Suit Geek n.19 - Mr. Wang Siyuan
“Suit Geek” is PRINCIPLE M's original feature column where each month we reach out to one of our loyal customers & friends and ask him to share his clothing, life, and his unique point of view on gentlemen‘s style.
For our 19th interview, we invited Mr. Louis Wang Siyuan to wrap up 2021 for us. A friend and regular guest for all of the PM events, Louis often fascinates us with his elegance like it runs in his blood. We would always wonder where did that come from. Today, he joins us and shares his satorial journey, his 'big' career change, and his favourite plays and movies.
THE 'BIG' CHANGE
"My name is Wang Siyuan, friends also call me Louis. I worked as a lawyer for quite a long time, focus on entertainment industry. Recently, I have changed my career to get into the front line of the industry of entertainment, now I work at a director’s studio as his assistant."
"To begin with, I felt it challenging and exciting. Being a lawyer, there’s a routine for what you do every day, quite predictable. However, now I’m doing something more creative."
"The biggest challenge is to change your mind-set. Working at a law firm as a lawyer, we’re dealing with regulations and rules. The first thing on our mind when we’re facing a question is what are the regulations to that question. On the contrary, creative work has no rules. You have to free yourself from the boundaries. Sky is the limit for the creative works."
Right: Louis wearing a B&Tailor overcoat & Calabrese Scarf
HIS FIRST MENSWEAR PIECE
“Maybe call it my first menswear piece… It was a 4-button navy corduroy blazer. Obviously, an influence from the navy uniform. I got it when I was 15, I think. I've always liked the navy sailors, so I couldn’t help the impulse to dress like one. ”
“I started wearing that every day. I caught people’s eyes, back in the middle school. I couldn’t deny it, but that’s me.”
“Our uniform back in my middle school days was sportswear. However, I wanted to wear something military like, so as to keep myself neat and tidy, offered myself a sense of self-discipline and order. I also had to fight for it to go against the dress code and the norm by taking the shield of being a good student and good academic scores, spared me from the criticism, in a way. ”
Louis during the interview
"My first suit I can’t remember quite clearly, maybe it was the school uniform, or maybe when I was doing a photo shoot. When I was 4, I appeared in a child’s show and then I went to the art school. I got trained ,singing, acting and dancing etc. Being a child star, and a student at art school, we all had the privilege to learn about classical menswear."
"A lot of people had family influence on how to dress themselves, they learnt it first hand. My family wasn’t like that, so I had to learn it from the knowledge. Being a fan of film and theatre. I had a chance to dig into all those materials and look for inspiration. Fred Astaire, James Stewart, and Cary Grant, those icons in the Golden Age of Hollywood, models of the classical menswear. It was like being taught the first lesson - what does beauty mean for a man? Also, being a bookworm, I want to look beyond the surface, into the culture, the fabric, and the craft. Not only suits, but also ties, shoes, all those little gadgets, and hairstyle. The idea of men’s aesthetics, literature, waving into a big net of experience, which later becomes my guidance into the classical menswear world. Then, I set my foot in to try."
"I went to Tsinghua university for law, then I went to study Masters in Philadelphia, USA. I also joined an exchanged program in Europe, during which I traveled to all those Western European countries, I would say that was the happiest time of my life, where I found freedom. I had lived in the UK and traveled to different counties when I was young. As I grew older, more mature, I could see and feel how people dress themselves on the street better."
"What is your favourite piece, Louis?"
"Always the next one."
HIS OPINION OF ELEGANCE AND THE PEN COLLECTION
“Elegance is making selections. Making the selections requires you to have the ability to read the room, to judge the atmosphere. After that, make your choices. As long as I did that, then I just need to be myself. Even when I was working at the law firm, we didn’t have a strict dress code, either. But I still wore a suit and tie to work.”
“When making a decision on what to wear, I would think about the atmosphere of the place I’m going to and the surroundings. I was working in an urban area of Guomao. So, the main tone of the colours would be grey and navy. I didn’t wear tweed that much because the colours wouldn’t fit in. Now, our studio is located in a suburban area, like a garden, outdoorsy, and my job also involves a lot of walking, so I wear more tweeds now, less formal looks, just to fit into the whole picture.”
“Just want to be a good picture.”
Whenever we see Louis, he's always carrying a nice bag.
"I carry pens and papers in my bag. Just to be able to write down at any moment, I don’t want to lose my thoughts."
"Pens are the necessities of my life, and a good souvenir, too. I bought these pens during travels. When I travel, I would find a local pen manufacture, well-made, which would remind me of the trip. Same thing with perfume, clothing, music while you’re travelling. Those feelings are connected with each other, to create something more vivid than a single photograph."
Louis is writing.
THE PLAYS AND THE FILMS
Louis mentioned plenty of directors he admires, Ingmar Bergman, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Luchino Visconti, and Chris Nolan...those names that any true film lover would be familiar with and happy to hear at any time.
"I always regard my boss as the best director in China, I love his work. When I began to find my interest in films, Bergman and Tarkovsky also had a great impact on me."
"George Cukor, he was very talented at dealing with female roles. The Philadelphia story, My Fair Lady, It was adapted from the musical and put it on the screen, still fascinating."
"Paul Thomas Anderson. He also knows a lot about photography. Phantom Thread is one of my favourites. It goes very deep about love and relationships.”
Phantom Thread, Daniel Day-Lewis plays a prestige tailor.
"I like watching movies, going to the theatre, going to classic music concerts, and reading books. Maybe, theatre is my biggest hobby, I couldn’t imagine my life without the theatre and those wonderful plays. "
"Shakespeare is always there. When I was in college, we played many of his plays. I read lots of them, too. Some plays would be too difficult to put on the stage, but even on paper, it’s fascinating to read. Chekhov, Ibsen, Ancient Greek writers, Sophocles, and Euripides, I think our lives sometime photoed by their works, or the kind of feelings put in the nutshell, the wooden O, in the sense of Shakespeare, the O is the theatre back in the Renaissance days. From the royal to the common, from battle fields to fairy tales, use our imagination to create a whole beautiful world about our normal life, which is important to me."
