See Stella McCartney and Shie Lyu Ingeniously Reinterpret Each Other’s Work

[lively orchestral music]

I ve been basically asked to reinterpret Shie s work,

and Shie s been asked to reinterpret one of my looks.

So it s kinda like a job swap, really.

[Shie] When I received the email,

I was like, Is it real?

Two designers enter each other s world

and see what miracles can happen.

[lively orchestral music peaks, fades]

[gentle music]

[Stella] I loved that there were a lot of things

that I kind of immediately identified in Shie s work.

There s all this beautiful quilting

that s kind of I think where we started

and also the color palette is really beautiful.

And so that s what we picked up on was this idea

of the blues and then building out the denim.

[gentle music]

And I truly believe when I work

with next generation designers

that this is already part of their working ways,

it s not forced, it s not greenwashing

and I think that s really positive, it gives me hope.

Well the look that Shie has,

it s not dissimilar to what I m kind of wearing actually,

it s quite a masculine take,

it s very sort of Stella McCartney tailoring.

[gentle music]

My team and I were very surprised

when we received the suit set.

[gentle music]

[speaking foreign language]

[gentle music]

[gasping]

There is a double breasted jacket

and wool trousers.

The style is very modern and chic

with the sort of

Savile Row tailoring techniques.

I think there is

seamlessness of feminine and masculine,

elements of androgyny.

[gentle music]

Inside of a tailored jacket is very interesting,

there are so many things like paddings,

layers of like horse hairs, fabrics, many structures,

so I want to make the style very opposite.

I want to turn it into something very wild,

bold and maybe seductive.

[gentle music]

[Stella] I like a challenge

and I also lean into technology hugely

to answer a lot of my problems.

And I for a long time have been working with waste.

And actually this

has come out of what I did during the pandemic,

because I did an alphabet,

an A to Z with the artist collaborations

and one of the looks was a zero waste look

that was all denim,

so that s very much inspired,

this collaboration and this piece of work.

Ripping something apart that s already made

is something I do quite a lot.

[gentle music builds into tense music]

[Shie] My first commercial collection

happens during the beginning of Covid,

so there s nowhere to buy materials,

you can only use what you have.

That s why I started to

reuse and upcycle

things left in my studio.

[gentle music]

I use a zero waste pattern cutting techniques

and then we cut into different pieces.

And the very interesting thing is we turn the inside out.

So we show the

chest paddings,

the shoulder pads,

then we make it all flat

and use the embroidery machine to stitch them together,

and then we keep the very beautiful inside things.

[Gentle music]

[Stella] When you re working in a way

that s breaking down a garment

in a kind of mindful way and in a considerate way

and in a creative way that does take time

in itself just physically breaking apart a pair

of jeans where you can still use aspects of it.

So I was sort of piling that all together

and trying to create an item that you d still wanna wear

but at least have you know, a lot of interest to look at.

I think being a female designer

designing for women, the one thing at least

I can do is make something desirable to wear.

[gentle music builds into tense music]

[Shie] You cut the shape

we put this piece here, we put pockets here.

So the whole process is very free and creative.

When you really look at the dress

you can t see the real structures of

Stella McCartney s jackets.

So it s also like a record.

Course they re gonna deconstruct the whole thing.

She can do anything, she can even burn it.

So I will leave the surprise

to the last minute and I m super looking forward to it.

[Stella] When I look at her work

I think the silhouettes are much rounder.

There s cropping going on when I ve seen it

I think she ll probably get padding.

I think she ll just be ripping it apart

and making it way more brilliant than I did.

[tense music builds, peaks, then fades]

When we receive the garments

all the members here, we re just so excited.

When you have the chance to work

with someone you heard for a long, long time, you know,

it s such a huge honor and a huge chance for us, for me.

You know, there s a natural, I think

connection between our work.

I really felt the love from your team.

You know, I can tell it s a small team

and I think that s, you know, you can feel it.

You can feel it in the work.

[Stella] Wow.

Cool. I didn t wanna zoom in on that.

Can I go closer in?

There s so much detail, Shie.

You ve basically dissected it.

We re not far off each other s looks, funnily enough.

All the fabric you see besides the black tulle

all the other fabrics like white, black,

and gray are all from the tailor jackets.

But we turn the inside out.

I think it s

it s important to let people know the effort your team made

for one jacket.

What.

Wow.

It s like many fabrics there.

Like many pant work,

I can see.

I was drawn to, to the color of the, of the skirt

and the jacket.

There s such a youthful edge to it that I really wanted to

take those elements and maybe Stella-fy them a little bit.

But also keeping the youth.

And for me denim is ageless.

I really wanted to obviously do a completely up-cycled

and not bring in any new materials into the conversation.

And then I wanted to use this complete 360 upcycling to

patchwork together your garment with, with our pieces.

The inside has as much work as the outside

and I think that comes back to what you were saying

about the tailoring and, and what inspired you

on how to translate my bespoke jacket.

Shie it was such a pleasure finally meeting you,

and I ve loved working on this project.

Thank you so much Stella. Bye.

Bye.

It s nice, you know, you feel

like you ve met them without meeting them.

Even though we re miles away from each other

you can definitely pick up on the energy

of the designer and their hand and you know

a sense of who they are through their work.

[Shie] Cause it s such a huge honor

for us to have this chance to collaborate.

Give me more like fresh perspectives

and fresh ideas.

It s very meaningful for us.

[lively orchestral music]