UNDERAGE Blurring The Lines Of Human Sexuality And Gender Amongst Young People At LFW

And how they saved us from a mental breakdown.

POSTED 10.03.19 19:22 BY DANIJEL VUKOJA

To feel stressed during London Fashion Week is a given factor that you can’t really prevent from. It will either happen while you prepare your outfits, you request invites or you try to attend a show, but realize traffic will fuck up your punctuality. The amounts of small breakdowns I am having during fashion weeks are countless. But to help cope with the stress of LFW the label UNDERAGE provided attendees with an organic plant-based relaxant before the presentation even started. Okkrrrrr....

Beijing born Ying Shen, Founder and Creative Director at UNDERAGE, started her career in textile printing and graphic design, after falling in love with the subjects at Central Saint Martins University (UAL). When she started her brand UNDERAGE to explore youth/pop culture using fashion, she vowed to keep true to her roots and use her graphics background in her designs. True to form, every season of UNDERAGE stands out with youthful designs, pop culture celebrations, and striking graphics reminiscent of traditional textile techniques.

Inspired by the cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, UNDERAGE’s AW19 collection encapsulates the blurry lines of human sexuality and gender amongst young people. The collection itself plays with dark tones and has an androgynous styling to it. The Rocky Horror Picture Show film is infamous for its stark juxtaposition of two extremes, a clash between what is perceived as ‘normal’ and what is perceived as ‘strange’. This collection reflects the film’s iconic way of thinking: shapes of garments that modern consumers are familiar with, such as t-shirts and knitwear, are deconstructed to blur the lines of their own perception of ‘normal’. More blunt contrasts can be seen throughout the collection, specifically within the way that UNDERAGE combines a traditional and modern approach to fashion. Class suit-like silhouettes are contrasted against pseudosexual graphics and clothes with streetwear sensibilities.