Simu Liu is no stranger to fashion’s biggest night, so, when I met him at his hotel in SoHo Monday night, he figured the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards show should be a cinch. “I think everything’s a little bit more chill than the Met Gala,” Liu says. “So I’m looking forward to having a little bit of a more relaxed environment to talk to fashion houses and meet people from the different brands and also just to see friends.”
We speak just a few hours before the 37-year-old actor is about to make his first appearance at the Oscars of fashion and it’s hard to tell that he just hopped off a plane from Los Angeles this morning.
The Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings actor has had a packed year, from making his Broadway debut in Oh, Mary! between February and April to getting married back in October. He’s preparing to start promotion for the highly anticipated December release of Avengers: Doomsday, in which he’s set to reprise his role as the superhero Shang-Chi. Marvel fans haven’t seen him on the screen since his record-breaking film debut in 2021.
“It’s been a long, long time,” he jokes. For now, he’s clad in a robe sitting barefoot on the sofa, swiping a metallic device across his unblemished, glowing face. “I think it’s like a gua sha, but it’s cold,” he speculates. (His makeup artist, Alex Keating, confirms that it’s Shark Beauty’s Depuffi, a hot-and-cold contrast therapy gua sha that basically “gives you a full facial.”) A room service trolley is sitting inches away from him, allowing him quick access to a plate of chicken tenders and fries.
A Diet Coke. Don’t forget the Diet Coke
And a Diet Coke. Don’t forget the Diet Coke. Keating makes good use of Liu’s wavy locks, hairspraying a Superman-like curl into permanent place on his forehead as he sips his fridge cigarette. The actor’s dad cut his hair until he was 18 and he says it took him a while to learn what worked for his own mane. He envied the typical stick-straight Asian hair others had, but through his work with groomers learned the power of salt sprays to lean into his hair’s natural texture.
It admittedly took a while for Liu to develop his own fashion sense as an adult, too. “When you grow up working class and you grow up with parents whose purchasing habits were just the furthest thing from luxurious, I think it just takes time for you to learn about fashion,” he says. “The first brand that I remember really caring about was Abercrombie & Fitch.”
Tonight, though, Liu has moved far beyond the mall.
He’s attending the CFDA Awards on behalf of White Rabbit Trust, an organization that supports AAPI creatives and entrepreneurs. The trust is hosting the award’s Emerging Designer Table, which allows industry leaders—this year, Jason Wu—to mentor AAPI designers who create custom looks for the muse of their choosing. In Liu’s case, he’s been dressed by Asian-Canadian designer Haoran Li of the brand Private Policy.
The look for the evening was a matching
The look for the evening was a matching set made from black silk jacquard woven with bamboo paired with a shiny new silver wedding ring and a Rolex Batman GMT-Master II. His cropped trucker-style jacket, accented by hand-knotted Chinese buttons, sat over a crisp frayed-hem white button-down with wide-legged pants that draped over low-profile black shoes. “In Chinese culture, bamboo is one of the Four Gentlemen, a symbol of integrity and resilience,” Li says.
“It bends in the storm but never breaks. That felt like Simu, who has spent his career pushing through doors that weren’t built for us.”
I ask if he’s ever bothered by the responsibility of representing the Asian diaspora. “Right around the time Crazy Rich Asians came out, it was the first studio Asian movie in 25 years,” he recalls. “Then Shang-Chi was the first Asian Marvel superhero movie.
For a while it was just like first this, first this, first this. So I felt like innately the stakes were high and I put pressure on myself. I don’t regret doing that. I just remember looking around and not really seeing anyone doing that. So I thought, well it might as well be me.”
To that point, this isn’t the first time Liu has used his name to promote an indie AAPI brand.
At the the premiere of Shang-Chi in 2021,
At the the premiere of Shang-Chi in 2021, he spotlighted Singaporean-British designer Chelsea Scott-Blackhall’s label Dzojchen, wearing the brand’s silk kimono tuxedo. Prominence in Hollywood has meant more to him than giving him the opportunity to wear really nice clothes. He’s decided to take more agency in his career, he says. Last year, he starred and executive produced the spy thriller series The Copenhagen Test, which despite favorable reviews was cancelled after one season.
That hasn’t slowed his aspirations for new creative outlets: “I think actually right now I’m really excited by the idea of becoming a director.”
But before we get to see “Directed by Simu Liu” on the big screen, the star has an awards show to attend—and a plate of tendies to devour. Just as quickly as he’s touched down here in New York, he’s off again to Hong Kong tomorrow.
Source: www.gq.com
