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 who show at dinnertime, take note!
Up top, Li took inspiration from 19th-century Chinese immigrants, specifically those who built the first transcontinental railway, and interpreted their garments 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 his mood board.
Li also drew from the economic boom of the 1980s. Beyond the rise in power dressing, it was a time when avant-garde Asian designers began transforming Western fashion. A block-and-tackle suit was reimagined through padded shoulders on a powder blue work-shirt maxidress. Likewise, a trucker jacket was given a Chinese knot button. “I think it’s what is American to me right now,” Li said. “Combinations and fusion of 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 to 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.
