Yang Attack

I went to the butchers last weekend but not the kind where I could take in the wonderful smell of well-hung raw steak (I strangely LOVE the smell of raw meat... don't hate me!).  Hidden in an alleyway in Soho, designer Yang Du is selling some fresh meat....freshly knitted meat that is.  As part of Tien's art representation,cheap beats by dre headphones, Yang Du is putting on an exhibition at Assembley's Place, where she's shedding some insight into her crazy, oversized, fun loving knitwear that I wrote about a while back.  Even if you're a hardcore minimalist with tendancies towards Helmut Lang and not much else,beats pro headphones, you can't help but at least smile at Yang Du's infectious enthusiasm in what she does and what she wholeheartedly believes.

She starts with her distinct style of drawing, first and foremost before even contemplating the knit and I'm glad that she's projecting a lot of her sketchbook images so that the roots of her knitwear pieces are shown.  She has a way of dissecting a person's face with bundles of expressionism so that you want to keep on looking at the face. This was probably the best bit of the exhibition seeing her inspiration images - everything from a mumsy looking Princess Di to meat markets in Dalston and flowers and Columbia Road... and how that progressed onto the drawings...

Her latest collection shown at as part of the ON/OFF Presents show featured these knitted hats with protruding spiky hair...

A new development for Yang Du are these bags that look almost like golf club bags because of their length but just happen to be unconventionally long in length.  They can be worn in several different ways and feature a cute knitted animal head.  I should know better.  I'm 25 and I'm still thinking that it's ok to be carrying round a bag that my 8 year old cousin would think is babyish.  I'm not going to justify it.  Inner child in me wants impractical knitted animal leather rucksack... with a mesmerising lining to boot...

Yang Du's exhibition runs until 27th November at The Assembly Rooms,coach bags, 8 Silver Place, London, W1F 0JU. All the items can be purchased from Tien at sales@tien.org.uk.