Runway Breaks the Cubicle: A Deconstructive Take on Suitmaking

Justin Le isn’t a traditional designer; in fact, he is a chemistry major. Looking at his latest pieces, the label of chemist quickly dissolves. Most of his time is spent in labs, lecture halls, studying, almost the opposite of what a designer is expected to do. When class ends, Justin seemingly trades molecules for materials. He opens his iPad, puts on a movie, and draws garments that are not just pieces to wear, but stories. Justin's work is anything but amateur, built from second-hand materials and woven with a story. 

Justin’s newest line is sharp silhouettes, structured jumpers, and off-the-shoulder jackets– businesswear reimagined through a distorted lens. Looking at it one-dimensionally, it is easy to see the beauty of it all, but not the story. Due to the time constraints, Justin could not add to each piece like he wanted, but he said the idea of the collection came from a story– girls get trapped in another dimension and go through the process of monsterrification. At first glance, the collection reads like a fashion-forward take on the corporate uniform, but it symbolizes something much more. Justin looks at the world from a creative perspective, so where one might see the economic state of the United States as a significant decline, Justin sees an opportunity to make pieces that represent the subversion of corporate culture and a symbol of the recession. Justin’s pieces don’t just challenge the traditional look of corporate attire; they question what it means– mediation of conformity? Disillusionment? Living through a recession? The placement of the fabrics is smart and deliberately personifies deconstruction and stagnation. 

The fabrics deepen the meaning of the four pieces. Justin thrifted most of the materials– curtains, pillowcases, blankets, repurposed from Goodwill, while supplementing select fabrics such as wool and cashmere from Joann’s. While the physical process of making clothes may take a couple of days, Justin brainstorms constantly, especially inspired by the media he consumes rather than a trend forecast. These four pieces were inspired by various animes, Yellow Jackets, and Lord of the Flies. The process from idea to design is layered like the clothes he creates. It begins with late-night sketches on his iPad, to mockups, and countless revisions and refinements. He doesn’t consider himself a perfectionist in that respect, but no design is ever complete. It’s less about perfecting a final product, but more about living creativity. 

Despite the striking vision and incredible inventiveness we see from Justin time and time again, he often feels tension between his creative world and his academic reality. In the chemistry field, there is a stigma of safety, stability, and practicality, but designing is where he feels comfortably uncomfortable. Comfortable, because designing is where his heart and many talents lie, but uncomfortable because of the uncertainty of it all. The worries about fitting into the fashion industry scare most designers, but his restless spirit, creativity, and unconventional storytelling abilities make his work dynamic and different. Each collection Justin has done thus far is a reinvention, a departure, and a new concept, but it catches the audience's attention. Justin may not be following a traditional path, but that creates a unique perspective for him that he shows through fashion design. In his hands, fabrics became a philosophy, future-thinking, never quite fitting the mold, and that is exactly the purpose.