Celebrity Life

A statement piece from Dior Men's Spring 2022 collection. The B30 is inspired by classic running silhouettes.

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Not many 25-year-olds can open a museum and anticipate art’s global cognoscenti of dealers, collectors, gallerists, owners, digital platforms and venerable institutions to be watching every step of the way with breathless anticipation. So it is with one of China’s millennial calling-cards, the dynamic artrepreneur of style and the aesthetic, Michael Xufu Huang, and founder of Beijing’s X Museum, which opens next month.
Huang exhibits soft power on a prolific scale, and his creative ambition encapsulates both the country’s newly wealthy seeking a richer cultural life and those legions of newly influential digital hipsters whose minds are both more open and more international than their forebears, and more concerned with high class and good taste than just riches. Huang is digital marketing’s content It-boy nonpareil and he’s riding the now-and-future wave array of electronic excitation that World 2.0 has become. And a Great Wave it is.
Despite his being a mere spring chicken of a lad – and a mighty stylish one at that – this isn’t the first time Huang’s initiated such a venture. In 2014, he co-founded what’s become the much-lauded M Woods non-profit private museum in Beijing’s 798 art district with Wanwan Lei (former model for revered Chinese painter Liu Ye) and her husband Lin Han (a prolific collector) – the couple’s fame and network lends them glowing digital celebrification.

[caption id="attachment_194630" align="alignnone" width="1796"] Jacket Giorgio Armani | Top Michael's own[/caption]

The trio wanted to bring experimental and international art into China. Their collective mantra was squarely aimed at luring a younger generation of Chinese into museums so they might adopt art as a hobby and grow a lifestyle with it. And rapidly came the expectant eyes of global art’s jet-set. And yet, five years on, despite art’s percolation and greater popularisation in China, Huang is choosing to move on at what seems like the pinnacle of success. Why?
“There’s a few reasons,” he says between changes of costume during our shoot. “First, I think I’m quite disappointed with the Chinese museum scene, in terms of everyone doing Western-themed artists.” Huang doesn’t deny that such exhibitions are publicly important for art education and has actively promoted them in the past (Andy Warhol, for example) with M Woods, he just can’t reconcile how that leverages 2020 China’s influence in the global art world.

“Form the New Norm,” goes his X Museum mantra, and like millions of his millennial peers and looming Gen-Zers, he’s in a rush to expedite this century’s geo-cultural shift via scroll, in the blink of an eye and the
“Like” of a social-media post. “I just want to show that we’re not like a typical museum. Yes, we’re starting with a collection, but the whole idea is to cultivate new talent.” Huang explains that currently there’s no such mechanism in China to help nurture young artists in such a way. Thus, he plans “to help them build their career and gain them more international attention”. He pauses. “I think that’s something I cannot resist – to show people how curious we are and why it’s important that we’re here.”
Huang has been continually travelling, (he was in Bangladesh prior our meeting in Hong Kong and flying to London the following day) and claims never to have much time to read long-form art-world articles. “I never have any time. I’m a workaholic,” he says. Little wonder given his remit. For X, he’s overseeing programming, development, promotion and more. “It’s like my baby,” he jokes. “I do everything for it.”
X Museum is a two-storey building in the city’s Chaoyang District orchestrated by Beijing-based Korean architect and designer Howard Jiho Kim, who oversees the studio TEMP. Huang’s opening exhibition How Do We Begin? , which forms the first part in a triennial, consists of 33 artists who espouse the millennial zeitgeist, and is curated by London Royal College of Art graduate Poppy Dongxu Wu (@poppydxwu). “This is her first exhibition in China,” says Huang, almost matter-of-factly, “and she’s doing a really good job. She’s from an architecture background too which is good for our multidisciplinary viewpoint.”
As counterbalance, Huang has assembled a glittering jury who will award a cash prize, consisting of Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serpentine Galleries, who says that Huang’s “immense curiosity” never ceases to amaze him), Kate Fowle (director of MoMA PS1), Zhang Zikang (Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing), and Diana Campbell Betancourt (Samdani Art Foundation). Looking ahead he also foresees digital projects. “I’d like to do curatorial projects online because the physical space can only allow you to do so much – like one or two shows at a time. There are also so many good curators I want to work with in China.”

