Kingdom of Style

New York based label, Mandarin & General, are an interesting little label based in New York, designed by Taiwanese-born designer, Peggy Tan, who say that the label "finds its inspiration in the heritage of Mandarin-dress making".

There's a lot of talk of 'appropriation' in fashion, with some firmly against one culture taking influence from another, yet here is a label who seem to be encouraging the sharing of aspects of their own Chinese heritage, by "using Chinese culture as a foundation and design tool". They've taken some common elements we associate with Chinese dress, such as the cheongsam, and filtered it through a Western lens, if you will.

While cheongsam dresses can look costumy on anyone other than Asians, Mandarin & General have taken the basic shape of the cheongsam as it's foundation and used leather and loose silhouettes to infuse Western influence into the mix.

The result is modern, beautiful and very New York.


SOURCE:
http://kingdomofstyle.typepad.co.uk/my_weblog/2012/06/mandarin-meets-new-york.html