Personal needs present personal style. It’s a matter of personal policy. After all, who’d want everything you wear to look like it’s bearing a grudge? Labeled “Private Policy”: Check!
Who?
Established in 2015, New York-based Chinese designer team Haoran Li and Siying Qu presents cutting edge genderless clothing. In their own brand storytale words:
“We are not trying to make fancy sh*t for people, we rather make cool stuff for the young kids today. And this is how we came up with the idea of making the brand Private Policy. This idea brought us together when we were in school. We both would loathe to whip up another ‘just-pretty’ garment.”
High-quality fabrics meet classical shapes, pushing all the visual and tactile buttons; all about the individual pursuit of fashionable freedom.
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What?
The brand models itself after news outlets, researching and reflecting upon what is overlooked in and by society. Presenting their findings and insights trough physical catwalks and digital events, onlookers raise a question mark and one eyebrow alike.
Private Policy focuses on reinventing downtown streetwear. From the designers’ POV, they “see many young people with a rebellious heart, but it is hard to find anything matching their free spirit. Their needs are what we want to fashionably fulfill. Living in Downtown New York, we love observing people walking in Lower East Side, SoHo and Chinatown”.
The downtown vibe is palpable with every single Private Policy stitch. Clothes for people who heart fashion and mind the world.
Courtesy of Private Policy, AW19
Courtesy of Private Policy, AW19
Courtesy of Private Policy, AW19
When?
Li and Qu graduated from Parsons’ New School in 2015 and right after set up their own collaborative brand.
The duo has been a fixture on the New York Fashion Week (NYFW) stage since 2017.
On March 29, 2020, the brand enters Shanghai Cloud Fashion Week AW20 as part of the lush Labelhood Live lineup.
Siying Qu and Haoran Li, the designing duet behind Private Policy. Image via Zimbio
Where?
EUROPE STOCKISTS: Selfridges London, United Kingdom; Printemps Paris, France.
CHINA STOCKISTS: Labelhood Shanghai, China; LMDS Shanghai, China; Magmode Beijing, China; WOD Guangzhou, China; Chichic, Chengdu, China; Duier, Chengdu, China; Magmode Chengdu, China.
JAPAN STOCKISTS: Opening Ceremony Tokyo; Koh’s Lick Curro Tokyo.
To be continued.
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Why?
The brand has a tendency to pack every season’s presentation with one strong socio-politico statement. Throughout the years, they have used NYFW to spotlight the South Asian fishing industry (SS17), support LGBTQ rights, break the Asian stereotypes (SS19); just to name a few.
Their SS20 “COMM-UNITY” collection was inspired by the 1969 Stonewall Riots, sparked by its prominent figure Marsha Johnson’s, gay liberation activist and self-identified drag queen, “queerness” and skin color. Private Policy this time around through fashion spearheads political tensions, differences, and unsolved institutionalized oppression leading to global outbreaks of violence (think France’s “Yellow Vests”).
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The resulting collection consisted of militant and activist-friendly design details merged with durable outdoor fabrics and a soft color palette, including cherry blossom pinks, witch-haze mellow yellow, and crisp park greens. The message? You don’t need to be (or dress like) a soldier to stand up for your rights.
You make your own rules. Your own Private Policy.
Keep pushing those buttons:
Instagram: @privatepolicyny
FEATURED IMAGE: COURTESY OF PRIVATE POLICY, AW17. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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Perpetually in pursuit of the greater good that is “China Fashion”, van Paridon set up The China Temper to help promote the dynamite dynamic fashion scene sprouting within Beijing, Shanghai, and China overall. Catering to anybody and everybody who reads English and/or Chinese, Temper covers all the basics and bases. From China's street style scenery to its budding photographers, internationally renowned designers, and underground quirks plus phenomena: We present one hot-hip-happening current collective weaving The New "Made in China" tag.
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