It was a particularly warm day in June, the kind with sporadic drizzles enough to dampen your clothes and moisten your skin. With wisps of hair clinging to my increasingly sweaty nape, I headed on foot to YanYan’s studio to preview their latest knitwear collection. You may be thinking, “Knitwear? In this climate? Surely this should be an undertaking for the future.” But dispel those bewildered concerns because YanYan has proved they are truly always one step ahead.
“The tricky part about selling knitwear in a super hot place like Hong Kong in the dead of summer—like July—is that it is knitwear and everyone gets really nervous,” says co-founder Phyllis. “Since we live here and it’s like, the hottest place ever, we really do wear-test everything to figure out if you can wear it in this heat.”
A desk by the window displays accessories from YanYan’s Pre-Fall and Fall/Winter 2025 collections.
Photo: Karrie Lam
The proof is in the pudding. At the studio, the entire team is a walking, talking YanYan oeuvre, decked out in pieces from collections past and present. Co-founder Suzzie dons a layered look that spotlights the brand’s “borlor” fabric that first debuted earlier this spring, while Phyllis herself rocks the oversized SS24 yellow campus tee once spotted on NewJeans’ Danielle. On other members of the team, I spot more pieces from this year’s spring collection like a colourful checkered vest and an embellished choker, but I also see a gorgeous high-collar top I don’t recognise. It’s a fresh take on the beloved borlor fabric and an item from YanYan’s new pre-fall collection—exactly what I came for.
YanYan brings back their fan-favourite check pattern for pre-fall.
Photo: Karrie Lam
Phyllis describes some of the collection—like the denim-hued check cardigans—as “aspirational, just to tease you to be excited for fall and buy it for that one special day with a gentle breeze”, but confidently notes that most of the clothing is “buy now, wear now”. That includes a small series of ultra-lightweight linen items that carry some of the brand’s SS25 energy into pre-fall. “I am on a personal mission to get everybody to wear more linen,” says Phyllis. “I think that it is a really wonderful material. It is dry handed; takes colour really well; is generally better for the environment anyways; and it is just a really beautiful thing to have in knitwear because you can see all the stitches.”
The linen selection includes a beachy striped pattern that lands on an airy long-sleeve, a cropped pant with an apron, and two multipurpose accessories that can be worn as a scarf or headband, as well as the latest rendition of the campus tee. Like its SS25 counterpart, the tee is white with pops of colour on the neckline and sleeve hems, but this time the girl-on-deer embroidery is stitched with darker threads like navy and plant green. With the original concept of the campus tee simply being a knitted t-shirt, Suzzie’s embroidery designs elevate them beyond what would typically be a graphic print. When you give it more thought, these tees aren’t just tees—they’re embroidered sweaters shaped like T-shirts.
I like to think of Phyllis and Suzzie as knitwear scientists, as both are joyfully nerdy about fabrics and the technical secrets woven within them. When they make a great discovery, the only logical next step for them is to explore further and experiment until they can experiment no more. The pre-fall collection in particular sees the return of what Phyllis calls the “runaway hit for spring”. The wacky borlor fabric is made from a super high twist wool that possesses a natural ability to torque. The result is a perky three-dimensional texture that bears semblance to the skin of pineapple, hence its name borlor—the Cantonese word for the spiky fruit.
“The yarn is really interesting; it’s very dry and very textured without it being uncomfortable,” explains Phyllis. “When you steam it, it makes the stitches come out a little bit more. But when you just wear it and it hangs, it has a less prickly, softer [look]. It’s very sheer which is nice and Suzzie has been wearing it almost every day since it’s comfortable in this heat.”
For pre-fall, the borlor fabric reappears in shades of cream white, brown and green, while the designs themselves speak to the more modest silhouettes of fall time—think midi skirts, long sleeve shirts, and leg warmers. The gauzy, sheer texture of the wool however, ensures the pieces are still playful and easy to layer, which truly are the two pillars of any YanYan outfit. Phyllis and Suzzie were more than ready to demonstrate, pulling out hangers to showcase fun pairings and volunteering uniquely specific examples for the girl that loves a little bit of roleplay. Note: slip into the ‘Hanky Mini Skirt’ to channel Tarzan, or don the full green look for Gwyneth Paltrow’s Donna Karan moment in “Great Expectations”, à la YanYan.
You really could craft a character for all the endless outfit possibilities available in the pre-fall collection, and that’s exactly what the cofounders do. One of their favourites is the “idol”, a girly global superstar with an eye for colour and fun. For her, Phyllis and Suzzie present YanYan’s take on hotpants. “I think we were listening to too much Sabrina Carpenter last summer, and so we have a lot of hot pants coming,” says Phyllis. “They’re very very short okay, like booooty with peaches, but I think they’re very cool.” I was also told that Moon Tang and Kuku So had already dropped by to try them on, so it’s safe to say the shorts are cool-girl approved.
The hotpants sport belt loops should you want to accessorise the hip with something more, and arrive in a green version of YanYan’s signature take on the classic argyle print. It pairs perfectly with a single-sleeved sweater in the same pattern, birthing a look that reminds Phyllis of figure skating outfits. But if that’s not your cup of tea, you could spend a day in the shoes of a waitress at YanYan’s imaginary bing sutt, serving drinks in the argyle sweater vest and pants with detachable apron. That’s the beauty of a subtle reference, and the way Phyllis and Suzzie reimagine a traditional pattern, detail, or silhouette. One might observe a country club golfer where another sees the tiles of a nostalgic Hong Kong cafe.
The YanYan Knits Pre-Fall 2025 collection is available exclusively at JOYCE Harbour City.
Photo: Courtesy of JOYCE
As a niche, slow fashion brand, YanYan embraces the continuous development of a design language that is distinctly theirs. When I ask about a starting point for the pre-fall collection, whether it’s a mood or a personal narrative, Phyllis explains, “Suzzie and I don’t really design like that. We imagine the person who wears us to be like a collector, so everything that you buy, you can continue to style with something from before. We actually look at things around 18 months or two years [ahead]. So we may repeat textures, stitches, concepts over the course of one to two years in a collection. It could be just because we have obsessive personalities and sometimes we’re just like, fixated on a stitch, and then it becomes something that the customer also enjoys, so we’ll just keep going and then something will stay around for a while.”
The former goal defence in me squeals as Phyllis explains that the pleated mini skirt is a strictly visual rendition (“Suzzie and I do not do any kind of sport so all of our sports references are purely aesthetics”) of a netball skirt.
Photo: Karrie Lam
Looking around the studio, I understood. We were parked in front of the pre-fall rack but adjacent to that was Fall/Winter 2025, and on the far left was the Holiday collection, all ready to go. They had evolved alongside each other organically, as though the clothes themselves were individual characters growing through the seasons. The pre-fall YanYan girl is currently decked out in lightweight linens and knitted mini skirts, but she knows exactly who she’ll be when the temperature drops and the leaves start to fall.
Editor
Alyanna Raissa J. PayosCredit
Lead image: Courtesy of JOYCE
