In honor of the upcoming Lunar New Year, Private Policy’s Haoran Li created his own melting pot and threw a party at New York’s Webster Hall to celebrate it. Guests were treated to boxes of Chinese food upon arrival—designers that show at dinnertime time take note!
Up top, Li took inspiration from 19th-century Chinese immigrants, specifically those who built the first transcontinental railway, and interpreted them in the context of updated American workwear. Cowboy-inspired button-downs and Americana hues, like a washed green, canary yellow, and sandy brown, flooded the collection. If some of the shapes and motifs felt like Carhartt, it’s because the high-fashion loved workwear brand was on the moodboard.
Secondly, Li drew from the economic boom of the 1980s. Beyond the rise in power dressing, it was also a time where avant-garde Asian designers began transforming Western fashion. A block-and-tackle suit was reimagined through padded shoulders on a powder blue work-shirt maxi dress. Likewise, a trucker jacket was given a Chinese knot button. “I think it’s what is American to me right now,” he said. “Combinations and fusion for different cultures.”
The interpreted references remained quite literal throughout, including the runway’s opening sounds of workers hammering steel while a train chugged its way into an EDM beat. Li’s woman might not be working on the railroad anytime soon, but she will be sporting that snap button-filled red getup to the club.
