Words: Saskia Edwards
Images: Jonathan Rae
The amygdalae are imbedded deep in the human
brain, within the intricate temporal lobes. Their cognitive function is to
process decisions, memories and emotions.
It’s been shown the amygdalae are activated
when dressing, as if a deeply rooted emotional response is evoked through
attaining, creating and wearing clothing.
Khim Hang, the brains behind HAN
Studios, wants his designs to cause people to have that uniquely empowering
emotion that clothing elicits.
“Fashion and clothes in general have
a power to influence people.
“When you put something on and you
feel like a boss and you feel like you can go out and destroy the world, that’s
what clothes have the power to do.
“That’s what I wanted to create.”
Khim’s ideal is a rejection of the
flippant culture of contemporary disposable fashion. He wants people to love,
hold onto and cherish garments. It’s about replicating Khim’s own experiences
with the emotional connotations around clothing.
“I’ve got a shirt that my dad gave
to me that when I was wearing it I was in my first fight, I fell in love
wearing that shirt.
“So many cool things that I’ve done.
“The shirt’s now like a rag, but I
love it and I will continue to keep it forever and I hope that one day I can do
the same with my children as well.”
HAN Studios knows the taste of success –
debuting in its infancy at MBFWA, being featured in some of Australia’s most esteemed
magazines and a current International Woolmark prize nominee.
But Khim says he’s equally known the sting of
destitution. His family escaped the Khmer Rouge dictatorship in Cambodia.
“My parents lived through that, they escaped
and my dad tells me stories about running in the middle of the night with no
direction.
“He told me this story about how he was running
through the forest and he had to climb through a barbed wire fence and he cut
his leg so he’s got a big gash on his leg, a big scar.
“And he fell into a fit filled with rotting
bodies and so it’s crazy.
“So I guess for me, I didn’t have that
financial or emotional support and I sort of made what I have from nothing, the
same way my parents came from nothing too.”
So what’s the HAN aesthetic? You could say HAN is
a fusion of casual, evening and sportswear with an ever-pervading sense of
minimalism.
“People say to me being minimal is somewhat
simplistic and boring, but taking something a thousand bells and whistles to it
is a lot easier than taking something, refining it to its core essence and
that’s what we do.
“So it’s a shirt, why do we have this pocket
here or why is this certain element here, it’s because it serves a particular
form and a function and that’s the key to great clothes”
Khim takes his tailoring cues from Ozwald
Boateng. It’s about the small things, the delicacy of structure.
“The interesting thing is a group of tailors is
called a disguising. So fucking cool.
“They’re called a disguising because tailoring
is supposed to create an illusion of a certain fit where in Savile Row the best
tailors all have different fits.”
HAN Studios really is still a baby, only about
to release their first Resort range. But Khim wants the HAN legacy to live on
far past his lifetime. So don’t expect it to go anywhere any time soon.
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