​Yum Cha Chats with DJ Mykal a.k.a. 林哲儀: Spotlighting some of Asia's top thread designers

Sunday’s are hard but can be made easier with unexpected delights — so here’s some fluff to get you through it. Inspired by a recent jaunt for dim sum with Miss Yellow in Hong Kong, allow us to deliver a new edition of Yum Cha Chats — which means let’s go eat dim sum and drink tea in Cantonese. The series will dig into the obscure and tasty 'fillings' you never knew about your favourite DJs and have nothing to do with music — every Sunday. Best enjoyed from bed…

Anyone with a vested interest in electronic music in Taiwan over the last two decades knows DJ Mykal a.k.a.林哲儀 for his rock’n' roll approach to dance music that he blends with powerful on-stage antics. As a DJ, he’s opened for everyone from The Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Boys Noize, Andy C, Paul Oakenfold and even Korn, and founded electronic music label ROKON in Taiwan.

But his career has crossed over with many other music industry identities: he’s also a music critic, editor-in-chief for a local music magazine, record company manager, nightclub music director and owner of M@M (one of Taipei’s oldest record stores). And if you follow him, you’ll know that he is very, very into fashion. Mykal is Taiwan’s go-to source for streetwear fashion, having regularly collaborated with designers both in Taiwan and as far as Japan. Very cool, but where does one even start looking for this stuff? Exactly. So we asked Mykal to round up some of Asia's top thread designers that cross over with music.

“I was obsessed with the whole Mo’Wax and UNKLE thing back in 90s, so the A BATHING APE x UNKLE collection helped me get into the so-called Ura-Harajuku (the most important movement of Japanese street fashion scene in 90s). This stadium jacket was made for UNKLE’s second album 'Never, Never, Land'.

Shop BAPE here.

“Just like A BATHING APE, I learned about UNDERCOVER in the late 90s because of the Ura-Harajuku movement. UNDERCOVER is still one of my favourite fashion brands and the reason for that is because their designs are often inspired by music. This parka came from 2006 S/S collection which was inspired by krautrock and the graphic on the back was as same as on the album cover of German electronic music pioneer Klause Schulze.”

Shop UNDERCOVER here.

"DJ Daruma is one of my good friends in Japan and we have known each other for more than 10 years. He used to be one half of Dexpistols and owned clothing brands like ROC STAR, CREPEMAN, etc. Now he’s a member of PKCZ and is the designer of FULL-BK. DJ Daruma is always great to show his musical influence through his clothing designs. This crewneck sweater is one of his best pieces."

Shop FULL-BK here.

"To me, OVKLAB is the best hi-street brands in Taiwan. Founded in 2003, OVKLAB was originally named OVERKILL because it’s inspired by the American heavy metal band of the same name. The brand kept on feeding from rock music and is based on the philosophy and slogan 'The Future Is Unwritten'. These shorts were made for my first official DJ mix album 'ELEKTROTEQUE BASS WEAPONZ Vol 1.1'."

Shop OVKLAB here.

"Established in 2004, REMIX has been doing a lot of collaborations with units from different subcultures aimed at intermixing countless styles from music to N-Noy, X-sports, arts, etc. This tee was made for my first ever 12” vinyl release 'RKNIIFTR remixes EP'. I invited my friend YOSHIROTTEN from Tokyo to create the art of the vinyl cover then put it on the t-shirt as well."

Shop REMIX here.