Featuring a Host of Leading Creative Talent from Around the World, the Project’s First Installment is Directed by ByeByeDisco and Stars Robot Personality, EVERYBODY

Honoring its 30th year as China’s great icon of sport and style, Li-Ning forges ahead for Autumn / Winter 2020, launching “Future Vintage, Sport Formal”, a collection of men’s and women’s apparel, footwear and accessories contrasting design highlights from the label’s storied past with a modernist vision of the future. Surveying Li-Ning’s robust archives—along with the celebrated career of company founder and Olympic gold medalist, Mr. Li Ning—the brand’s latest runway assortment creates a unique hybrid aesthetic, one that unites elements of casual sportswear with more formal codes of dress.

As a result of the brand’s time-traveling juxtaposition of casual and bespoke, Li-Ning’s latest collection arrives at a new mode of dressing, one with little regard for norms of gender, occasion or preconception. Subsequently, seemingly clashing design cues from different eras and style tribes reconcile to create something refreshingly new and utterly modern.

Inspired by the assortment’s seamless, ‘dial-a-decade’ mash-up—coupled with the brand’s 30th Anniversary milestone—Li-Ning launches “Future Vintage, Sport Formal” with a celebratory, editorial look-book series, featuring contributions from a host of today’s most definitive photographers, artists, film makers and visual leaders. Divided into 5 separate and distinct chapters—each showcasing the vision of a different creative team—the series will be unveiled in phases throughout the coming season.
The Future Vintage, Sport Formal look-book's body-of-work launches with ByeByeDisco’s contribution, an examination of the explosion of digital input brought about by the dawn of internet culture in the 1990s. Titled “Electronic Influencer”, ByeByeDisco’s piece stars their recently introduced robot persona, EVERYBODY—a character whose casting in the film also doubles as commentary on the ever-increasing role social media plays in our day-to-day lives.

Founded in 2008, Beijing-based ByeByeDisco first gained notoriety as a sought-after vintage emporium, located on the city centre’s trendy shopping strip, Nanluoguxiang Alley. Initially stocking classic and collectible Chinese goods from the 1980s and 90s, ByeByeDisco quickly introduced its own house label and cross-brand partnerships and collaboratively-designed product capsules soon followed.

Only two years later, the boutique’s growing lifestyle brand would evolve even further, launching what would become one of China’s most influential electronic record labels, producing new music; organizing hundreds of events; and, in the process, developing a reputation for hosting and showcasing the best local and international talent alike.

Today, ByeByeDisco remains committed to expanding the field of independent design and innovation, offering a platform for like-minded, equally pioneering artists, creatives and musicians from across China. Among their more recent projects, ByeByeDisco introduced EVERYBODY, a robot “being” that—like most forms of artificial intelligence—“learns” from observing human behavior. Through EVERYBODY’s daily interactions, the droid soon gained “an understanding” of influencer culture and its underlying motivations—the longing for people to connect and, ultimately, gain validation. In the process, EVERYBODY became an influencer in “his” own right, quickly amassing a community of admiring virtual followers and fans.

Starring their recently-unveiled robotic character, ByeByeDisco’s contribution to Li-Ning’s look-book captures EVERYBODY’s interaction with a female co-star, seen in varying, modernist settings—a reference to the AW 2020 collection’s high-tech, future-embracing themes. Exploring the often blurry overlap of the digital and physical worlds, the film opens with the pair dressed in casual tracksuit separates seated side-by-side at a long, formal dining room table. Interspersed throughout is footage of the duo shot in a mysterious laboratory; on-set in a raw, industrial photo studio; and in an elaborate in-door garden space littered with discarded digital screens and LED light tubes.

Highlighting our need for companionship while also stressing the importance of nature in our daily lives, “Electronic Influencer” underscores how digital innovation in today’s world can prohibit but also help us in achieving these aims. The introduction of ByeByeDisco’s “Electronic Influencer” officially launches Li-Ning’s AW 2020 "Future Vintage, Sport Formal” look-book series later this month. Details on subsequent installments will be forthcoming.