GROUND-ZERO Presentation Paris RTW 2013

There is hardly a name so inextricably linked with the transition of streetwear into a highbrow fashion context than that of GROUND-ZERO. Designed and curated by Hong Kong’s hippest hustlers, Eri and Philip Chu, GROUND-ZERO is the brand that burns with transgressive yearning and avant-garde pizzazz. The brothers employ technical savvy and psycho-visual whiplash to make frivolous essentials and the most dashing street-inspired gear you’ve ever put your peepers on!

Fusing elements of high and low fashion with stark graphics, pulp fiction, Art Brut, ‘grunge-couture’ and techno themes, the brand has been getting some well-deserved praise lately. Nicola Formichetti, Lady Gaga’s
celebrated stylist, talked them up in a recent Dazed essay saying they are “at the forefront of Asia’s cool new creative wave.” Italian Vogue included them in their acclaimed “Rising Talents” series. And Asia’s cultural elite don their wears regularly on the red carpet and elsewhere. Perhaps the rise of the East has played no small part in their ascent: the Chu brothers are basically Hong Kong’s coolest creative duo, and mischievous motifs from Pop iconography such as fornicating Care Bears, Chinese calligraphy and sinister caricatures of Karl Lagerfeld repeatedly appear in their cooler-than-now designs.

For Fall ‘13, Eri and Philip said they’d been thinking about the fusion of man, machine and the wishy-washy notion of ‘existential paradox.’ The bros took themselves and the GROUND-ZERO brand on an angsty excursion, with a splendid, colorful collection inspired by sensational cyborgs, surreal cartoons and elegant activewear. The results involved amazing composition, craft and psychotropic zest. There were dresses adorned with patch-work
and prints of tessellating multi-hued dodecahedron, morphing ectoplasms and Transformer-like figures. Models wore eye-ornaments and visors from the future, silk robot-printed rompers, and baby-blue ruffled capes over
silk-blend dresses emblazoned with the words “Rise Up.” Deep blue-hued bodysuits and minimalist blazers with printed sleeves were the highlights, and the heels and wedges cut from flashy silver materials were upliftingly
decorative.

Mixing fashion, droll composition and bucket loads of wit, GROUND-ZERO’s visceral clothes are excursions into a Freudian funhouse.

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