Jeremy Ho and Peter Hu released the first collection under their label Ouer two years ago, and almost immediately, they created a “hero” IYKYK item of sorts among New York City’s fashion cognoscenti. A short-sleeve button-down shirt with an asymmetrical ballooning hem available in a lavender color they call “Ditto” and a butter yellow shade they call “Beancurd.” It is a shirt with a sort of restrained opulence.
“We’ve been working with the idea of using our upbringing as inspiration for the collections; as a way to set the foundation a little bit,” Hu explained recently at their Chinatown showroom. “We started with the idea of expectations—especially the familial or societal expectations of Asian immigrants, or immigrants in general, to achieve something.” In other words, they’re reimagining stereotypically proper American clothes. It’s not deconstruction, per se, because their pieces are immediately identifiable as what they are, but they are imbued with certain flourishes. Consider an olive green field jacket that’s cropped at the hip with a voluminous cape-like inset in the back. “We call it professional drag,” Hu noted.
