Born in Guangzhou in the south of China, Danxia Liu, the designer and co-founder behind rising London-based menswear brand Danshan, was born female but raised as a boy until the age of twelve due to the country’s one-child policy (which finally came to an end in 2015) and skewed gender values.

Growing up between the traditional gender lines, Liu’s unorthodox upbringing directly feeds into the Danshan design ethos. Along with fellow co-founder Shanpeng Wong, the duo look to blur traditional gender dynamics and explore the nuances of masculinity, vulnerability and expression.

Expanding this conversation, Danshan’s latest venture sees the duo realise a special capsule collection informed by “examining how male body language develops within a policed state of formalities and potential embarrassments, and often turns into a place where affection between men is rare and sanctioned.”

Having recruited filmmaker Saskia Dixie and art director Ben Freeman to create a montage of moving images inspired by traditional educational videos, these stills are printed across the capsule collection. “Through the exploration of symbolic poses and gestures performed by male participants, ‘Learning with Danshan’ hopes to highlight the problematic nature of the code and unpick it’s foundations, with the intention of creating a new ‘code’ that celebrates the vast, nuanced scope of the male gender,” read a press release.

Learning with Danshan is available now via Lane Crawford, shop the collection here.