SHOHEI x Ning Kai / Sabrina Scarpa
Designer SHOHEI’s SS17 collection ‘Conservation of Mind’ and photographer duo Ning Kai / Sabrina Scarpa’s series ‘The Land Between Us’ are brought together on the subject of cultural differences.
Fashion label SHOHEI was founded in 2016 by Austrian CEO & Creative Director Lisa Pek after working in womenswear at major fashion houses in London and Tokyo with a background as menswear designer. The name SHOHEI is a Japanese male name bearing the meaning of world peace. Fascinated by anthropology, philosophy and science fiction, SHOHEI creates a dialog between man and the modern world upon the subject of culture, technology and nature. "A garment is not only a symbol that reflects your attitude towards society, but it is also a weapon through daily life,” Pek stated: “SHOHEI is for citizens of the world and those that go out into it with the intention of enhancing it.”
The inspiration of the SS17 collection came to Lisa Pek through living and working in a totally different culture in Japan. She was inspired by how people interact within different cultural backgrounds and the existence of certain barriers between language expression, body-language, mimics and more. The title ‘Conservation of Mind’ came from what we call "tradition" and what societies perceive as “normal” in each culture. However, with the slogan “togetherness”, SHOHEI encourages us to overcome these barriers by being aware of our differences.
Partners in work and in life, photographer duo Ning Kai and Sabrina Scarpa came from different cultural background. Kai was born in Zhengzhou, China; Scarpa was born in Gorinchem, The Netherlands. They launched their collaborative career in 2015 with ‘The Land Between Us’, a growing body of work which they describe as their “united journey”.
Through the series, they delve into the unknown corners of the natural world, finding moments of revelation, equality and intimacy within thinly populated areas and untouched wilderness. They wish to surround themselves by places and people that bring out the core of humanity, brings us back to our natural roots, to aim for a state of being in which the boundary between their cultures and backgrounds seems to blur. In order to remove borders, they seek out diverse places, from east to west. Through a series of dreamy and sometimes blurred images, we are lured into a blissful fantasy in our happiest daydream.
Featuring
Fashion design // SHOHEI
Photography (non-fashion) // Ning Kai / Sabrina Scarpa
Fashion photography // Nicole Maria Winkler
Model // Clarice Vitkauskas @NextModelLondon
MUA // Hair: Yumi Nakada-Dingle, Make-up: Nobuko Maekawa