As the films Minari, Everything Everywhere All at Once and the recent Netflix series Beef have begun depicting immigrant stories with nuance, a new generation of designers shaped by their “third culture” have come to see their unique heritage and personal histories as invaluable touch points for their brand identity.

Born in America to a Vietnamese family, Hung La saw clothes as a form of non-verbal communication during his childhood in the state of Maryland.

After graduating from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium, and having stints at Balenciaga with Nicolas Ghesquière and Céline under Phoebe Philo, La branched out in 2017 to start cult womenswear label Kwaidan Editions with his wife, Leá Dickely.

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It wasn’t until the first year of the pandemic that La – now based in London – decided he needed an outlet to address misconceptions of Asian masculinity.

“I realise it is my obligation as an Asian creative to use my voice and provide Asian storytelling with depth,” he says.

Launched in 2021, Lu’u Dan was named by La’s father. It combines the Vietnamese words for “pomegranate” and “bullet”, which synthesise into a colloquial term meaning grenade or dangerous man.

Stylistically, its menswear designs are influenced by gangster films such as Ichi the Killer and Young and Dangerous and street photographs taken by Katsumi Watanabe and George Hashiguchi.

“We always love a good bad boy/villain archetype,” the designer laughs. “The roots, intentions and core of this dangerous man [remain] the same, but as we’ve progressed, he’s gotten a bit more rebellious, a bit more brazen, unhindered and unimpeded.”

Built upon character archetypes drawn from various Asian subcultures, the brand’s signature designs have emerged as vintage suiting elements, baggy Bontan sweatpants and strong graphic treatments.

The latest autumn/winter 2023 collection was inspired by Japan’s 1970s Black Emperor motorcycle gang.

Raw and packing a mighty punch, the brand’s distinct narrative has gelled with a community that La is intent on building.

“The resonance is profound through DMs, where people [say they] feel like they’re represented honestly and wholly for the first time,” he says.

Since launching exclusively with e-tailer Ssense, Lu’u Dan is gradually expanding its reach and is now available at Juice in Hong Kong.

Personal ties also lie behind the brand Namesake, which was shortlisted for the 2023 LVMH Prize awarded annually to a young fashion designer.

Founded as a family affair by three brothers – Richard, Steve and Michael Hsieh – the brand is named in homage to their father: its Chinese name translates as “in the name of the father”.

“Our dad is the whole inspiration,” Michael Hsieh says. “He wanted to become a designer but in traditional society that wasn’t considered a ‘real’ job, so he went into our family business … in a way what we’re doing now is fulfilling his childhood dream.”

Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the brothers spent their secondary school years in Japan and went to America for university before eventually coming back to Taiwan.

Despite being pushed to study academic degrees, they remained determined to pursue their interests in fashion, establishing the concept store Ne.Sense in Taipei in 2014.

Jokingly called the “Covid baby”, Namesake was launched in 2020 to express a more personal point of view.

“We want to tell our own story and use it to inspire the next generation,” Michael Hsieh says.

Big brother Richard runs finances, little brother Steve is the creative director and Michael works on press and marketing.

In practice, Namesake’s identity relies on their combined input. Built upon their shared love of basketball and the family’s background in the fishing industry, the two disparate elements combine to create genderless silhouettes that play upon oversized athletic wear with streetwear inflections.

Sustainable fabrics are used throughout the designs where textural interplay, such as crochet knits, are often chosen to reference agriculture and fishing nets.

Over the past eight seasons, stockists for the brand have grown to include Dover Street Market in Los Angeles and New York, Browns Fashion in London, and Swank and Joyce in Hong Kong.

As Namesake gathers momentum, the brothers are busy planning their show in Paris during this month’s men’s fashion week.

“I always looked outwards growing up, thinking Western culture is cooler and better,” Michael Hsieh says. “Now I realise when you start looking into who you are, you will find aesthetics that other people don’t have.

“Everything is so online and transparent, it somehow makes people want to dive into their own roots. That’s what makes your brand special.”

For designers Jin Kay and Dylan Cao, who launched Commission in 2018, the founding impetus came from nostalgia for their mother’s generation and how they used to dress in 1980s Asia.

First-generation American immigrants, Kay hails from South Korea while Cao grew up in Vietnam.

“We are from pretty conservative families, so studying ‘fashion’ was not the most popular career, but we both got big support from our parents and went to Parsons School of Design in New York,” Cao says.

After branching out to work in the industry (between them their résumés cover Gucci, Narciso Rodriguez, Prabal Gurung, Phillip Lim and R13), they joined forces to tell their own stories.

Seeking to redefine the visual language of East Asian culture in fashion, the designers moved the narrative away from kitschy orientalist symbols and looked instead to images of their mothers going about their everyday lives.

“In transit, with slightly hiked-up skirts on motorcycles, to fanny packs full of snacks and cash for the market,” they wrote about their debut collection, which featured strong silhouettes created by boxy suiting, floral print blouses and spandex leggings.

A menswear line followed in 2021, situated within the same universe.

Reaching outwards in recent seasons, the designers are exploring the idea of “deconstructed America”, taking inspiration from the diverse cast of characters that call New York home.

Viewing American clothing tropes such as sportswear through their own lens, their latest autumn/winter 2023 collection presented T-shirts layered under slip dresses and track jackets that became puffers.

After being picked up by Net-a-Porter in its first season, Commission now boasts a list of international stockists that includes Dover Street Market in Beijing, Boon the Shop in Seoul, and I.T.

Chosen by British fashion entrepreneur Paul Smith as a recipient of his &Paul Smith collaboration programme to nurture emerging talent, Commission will further expand its menswear offering with a dedicated capsule collection launching later this year.

In the same way that diverse backgrounds have influenced the visual language of these brands, they have also inspired their designers to build community in unique ways.

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For spring/summer 2023, Commission unveiled a campaign featuring AAPI (Asian-American and Pacific Islander) creatives such as Korean-American musician, actor and entrepreneur Eric Nam, photographed by Guanchen Liu.

In a similar vein, the Hsieh brothers have been known to organise basketball tournaments in Shanghai and once hosted a game after Namesake’s Paris show as an inclusive alternative to an after-party.

“We know from experience how hard it is to get into those,” Michael Hsieh laughs, “so we thought it’d be cooler to do a basketball game and welcome everyone to come.”

And in March, La hosted a dinner during Paris fashion week at a noodle shop in the city called Taverne de Zhao that specialises in food from Xi’an in China.

“We invited all these amazingly talented and stylish creatives to carve out a moment and eat hand-pulled noodles, to celebrate and feel at home,” he says.

“The dinner felt more like a birthday or reunion than a ‘fashion’ dinner, and that’s important to us.”

Recently, he also launched Lu’u Dan’s City Tours initiative, producing content in which Asian creatives discuss identity and race against the backdrop of the city in which they live.

The first instalment in New York featured Bowen Goh, the owner of Brooklyn club Mood Ring, and Jae Kim, a photographer who focuses on motorcycle gangs. A London edition is set to be released soon.

“I believe more nuanced and localised conversations will help spotlight disparate definitions and help us come together,” Lu says as he looks forward to showing his spring/summer 2024 collection in Paris this month.

“Asians are starting to find commonalities in our stories. There has been historic division amongst our peoples, but I am a big believer in the sense of shared culture.

“This kind of representation helps outsiders understand and see the subtle differences within our identities.”