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While Huang grew up and schooled in London and went to the Tate Modern every weekend to learn more about getting into the profession, his art epiphany came in the less likely art milieu of one of the Tate’s satellites. Holidaying – in fact he says he was camping – with friends in the seaside village of St Ives, southwest England in 2012, Huang discovered the Tate St Ives showing American artist Alex Katz’s seascapes and beach scenes and went to take a look. “What got me hooked is when I went to Tate St Ives, and Alex Katz, everything clicked in my heart. This was like a revelation, and you feel it’s a part of your life. It made me extremely happy and meaningful.”
It’s curious that Huang succumbed to the leisure and recreation of Katz’s work, the American’s high-intensity art paintings being defined as they are by an economy of line and indulgence of style, along with their cool but seductive emotional detachment. That could be a description of Huang. Influenced as much by style, fashion and music as by art history, yet still classical at heart despite the “now-y” vibe. Katz’s sassy show, appropriately enough, was called Give Me Tomorrow.
Poet, writer and University of Pennsylvania professor Kenneth Goldsmith taught the undergraduate Huang, who sat in on a grad seminar he was teaching in the art department, which Goldsmith describes as a “free-form discussion group about issues of the day”, and Huang also took a class Goldsmith taught about fashion theory and creative writing. The Ivy League professor recalls Huang’s unusual “X” factor. “He was perhaps the most unique student I’ve had in the 15 years of teaching,” he recalls. “He would saunter into class wearing furs and designer sunglasses, hanging on every word I said, taking in every bit of information about art, literature and music I had to offer. He was very quiet but very engaged. He cast a spell on myself and all of the other students, who at first were a bit perplexed but in time came around to adore him.”
How does the X man see himself? “A paradox,” he says, managing to reference an “X”. Personality-wise, I’m quite aloof in some ways. I like to have a lot of ‘me time’ when I can. I don’t like to socialise or be too public. But nowadays if you want to do anything you have to be present, so it’s like a paradox. You want to be real, but there’s that sense that your platform or social media is just curated or performed. It’s not the real you. And then you have to say what’s politically correct; there’s what you believe in, or what you have to believe in.”

[caption id="attachment_194635" align="alignnone" width="1783"] Outfit Dior Homme[/caption]

In retrospect, Huang, despite his “cool for Katz” epiphany in St Ives, England, thought the London galleries too inaccessible and “too posh” in their ways at the time he was growing up. “London galleries are more distant if you’re young. It’s easier to access art spaces in New York, and that brought me into the community, and I became more involved. It created a sense of belonging and that definitely helped.”
Goldsmith recalls a conversation he had about what Huang might do after graduating. “I do remember one time talking to him when he was considering going into tech after school. I told him that although he’d undoubtedly make a lot of money, the art world would be a lesser place should he not pursue it. We’re all glad to he took my advice!”
Despite the classicism, Huang, like many who’ve grown up in his generation, follows what’s called “Post-Internet” Art. “I’m very interested in Post-Internet Art. And I want such artists to come to China – there’s such a lot of material people can use in China, and post-internet art in a China context.” How does he define such Post-Internet Art? “It’s art dealing with tech, digital, industrial materials; for our generation it’s something we grew up with.”
How does he assess the legacy of contemporary Chinese artist Cao Fei, whose first major solo exhibition Blueprints is showing at London’s Serpentine Galleries until May 17. “For me, she’s not really my generation, but she has set a tone for Chinese art. She’s probably the first who represented China globally and challenged everyone’s perception. I think the new generation in China are now very international.”
Which in Huang’s generation means a huge number of people that have studied abroad and have a global vision. And even those who didn’t. “Everyone is pretty educated now, the education system is good, English is very good, everyone is curious. Like film, and music, or even #Metoo,
people see that and its global effect. And with that, Chinese institutions can have influence globally now.”

