Home FASHION RUNWAY From The Mind’s Eye to the Runway: Meet NICHE Magazine’s Sponsored Emerging...

From The Mind’s Eye to the Runway: Meet NICHE Magazine’s Sponsored Emerging Designer Alex S. Yu

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DSCF8120_oThere is something quite remarkable how a human being can conceive a concept from everyday experiences. But it is simply exquisite when one can cause it to exist in this 3-dimensional world, especially in fashion.

Along came Alex S. Yu

His fervour for fashion design began from his love for everything fashion. I spent my high school days reading fashion magazines, blogs and forums and educated myself on all things fashion, designers, brands and models” and unbeknownst to him that he could draw sketches and make them come to life. It is not until he took a part-time sewing and pattern cutting course that this realization came to being, “I had realized I could actually make my imagination into a 2D sketch and pattern piece and then into a 3D garment” he stated.

His path as a fashion designer continued to flourish when he went to Blanche Macdonald. Required to produce a project, he had to envision his own label and come up with a brand. Then his label Denier & Manera was born. “…‘Denier’ is actually a unit of measurement for the weight of fabric and ‘Manera’ is actually Spanish for ‘a way of doing things’. I started looking up words that I could relate to. “. However, it is not until his recent travels to Asia that made him realize to rebrand. “I found it difficult for people to understand what I was saying and even more difficult to remember my label’s name..” He then felt the need for change – a perfect timing for a fresh start as ALEX S. YU.

ALEX S. YU is all about having fun and enjoying life. Life is short, it is okay to day dream, it is okay to be a bit imperfect and it is okay to have some fun.

Alex has always been drawn to visual things. He let’s his imagination run free with no holds barred, “I do not set a box or a boundary or any rules for myself as to what I can or cannot do.” How he goes through his creative process is beyond incomparable and truly fascinating. Though he finds his sense of sight more acute than his other senses, its his creative mind that deems him worthy of his artistry. “The visual inspirations act as a catalyst, or a trigger for my imagination, and which will convert my feelings or thoughts into my designs as sketches. I would then go back and edit, apply and alter the designs to make them more realistic and cohesive”, which in turn makes his clothes wearable yet fun, lady-like and whimsical. He found the perfect balance between wearability and experimental. His exploratory vision and his use of only unconventional materials has always made his designs stand out.

alex-yuFor his current collection, he relied on his travels and experiences while living in London and Paris and his fascination with the Dr. Seuss’ book series for ingenuity. His inspiration came about when he found himself taking a lot of photographs of walls full of graffiti in the poverty-stricken parts of the cities that spoke to him. He then began to intently ponder on those images and found himself empathizing with the graffiti artists, “It gave me a strong sense of resent towards their lives. They are unhappy, coveting freedom, loathing their lives and jobs and yet manage to have fun and be creative with whatever resources that was available” And to convey optimism, he turned to Dr. Seuss, “I wanted to use the very optimistic and humorous mood and feelings in the books to convey those resentful feelings of the London/Paris youths”

ALEX S. YU Spring/Summer 2015 collection “The Lost Youth”, sponsored by NICHE MAGAZINE will debut at Vancouver Fashion Week on Wednesday September 17, 2014

TICKETS ON SALE: www.vanfashionweek.com

 

 

 

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