“Street style” is the term for getting out into the real world and recording what people are wearing. A video series done by YouTubers Kofi McCalla (aka The Unknown Vlog), for example, focuses on a single host surveying a city: He simply asks the city-dwellers, “What are you wearing today?” and the subjects respond with refreshing honesty. On Watching New York, a street style Instagram page, photographer Johnny Cirillo captures people on their way to work or the grocery store. But sipped between the stills of skinny models sporting high-end designer goods are images of everyday people revealing thrifted, found and inherited items: Cowboy boots fashioned into roller blades; a hat a friend mended for them.
In both mediums, the subjects are fast-moving — hurrying to wherever it is they’re headed — and the recorders have to be just as quick. But in demand London illustrator Mr. Slowboy (aka Fei Wang), whose art is in a way street style as well, takes his time to capture his subjects the old fashioned way: by drawing them. Contemporary yet classic, and a clear reference to existing art and artists like “Indian miniatures, Japanese Ukiyoe and the great Hozumi Kazuo,” he says, his portraiture is accurate and playful, popular and yet wholly unique. You know Slowboy’s work when you see it; his figures are like signatures, avatars from a world he’s created. And plenty of clients want to cross over.
Wang’s worked with storied brands and auction houses, real estate empires and retail sites, footwear manufacturers and magazines, an airline and car companies. Plus, he’s amassed quite the personal archive on his Instagram. To document the work he’s done thus far, Wang worked with Hong Kong publisher Victionary on a retrospective titled Mr. Slowboy: Portraits of the Modern Gentleman. It debuted on December 21st, 2021 to widespread acclaim — from both the people featured and those who wish they had been. We connected with the illustrator shortly after to discuss it.
Mr. Slowboy on Portraits of the Modern Gentleman
This is your first-ever solo book, correct? (I know you did one previously in collaboration with Sebago.) How did your debut come to be?
Yes, this is my first book and a summary of my first stage of working full-time as a fashion illustrator. I was approached by Victionary, a Hong Kong based publisher in mid-2020 about creating a men’s styling book which made me review and assess all the work I had produced in the last 6 years, and it’s quite interesting and refreshing to look at them collectively. I thought perhaps I should just use this opportunity to curate an exhibition that archives and showcases the development of my previous commissions and personal work in a book form.
Speaking of the collaboration with Sebago, I was rather excited when they proposed the pop-up book idea, as in the menswear industry, it’s something innovative that you don’t come across everyday. Unfortunately it’s only for display and PR purposes and not available for purchasing.