[caption id="attachment_194637" align="alignnone" width="1787"] Outfit Brunello Cucinelli[/caption]

So far Huang’s X Museum is generating all the right noises. “I think we’re already generating a lot of fuss, and on digital and social media, people are excited about it, people are talking. It’s also word of mouth; we bring out the community of real talent and of course they have their own communities. I think it’s just a matter of time. We also have fashion people, brands I want to collaborate with, and sponsors.”
“You know our slogan is ‘form the new norm’, and I think we’re doing that and I always see the art world as a challenge, I don’t follow all the institutions, I do what I think I should do, and what I think is correct. You must believe what you believe in and there are so many paradoxes along the way. We want a new generation of art lovers and supporters and people who influence society. So I’m very grateful they are on this journey with me, and to have this power in China. After all, why do expensive shows that don’t give us any benefit. I don’t believe in that.”
What will be his own definition of success? “When I can retire without worry,” he says. “When the programme and the institutions are good enough and the team is running itself. That’s my dream of success.” And then he gets objective about his situation. “But, if there’s another young person, then I too would question how legit they are, how serious, as anything new takes time to get used to. At least people are used to me already and aren’t surprised when I call up with something like this. And the result has been phenomenal”
I ask if there’s anything he hasn’t shared he’d like to convey before he saunters off to ride and drive the wave of his ambition. “It’s mainly about taking our power back and the new generation doing something interesting with our own content. I think that’s the key.”
And President Xi? “We would really like him to come, and I hope that when we do well he would want to come.” From X to X, the geo-cultural future starts here.

Photography Ricky Lo 

Art Direction Sepfry Ng 

Styling Zaneta Cheng 

Hair and Makeup Kidd Sun 

Photography Assistants Jason Li and Kelvin Sim

The post The Artrepreneur, Michael Xufu Huang appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Dior Homme's 2020 pre-Fall collection will debut on Dec 3, the day before the museum opens.

The post Next Dior Homme show to be held in Rubell Museum in Miami appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

Dior Homme's 2020 pre-Fall collection will debut on Dec 3, the day before the museum opens.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.

As the youngest finance graduate in MIT’s history, and with a successful IPO already under his belt, Mario Ho is a modern-day rock star in the corporate world. The ambitious entrepreneur and CEO of Tiancai is set to celebrate his wedding with Chinese supermodel Ming Xi, and now he lifts the veil on why winning means everything and celebrating special moments on the ocean.

[caption id="attachment_171562" align="alignnone" width="1493"] Crystal Life Fitness features a variety of innovative gym equipment, World Dream of Dream Cruises | Top and trousers: Ermenegildo Zegna[/caption]

We’ve heard a lot about your incredible proposal to Ming.  Do you consider yourself a romantic?

I think so! I mean, with a proposal like that, it would be hard to say I’m not romantic, right? In daily life though, I’m not into that traditional type of romance, as I’m quite logical. It’s more about telling Ming how special she is to me rather than the classic flowers and chocolates routine.

How do you switch off and give yourself time to relax?

To be honest, I’m a modern kind of guy, so it’s probably computer gaming with friends.  The older generation, they play mahjong, and for my group of friends, it’s just a modern version of that – four or five friends together at a table, having fun together and taking a break from everyday life.  I’m normally trying to win!

What does a romantic holiday at sea look like to you?

I grew up in the nineties, so my ideas of romance are built on those ceaselessly romantic movies. Definitely, a romantic vacation at sea appeals to me – having a private balcony where you’re watching the ship sail, holding someone you love, feeling the ocean breeze. A cruise vacation with Dream Cruises would be perfect, everyone should be excited to try it for that special occasion.

So, tech and digital innovations interest you?

Absolutely. I think the VR space is fantastic, in terms of the limitless options and opportunities that you can experience. It transforms things. It’s fantastically innovative for the Genting family to have that on their cruises; it’s a one-of-a-kind activity and such a testament that they’re committed to introducing new and exciting things for their guests.

What are your passions in life?

Summed up in one word, it’s winning. I get the most satisfaction, the most excitement, the most joy, out of winning. That spans across every single activity in my life – whether it’s big or small. Winning is my passion, it’s what drives me.

You’re an ambitious guy! Has there been one turning point in your life that set you on that track and that gave you your passion for winning?

There’s been a few. I think my earliest was when I won the math competition in Hong Kong when I was 10; that was the first time that I was widely praised for winning. My father came as a guest to give me the award, and it was a very important moment in my life. You’re standing on the podium; your father is giving you a prize and the entire city’s media is reporting on it. That was when I realised that success amongst your peers can really bring a huge amount of satisfaction, and I wanted to replicate that feeling again and again in my life. It was euphoria!

