(New York, NY)— Spring 2011 is a season of debuts for Jean Yu, whose designs include both ready-to-wear dresses and lingerie. The eponymous line attracts a circle of insiders including editors of high fashion glossies and, most recently, the design houses of rag & bone and Proenza Schouler. Yu collaborated with both lines for their respective runway presentations at New York Fashion Week. The limited edition designs are now available for sale and will hang with both ready-to-wear collections. The collaborative pieces are available as separate labels, titled Jean Yu x Proenza Schouler and Jean Yu + Rag&Bone.
Proenza Schouler design duo Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough invited Yu to work with them after falling in love with her classic triangle bra, calling it “the most beautiful lingerie” they’ve ever seen. The transition from Yu’s eponymous lingerie to Proenza Schouler’s ready-to-wear runway collection was, in a word, seamless. The two designers are akin in terms of refined luxury and client base, so Yu’s lingerie was easily incorporated with Proenza Schouler’s ladylike suits. New colors and materials provided a fluorescent spin on Yu’s classically minimalist designs. Yu gives kudos to the stylists, as she felt like she was seeing her bras for the first time.
“The collaboration with rag & bone required me to go outside my norm,” Yu says of the designs that she built from the ground up for designers Marcus Wainwright and David Neville. Using fighter pilots in g-suits as inspiration, Yu used two-inch webbing material to create bold, utilitarian harness-strap designs to complement the military-inspired collection. This challenged Yu to channel a rugged sensibility that directly contrasts Yu’s design signature: refined construction using the most delicate fabrics. “The designs for the rag & bone show functioned as accessories, less as lingerie- as originally intended.”
“It’s like a funhouse. Everything is double, double, double,” Yu says of the collaborations: double male design teams, double runway shows, and double front-row appearances by Anna Wintour.
All three designers have been selected as finalists for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund—Jean Yu in 2005, rag & bone in 2006 and Proenza Schouler winning first place in 2004.
The designer is debuting yet another line called 180 by Jean Yu, aptly named for its complete departure from her first line. Whereas her designs were once quite delicate, decadent and high-maintenance, 180 is a capsule collection of simple, effortless items. Sales and appointment are available at The News Inc, 495 Broadway, Telephone (212) 925-9700 x103.
About Jean Yu: Jean Yu is a designer based in New York. Since her graduation from F.I.T. in 1990, her designs have been carried by high-end retailers and graced the cover of American Vogue and Vanity Fair. In 2005, Jean Yu was a CFDA/Vogue fashion fund finalist, and was named Designer of the Year by Seoul Lotte Avenue L, Korea, in 2007. Yu has been featured in the 2007 “New York Fashion Now” exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and several of her dress designs were featured throughout a recent exhibition titled “American Beauty,” celebrating innovative designers at the F.I.T. museum. More information about the designer can be found at www.jeanyu.com.
About Proenza Schouler: Proenza Schouler is a luxury women’s wear label founded by Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez in 2002. Contact PR Consulting for more information.
About Rag & Bone: rag & bone is the product of New York-based designers Marcus Wainwright and David Neville, operating since 2004. This is the second women’s only show for the pair. Contact PR Consulting for more information.
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