JOE CHIA

Author
DARKROOM
Date
31.01.2018

Timeless pieces of avant-garde cut that match perfectly with one another.

The Malaysian designer Joe Chia founded his eponymous brand quite recently, in 2012, expanding onto the Western market only in 2014. However, people in France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, the United States and many other countries have already fallen in love with Joe Chia, and several giant brands as prominent as Reebok have invited him to create capsule collections for them.

All due to the fact that he has, right from the very outset, demonstrated a maturity of design vision: his clothes are timeless pieces of avant-garde cut that match perfectly with one another.

"From the beginning, I have wanted to build timeless yet very experimental pieces that people can wear again and again, versatile pieces that can be mixed and matched with anything, and also to stay away from fashion trends. I also call it ‘wearable avant-garde’ or ‘wearable art’."
Joe Chia

Founder of the brand JOE CHIA

MODERN APPROACH TO GENDER

Having graduated from university in Malaysia in 2010, he sewed his collections himself for the first few years, selling them in a friend's multi-brand boutique. With their muted natural shades, from milky white to dark brown, natural fabrics impregnated by advanced textile working techniques, and a modern approach to gender - Chia's clothing quickly found its audience and soon grew into a rapidly developing brand.

SHIFTED PROPORTIONS, MULTI-LAYERED ASPECT, ASYMMETRY.

Two is a magic number for Joe Chia. Two years after the launch of the brand, Joe brought his collection to the Paris Fashion Week, and two years later, in 2016, he added a female line. This, however, did not differ radically from the menswear but had all the same shifted proportions, multi-layered aspect, asymmetry and an approach to clothing as art objects, save only that the profile and range of sizes were carefully designed for women. The designer succeeded in his intention - to create a building-kit wardrobe, existing beyond the vagaries of fashion trends.

And yet there is little of simplicity to be seen in Joe Chia items. Joe demonstrates that love of detail and a complex cut that had, in its time, so distinguished Japanese designers among their global counterparts. Slightly longer than usual sleeves, asymmetrical coat fastenings inspired by Asian folk costumes, free treatment of gender, studied negligence, and the very best materials.

In Chia’s aesthetics, the masculine and feminine coexist in a harmonious manner as in his real life: he works on the brand with Melissa Deng - his partner not only in business but also in life.

Joe Chia and Melissa Deng