Staffonly plays on the idea of consumerism, deconstructing and reconstructing the meaning of identities in an ever-fleeting digital age; identities that are largely built around consumer habits and spending power. Dust bags, delivery boxes, and graphic labels; models prancing down the catwalk while tapping away their devices, faces aglow with smartphone screens; ‘Beware of smartphone zombies’. Their Fall/Winter 2019 collection, titled 100% Consumer, was a comment on our daily lives that span around delivery time and checkout buttons. “It is our major aim to reflect the truth of our lives, and we are not judging or promoting any side of it”, designers comment.
Similarly, for Spring/Summer 2020, Zhuo and Yea decided to bring awareness to the plethora of overlooked aspects of masculinity that does not always span around the prevailing image of a man as a breadwinner. To Replace a Minute’s Silence With a Minute’s Applause (the title of the collection) diverged from this singular vision of masculinity which is still persistently linked to “certain characteristics that we typically find in Hollywood movies”. Instead, the brand explores the “charming idiosyncrasy, which can be mild, considerate and mellow at times”.
Having recently collaborated with Onitsuka Tiger for the Japanese brand’s seventy-year anniversary, the designer duo discusses their take on Tiger’s classics, Staffonly’s use of irony, the state of menswear and their aim to deconstruct identities that are largely shaped by our consumption choices.