PRE[SSOC]

Ka Yee Lee is an avant-garde menswear designer, recently graduated from Cambridge School of Visual and Performing Arts - her graduate collection was showcased during Graduate Fashion Week 2019 as a part of the collective group show. Her collection has received a strong positive response having been posted on numerous websites and also featured in the national newspapers ‘The Daily Telegraph’, the Times and ‘The Cambridge Independent.’

During her second year in university, she completed two internships one with avant-garde designer Gareth Pugh and a further with menswear designer Lou Dalton. Ka Yee is now launching her brand as PRE[SSOC], being heavily inspired by the social and political situation she expressed these oppressed messages through her conceptualised designs using her signature combination of traditional tailoring and innovative pattern cutting.

The concept of ‘Slave Salaryman’ collection began with research on the capitalist system, as corporations gain increasing levels of political power questions surrounding economic and cultural shifts begin to be at the forefront of contemporary discussion. Considering the continuously increasing pressure in Japanese work culture, these societal expectations that are carried often lead to depression and suicide. The focus for this collection draws on this perspective, of capitalism's exploitative nature and its resulting manifestation of a population of men in crisis.

Ka Yee entered and won first prize in a competition hosted by prestigious tailoring Savile Row cloth merchant - Holland and Sherry. Following this period, due to her initial success in the competition, she was later able to secure sponsorship for her graduate collection.