SONG FOR THE MUTE SS22: LES OLYMPIADES
Diverse representation in fashion and culture at large has been sorely lacking for hundreds of years. Nothing against the genre, but how many times have we seen Westerns with a storyline revolving around a lone cowboy hero that saves the day on our screens? That lack is, however, the very reason why the two brains behind Song for the Mute — the Australian–raised Melvin Tanaya and Lyna Ty (Melvin’s Indonesia-born with Surabayan roots, and Lyna’s Parisian of Cambodian descent) — started business in the first place. “We’ve always been about speaking up for those who don’t have the chance to. We knew that, no matter how individually unique we think we are, there’d be someone out there experiencing the same thing. We knew we weren’t alone,” Melvin tells us.
He and Lyna (who is, by the way, his childhood best mate and the designer of the brand) launched Song for the Mute without much forethought to what would occur after releasing a capsule collection of T-shirts as at first it was more of a side project to their full-time jobs. “It all started with tees, but then Lyna thought of including more styles like coats and trousers and our offering has gradually ballooned from there,” Melvin says.
One of the first things they did when in the process of putting a full collection together was head to the textile trade show Première Vision in Paris to meet and link up with a few textile mill owners based in Italy and Japan. “They’re rather small mills and through time we built trust and were given access to their archives from the 80s and the 90s, and we’ve been reworking these heritage fabrics with a contemporary eye,” Lyna shares. A few seasons in and the duo went on to scoop the Designer Award at the L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival.
“The fabrics we’ve been working with set us apart I think. It’s the most important part of our creative process and it ends up leading the whole collection and narrative.”
Asked about why they think they received attention and recognition from the industry so fast, Lyna thinks it partly has to do with the fact that they’ve always presented different, untold narratives than what is generally being shown in the Australian fashion scene, and a lot to do with the fabrics that she ends up designing with — a selection of thoughtfully chosen fabrics which act as a vehicle for storytelling: “The fabrics we’ve been working with set us apart I think. It’s the most important part of our creative process and it ends up leading the whole collection and narrative,” she says.
Ten years on and the duo still do business with the same mill owners they’ve been working with since day one. And as Lyna mentioned, with the years, they’ve built strong relationships and so are now able to further explore and develop all sorts of new fabrics with different textures and finishings. This was reflected in this year’s spring/summer collection, 22.2 LES OLYMPIADES.
For SS22, the duo infused pleated fabrics for the first time to their menswear range, one of which looks like a grid colourblocked in black and beige, while another resembles waves. There is also an (initially) khaki corduroy with embossed dots that’s been, after a few attempts to hit the right dyeing solution, turned into a vibrant green. This is all sort of new ground for the brand, and yet it’s not — SFTM is meant to evolve as it grows. “Song for the Mute has and will always progress as we grow up and experience new things and meet new people. Through the collections we capture the chapters of our lives and those of the people around us,” Melvin says.
Whereas in past seasons they’ve been moved by their wholesale manager’s doodles drawn on scraps of paper they’d found around the office, or by Lyna’s partner’s Turkish upbringing, the brand’s LES OLYMPIADES chapter is informed by where Lyna grew up, in Paris’ 13th district. Altogether Les Olympiades is made up of 14 flat complexes that were built in the late 60s, early 70s and occupied mostly by South East Asian immigrants, including Lyna’s parents and several other family members. “I remember how there was a lot going on back there. It was a little chaotic, but in a good way. The community was tight-knit,” Lyna shares.
Growing up there in the 90s, Lyna reminisced about the outfits her cousins would wear back then, the wide-leg jeans, the full tracksuits, and the sports sneakers, and, with SS22, she created her own looks. And if there’s one thing that binds these looks together, it’s their mix-and-match aesthetic: they still sport the defining relaxed fit of that time period, yet they’ve been at once elevated with sharper cuts and intentionally a bit trashed. Typically luxurious fabrics (such as cupro) were sparkled with bleach, and so were the stonewashed indigo and dark denims.
This partly thought through, partly laissez faire approach runs through the collection, down to the collaborative pair of sneakers they’ve made with adidas Originals, a first for Song for the Mute. They’ve picked the Shadowturf model and, except for its side trim panels with cut-out windows and adiPRENE Plus midsole, transformed it into something entirely different. One could easily have guessed: the shoe features several different fabrics and textures, from nylon satin, mesh layers, and brushed suede colourblocked in black, white, and tones of beige. There’s also exposed stitching detailing throughout, which contributed to the aesthetic of looking “already lived-in right out of the box” the duo was after.
“We wanted to break this image that people have of luxury, which is usually seen as polished and can be intimidating, not so approachable. It’s been a few seasons now since we’ve started highlighting and embracing imperfections. We don’t like things too done,” Melvin says, before concluding: “Flaws should be celebrated.”
Song for the Mute
Photographer: Darren McDonald
Art direction & Styling: Stephen Mann
Writer: Michaël Smith