text by Haris Giannouras

Contemporary fashion is engaging in a productive and rather perplex dialogue with artistic creation, which can lead to fascinating results. The work of, emerging New York based designer, Ximon Lee falls right into this category, for while we are confronted by his curious, sculptural warriors we get the aura of a true artist that blurs the boundaries between art and fashion. He is also not only the first menswear designer, but also the only U.S designer, to ever been reworded the HnM Design Award while his pieces became the talk of the town even from his graduate Parsons collection.

The core of his work is the very same concept of form and matter. He challenges our perception regarding the definition of a garment, the real reason that drives us to cover our nudity and wrap ourselves around yards of fabric, in order to hide the signs of our gender and sexuality. With the honesty of a poet and the curiosity of an archeologist Lee explores what it really means to see and feel the world of today through the clothes one chooses to wear. And here is exactly where one can trace a true deconstructive point of view, the primal, basic and purest structures of fashion creation surface to give us a glimpse of a contemporary artistic endeavor, powerful yet balanced.

The fabric put in use itself plays a crucial role in the process. Beautifully fabricated cotton, raw blue denim and metallic details all come together to give life to Lee’s oversized coats, long destructed trousers and patchwork t-shirts. At the end one thing is certain, we are left with the feeling of a creator that manages to construct a peaceful chaos consisting of genderless denim figures which combine reverence with a feeling of an allusive violence.

Photography Peter Stanglmayr
Models Christian Guessenburger & Seiler

view the entire collection at ximonlee.com