There seems to be a fresh energy in the menswear coming out of New York, and Richard Chai is one of the protagonists defining the new Downtown spirit. His latest collection recalls grungy moments from the 90s, but the layered, textured looks convey
There seems to be a fresh energy in the menswear coming out of New York, and Richard Chai is one of the protagonists defining the new Downtown spirit. His latest collection recalls grungy moments from the 90s, but the layered, textured looks convey a positive energy, celebrating individuality and freedom. With his crucial insider knowledge, the designer admits that not everything is happy-go-lucky in the New York fashion industry, but he’s working hard to keep it spinning with challenging projects, not least a new pop-up shop under the Highline.
What’s the inspiration behind your most recent collection? All that layering and experiments in different textures... Is that the new grunge de luxe?
I’m a kid of the 90s, I grew up during that era and there has always been a part of that in me. I grew up being a skater and coming to New York at a very young age, being around new wave, alternative music, and grunge. Those are things that I reference – maybe not so literally, but they are part of a sensibility that I subscribe to and relate to personally. With this last collection it was a bit more, I don’t want to say optimistic, but a bit more colourful and happy. I wanted to be quite eclectic and mash different things up, odd mixes of prints and colours, but without being intimidating it still has to be approachable. I don’t really reference things in an exact way. If you ever come to my studio, it’s never a whole lot of images of say, James Dean, and that’s the inspiration of the whole collection. It’s much more abstract about a mood and a feeling and interpreting that in the clothes.
What kind of feeling did you have in mind for S/S11?
I wanted to go for something light-hearted, easy breezy, but also make these guys look really individual.
You could see that in the casting – that every boy was chosen with respect to his personality and individuality.
The casting is as important for us as the styling and putting the collection together. There are always the guys who have done my shows for many seasons, but also fresh faces who fit the mood. Each guy was very individual, it was eclectic, but they were all the same kind of punky, irreverent, carefree, cool guy.
Your latest project was a pop up shop under the Highline…
Yes, it was amazing, just 10 days. When we took it down we were really sad. It was done through BOFFO and Building Fashion [an organization sponsoring a series of temporary installations under the High Line at HL23]. I worked with a firm called Snarkitecture, essentially an artist named Daniel Arsham working together with the architect Alex Mustonen. Their first proposal was very much the idea of a retail store, but I said, don’t think about it that way. I wanted this environment to be a new way for people to look at shopping, create a different context for presenting the clothes.
It sounds like Mayor Bloomberg wants to boost projects for young designers to keep New York a relevant fashion capital…
You know, Anna [Wintour] and Diane [von Furstenberg] at the CFDA, have been really active in many ways, even with the garment sector shrinking yearly because of the rents. They do a lot to protect these factories, because many people still work with them. I do.
Do you think there is a chance that New York is losing its status as fashion city?
No I don’t think so. Look, at the end of the day American fashion is American fashion and there is something quite practical about it. That being said, that’s just American sportswear. Within that, it has been redefined in so many ways. That’s the beauty of New York, it’s quite eclectic, everyone is so different and diverse, and that definition of what American fashion is has changed so much over the years.
Text by George Ghon
George Ghon is a London based journalist writing about fashion and art.
Text by George Ghon