And how do you define or measure your success?

I started by out-competing my peers in my age group, in class. Then I started jumping grades to prove myself – I jumped one grade in high school and another in university, so I graduated young. And then after that, I started trying to beat everyone. It was easy to measure success when I was in school, because everything is graded by age, but then after I left university it became much more complex because, of course, nothing is graded by age; there’s no rules in terms of what you do. So, I simply found what people were generally doing in their twenties and thirties, and I just aimed to do it earlier.

You have some impressive projects in the works. Who has been your biggest source of inspiration when it comes to finding success in life?

It’s a cliché, but honestly, it’s my dad. He defined what success meant, he showed me that a successful person can still be humble, polite and still have manners; that they can still treat people well and with respect. More importantly, he made everything from zero. While our family has been wealthy for several generations, my grandfather went broke, so my father has gone from 100 to zero, and then he has worked tirelessly to take himself back from zero to 100. It’s in his character.

Photography Man Wai 

Art Director Harriet Gregory 

Stylist Genie Yam

Hair and Makeup Shirley Choi 

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Today, when I got dressed my theme was kind of The Matrix,” says the designer Yoon Ahn. “I’m wearing a super-tight, black, long coat with slim black pants, so I’ve been quite minimal with the jewellery. I’m wearing my silver-ball closure earrings from a few years ago and I have a few silver rings on me.” It’s a different theme every day, she adds.

It’s strangely appropriate that Ahn is referencing a movie governed by the concept of a new, parallel reality. As part of the vanguard of contemporary style arbiters whose firm friendships with the likes of Virgil Abloh, Kim Jones and Kanye West reach back to a time when those names weren’t even blips on the fashion or cultural radar, Ahn has been key in changing the criteria as to what exactly constitutes an arbiter of fashion, as well as in guiding the evolution of a new global order or the industry.

Where did it all begin? According to Ahn, the library. “When I’d just moved to the US and couldn’t speak English, I spent a lot of time at the public library because I was working there part-time, but because it was a public library I’d read all the books and magazines that I wanted,” she says. “It wasn’t very busy and that was how I got to know about fashion.

“Because I was in the suburbs in Seattle, I’d obsess over Vogue and Elle. This was before the Internet, so I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, there’s a world out there.’ There were all these beautiful people and I’d want to know where they were living and what they were wearing, and I’d just read and read. I would really study it.”

At the same time, Ahn got into Seattle’s then-flourishing underground music scene. “This was before Amazon or Starbucks, before any of those companies got huge, so there was really a split between kids from not-so-well-off backgrounds in my school and middle-class suburban kids. Because it was always rainy and they needed to protect themselves and keep warm, kids would actually wear worn-out denim, flannels and The North Face. A lot of them went to the thrift shop, so that was a part of the fabric of the city, the same way it is for hip-hop culture. You imitate your favourite bands and musicians who were basically fashion heroes -- and that’s how I got into it.”

[caption id="attachment_159462" align="alignnone" width="1341"] Looks and pieces from the Ambush Autumn/Winter 2019 collection[/caption]

On the topic of subcultures and the underground, Ahn has firm opinions. “There’s no underground any more, like there’s no such thing as underground culture, because everything’s on the Internet,” she says. “It’s exposed. Once it gets taken hold of by the media or the mainstream, people get bored right away.”

However, Ahn clearly regards the end of one era as the beginning of another. “We evolve as humans,” she says, “and that was then and this is now. The Internet has brought the world much closer and I’m just happy that people are much more open.

“In the West, they’re now more aware and tolerant of Asian culture. We’re no longer this weird thing because they can see it more and more, and you can see it through K-pop and the way that American people are being exposed to it and getting used to it, which includes how we define beauty and how we dress.

“[Streetwear] is big, especially out in Asia,” says Ahn of the style with which she’s become so associated. “I think it’s quite new for people in the West. It’s funny, a lot of cultures like America and the UK give birth to things like this, but in this instance Japan took it and made it better. It’s because the Japanese get obsessed over things and partially because it’s an import culture, they still have these little obsessions [over foreign cultures and trends] and they feel like they need to really study it and master it instead of just living it, so I think the Japanese really perfected the street look.

