Shao Yang in New York City in 2023, ahead of her launch of Shao New York
Shao Yang has been a fashion designer for over a decade in New York City, but now is her time to shine. She will soon launch her namesake label Shao New York as part of a runway show debuting at New York Fashion Week.
The show will be presented in the East Village on September 11 by the OutLaw Agency, a pop up co-founded by publicist Kelly Cutrone and Anna ‘Delvey’ Sorokin, a fake German heiress and scammer who is on house arrest after her fraud conviction.
It is, by far, the most hyped show at fashion week so far. “We have people inviting other people to the show who aren’t even invited,” said Cutrone.
Yang has been running The Tailory since 2014, specializing in bespoke suits. “It’s a co-creation with my clients, a vision between me and them,” she said.
What makes Shao New York different is that it’s entirely her own vision.
“This brand is my entire voice,” she said.
This new collection is a standout that brings together two traditional structures in fashion—the corset and tailored suiting. “Marrying the two techniques is what you will see on the runway,” said Yang.
The new, nonbinary collection is called “Danger Zone.” Among the 30 looks in the collection, some of them include a black blazer with corset detailing, blazer-based dresses, and distressed jean pieces, like a denim jumpsuit with shoulder pads. “I love the 1980s, I’m drawing a lot of 1980s inspiration all the time without knowing it,” said Yang, who counts her style icons as Sean Connery, Cary Grant and Daniel Craig.
“The 1980s was a wild and crazy time for denim, but it’s not your typical Gloria Vanderbilt or Calvin Klein denim,” said Cutrone. “For me, this is the freshest take of what Jean Paul Gaultier and Jean Paul Gaultier were doing in the 1980s. But Shao is doing it more restrained. It stays more intelligentsia, art, sex, and architecture.”
A documentary about Sorokin is currently being shot, so Yang’s runway show will be in the film. A short film about the runway show, directed by Jasper Soloff, will premiere at Diane Pernet’s A Shaded View on Fashion Film Festival this November in Paris, while the lookbook is being photographed by photographer Olivier Halfin.
Sorokin will also be having an art exhibition in her apartment, where a handful of select guests from the press will be invited to look at the artworks and have a champagne toast.
The OutLaw Agency aims to help bring exposure to young fashion designers, artists, and creatives. It won’t have a website because that’s “too normal,” says Cutrone.
“I don’t know how much or how long this will go for,” she adds. “It’s a pop up, that’s how we founded it, and that’s all we’re committed to. Most agencies only go to half the field because they don’t have employees who are also celebrities. Here at the OutLaw Agency, you have two people who have lived in front of the camera, me over the past 15 years, Anna over the past seven years. When we started this, I told Anna and Shao, ‘we’re going to take a big risk doing this.’”