Wan Hung takes inspiration from fitness and gym culture for his Spring/Summer 2018 collection “Mister Hung”. The increasingly visible quest for the perfect masculine body and the ever-greater focus contemporary society puts on this is at the heart of this season’s mood. Exploring the disconnect between this social trend and the way mens formal and work attire is fabricated has given rise to a new interpretation of the suit. Taking key elements of mens tailoring and reworking this with new textiles and innovative cutting has created the suit of the future – a new workwear staple for the modern man looking for a suit to put on after a morning workout or pre 9-to-5 morning run.
Prints this season are inspired by Michelangelo’s David – a masculine body ideal immortalised for over 500 years in culture around the globe that is as coveted and timely now as at any other time in history. Taking influence from the man of the past, the man of the present and looking forward to the man of the future is central to Wan Hung’s design philosophy – creating a new wardrobe of modern must-haves for the contemporary urban male for the world’s ever-urbanising population. Combining traditional tailoring with sportswear cuts Wan Hung highlights the muscle line on the body through patchwork to increase it’s impact. Under sleeve panels of Italian sports fabric allow formal pieces to breathe in the summer and stretch with a mans body in a new way.
Wan Hung continues to integrate tradition techniques from his native China into his work, this season taking the Chinese Knot and reworking this with metal chains and weights in homage to muscle culture. He has also collaborated with Jas Sehmbi’s over 30 years of experience in the bag industry to create a capsule of pony skin backpacks. Designed to offer multiple looks in one they can be carried as a stylish total look, a simple and chic backpack, or an easy to carry folio.