“The reason I don’t call it streetwear and call it casual wear is because not all casual-looking ‘streetwear’ comes from that specific culture any more. It’s just the look. It’s very surface-level now, you know? So I just don’t think it’s right to sum everything up as streetwear, because that originated from a specific culture, like skate culture.”

Despite having no formal design education, Ahn is extraordinarily knowledgeable about her metier. She isn’t the least bit concerned that she didn’t come out of the prescribed design-school/assistant route.

Born in Korea and raised in Seattle, Ahn moved to Tokyo with her musician husband Verbal, where, with no design training, she built her jewellery brand Ambush. “First of all, what we do now started as a hobby, which then became a business, so we had no business or fashion background and just jumped in,” she says. “It was very organic in the beginning because we knew what we wanted to do and made it take shape.”

But a lack of formal education does not, for the designer, mean any less hard work. “You don’t have to be from that background, you don’t have to come from a specific school. But if you didn’t study it, make sure you’re ready to study it on the job,” Ahn says. “You need to put in more hours than people who studied it, because you need to know what you’re doing and you need to know your subject. In my case, I didn’t come from this, but I work seven days a week. I go to the factories myself and I talk to everybody because I want to make sure I’m on top of it, I know exactly how those things work. You can’t bullshit that, so you need to put in hours and be prepared to study it non-stop.”

It’s a work ethic that’s clearly paid off, with Ahn progressing since starting Ambush from a cult following in Tokyo to international success. “Because I run my own business I’ve always been very in tune with customers and can see what works and what doesn’t, so I know how to look at it from a customer’s point of view. I think now customers have more power than brands or fashion houses, and I think this is where my strength lies -- in having a connection with a lot of customers and knowing that they’re sophisticated and not buying things because of the brand name.

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“You can see it in the way they coordinate their outfits, the way they mix it up. They’re trend sensitive but at the same time they know what they want because they’ve researched it.”

When Ahn ventured into clothing, her brand was shortlisted for the LVMH Prize. She also expanded the Ambush universe by working with brands such as Nike, Gentle Monster, Converse and Rimowa.

More recently, Ahn was invited by Dior Homme’s creative director Kim Jones to head up the house’s new men’s jewellery division and in an effort to define its DNA is now working her way through the women-heavy archive. “Because we have so many customers from so many different continents, we don’t look at it as if there’s a specific male archetype, but rather a certain vibe that we like to see in men,” she says.

“There’s so much in the archives that we can look back to and bring back, but as I don’t want to repeat the exact same thing that’s been done before I take certain elements -- like, for example, an iconic CD link -- and make it into something current, something like a skateboard and Cuban-link necklace, so that it’s a timeless piece that can blend in with the suit as well as with sneakers and T-shirts. I think the balance matters more than anything, rather than one specific look.”

But if you think Ahn is basking in her success, you’d be wrong. Her strict work ethic is defined by Scarface protagonist Tony Montana: “Don’t get high on your own supply.”
“I watched a lot of Italian mafia movies,” she says. “Korean ones too. Everything. The reason I do it is because the mafia seem like they do bad things, but they have more rules within the community. It’s their code and they really value loyalty and integrity. There’s a lot of street knowledge and life lessons that I’ve learnt from watching these movies. It also teaches good business, like how they manage to survive and not get stabbed in the back.

“So like right now, all of this is nice and I’m flattered, but I also look at it as a test from the Universe to see if I can push myself to the next step. So I want to stay more clear. I want to make sure everything we do is levelling up and you can apply the quote in every part of life, but for me what it means is to not get high off of everything I have right now. Because I don’t see this as an end, I see it as a step to the next level.”

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This season's coolest threads for the hottest days of the year.

The post Run wild and beat the heat in these statement-making pieces appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

This season's coolest threads for the hottest days of the year.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.

The line of eyewear by father-and-son duo Larry and Garrett Leight is offered at B.spoke.

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The line of eyewear by father-and-son duo Larry and Garrett Leight is offered at B.spoke.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.

Dance, run, and move in these pieces.

The post This season’s latest threads: fashion made for movement appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

Dance, run, and move in these pieces.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.