September 23, 2022 |
Beloved London retailer Machine-A has released a film project to celebrate its flagship store opening in Shanghai. Through the eyes of lovers, skaters, DJ’s, designers, musicians and drag artists among others, it’s a jubilant revelry of the store’s creative community – from its newest stomping ground, Shanghai, to its home turf, London.
Pushing the boundaries of borders and cultures, the eclectic cinematic experience was shot by emerging Chinese director AJ Duan. Scene by scene, the film explores youth culture in a post-pandemic world through a compilation of voice memos from game-changing designers and burgeoning talents alike. Connecting fashion change-makers from Raf Simons, Matthew Williams, Martine Rose and Coperni, to Ottolinger, Yueqi Qi and Windowsen, each shared a personal interpretation of the letter “A” via a high-votage voice memo. For example, Windowsen said “A” is for Alien, while Coperni claimed “A” is for armour and Martine Rose declared it’s for always taking risks. The recordings then clash in multitude with the next generation of worldwide creatives included in the film – think Ku Ku, David Yang, Ma Ming, Nayah and Jessie and many more – defining what “A” means to them too. “A” to us is this “absolutely amazing film” that we could watch on repeat all damn day. What’s yours?
Film by AJ Duan, photography courtesy of Machine-A.
