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Even the ugliest clothes have redeeming qualities. At least, that’s the attitude Ryan Yip, the man behind Ryan Yip Fashion, is trying to inculcate in his audience. The freelance fashion critic has made a career out of giving clothes of all kinds a second, third, and fourth look.
Through his videos and forthcoming magazine, “Fashion Review,” Yip elevates insightful writing and a multiplicity of perspectives over buzzwords and echo chambers. In essence, his online presence attempts to make viewers reconsider their opinions on their own style or the fashion industry itself.
Fashion wasn’t always a focal point of Yip’s life. Though he credits his mother — a “very stylish person” — as the reason he was immersed in fashion from a young age, he didn’t start to seriously explore the field until six or seven years ago.
Along the way, he discovered many texts that aided his personal style journey. He now spotlights these books and articles on his Instagram account. One genre that frequently makes surprise appearances on his reading list is textbooks. Yip considers their timeless expertise invaluable for his own content.
“People took time to write the textbooks, they dedicate a good chunk of time into creating them. Sometimes articles can be very light, very in the moment,” he said in an interview with The Crimson.
In Yip’s experience, accumulating such foundational knowledge with fashion-related texts helps him glean new insights from entirely unrelated literature. For instance, before speaking with The Crimson, he read a piece by Susan Sontag where she mentions “the importance of boring.” This simple phrase was eye-opening for Yip, as it put into perspective collections he previously had little interest in.
“This may be a transitional phase. This may be [the designer] exploring the remnants of the previous idea and starting something new, and therefore this collection feels almost like a filler collection. But if you look deeper, if you look past that, you will understand where the designer’s at,” Yip said.
To supplement these revelations and his subsequent videos, Yip goes out of his way to reach out to designers.
“The most important part for me is, after discovering them, I need to really interact with the designer,” he said. “For me to actually like the brand and support the brand — because I think it’s easy to just like a post — but if I actually find your work, and I think the future’s bright, I would love to actually talk to the designer and support them directly.”
Unfortunately, social media may have established too many connections between designers and their audience. Yip believes that some designers have exaggerated the content and inspiration of their collections to maximize clicks.
“[This norm created] the current situation where everyone’s trying to attach the collection to some sort of story grander than it is, but I don’t want them to feel like that. But currently, because of social media, they want people to have a talking point to latch onto and then talk about their collection,” he said.
From a purely creative perspective, the financial aspects of the industry might also stifle the next generation’s innovators.
“It’s definitely going to be younger designers who see past this, like I don’t need to be another Alaïa. I don’t need to be another Dior to be myself and then strike a path, but obviously what’s most important is funding. It’s hard to be a rebel, right? It’s hard to just provide something super new and be successful with it,” Yip said.
Yip, however, is attempting to enact change in the industry by leveraging his corner of the Internet. A key part of his own contribution is “Fashion Review,” a fashion magazine of his own making that is set to release in mid-April.
“I want to bring back a certain relevance of written reviews,” he said. “Because [in] a short form video, anyone can talk about clothes and kind of steer people’s attention away from actually well-crafted ideas.”
Both in the magazine and his online content, Yip uses his expertise to uncover both the good and bad aspects of fashion collections. In fact, he believes it’s almost impossible for collections to be wholly perfect or imperfect.
Taking Demna’s controversial run at Balenciaga as an example, Yip said, “Another way to look at it is they literally pioneered that crazy, oversized look. So you can hate it, but then is it possible for the person to hate the collection but acknowledge some positive in the cultural phenomenon?”
If followers of his channel don’t even know how to feel, that’s okay too. According to Yip, patience is key to developing a healthy relationship with fashion.
“Give yourself time. It is a timely process, whether you want to engage with the industry or style yourself. It’s a never-ending game, so you don’t need to find personal style immediately after two years,” he said.
His last piece of advice — and yes, he is aware of the irony — is to question all fashion-related content one sees online.
“Take it with a grain of salt,” Yip said. “Don’t base your entire opinion on whatever you’re interested in right now, on my video or five other videos.”
In light of this new counsel, perhaps it is acceptable to be an anti-boring, pro-Demna fashion fan. To quote Yip’s own Instagram bio, it’s fine to affirm that one has “a lot to say about fashion.”
—Staff writer Giselle P. Acosta can be reached at giselle.acosta@thecrimson.com.
