fashion.

To view more of the AM.XANDER Spring/Summer 2014 collection head over to the website and make sure you all like the facebook page aswell!