Fashion design cannot be separated from real life, and “the street” is itself a kind of engine for trends. Founded in 2015, the fashion design brand #DAMUR was established by Damur Huang, who, after graduating from the Department of Textiles and Clothing at Fu Jen Catholic University, moved to Europe. In 2012, he settled in Berlin, where a multicultural environment continues to collide, interact, and merge into new forms. There, he expanded his perspective on clothing, culture, and everyday life.
He came to see the street as the ultimate cultural stage and a site where fusion and performance take place. Since the founding of the brand, he has taken High-End Streetwear as both inspiration and wardrobe positioning, defining the brand’s style as “debauched elegance.” With asymmetrical cuts, cut-outs, stretch fabrics, and designs that accentuate the body’s lines, #DAMUR emphasizes an attitude of dressing rooted in gender and bodily autonomy. Its designs not only break away from the conventional habits of binary-gender clothing, but also insist that the boundaries of bodily intimacy should be defined by the wearer. From this, each season’s clothing is created for free styling — pieces suited for “walking the streets by day and entering the party by night.”
#DAMUR — Brand Designer Shih-Shun Huang
Seeing the Physical and Mental Needs of Training Culture
Within this design context, every new #DAMUR collection presented at fashion week can be seen not only as a style performance that reflects the pulse of the times, but also as an exploration of the possible relationship between clothing and real life. Through runway presentations staged in unconventional spaces such as intersections, metro stations, yachts, repair warehouses, and nightclubs, audiences are able to more fully sense how these garments might exist within lived environments.
For AW26, #DAMUR has launched a collection centered on the concept of “Wellness / Training Culture,” based on observations of contemporary lifestyle trends. Huang points out that the atmosphere of today’s world feels relatively chaotic. “Streetwear has a very strong connection to ordinary people’s lives. Responding to the physical and mental needs of this era, the concept this time focuses on presenting the spirit of the ‘Mind Fighter.’”
“How to remove distractions, focus on a goal, and even calm yourself down quickly in order to find your own position — all of this requires training.”
— Designer Damur Huang
For #DAMUR’s AW26 season, with “Wellness / Training Culture” as its core concept, the team fully immersed itself in boxing and HYROX movement training during fittings and rehearsals, focusing on expressing the spirit of the “Mind Fighter.”
To present a more complete conceptual image, Huang once again moved beyond the conventional imagination of the runway, choosing UFC Gym Taiwan as the show venue for Taipei Fashion Week. Models were placed inside a real boxing training space, wearing this season’s designs as they entered the octagon and performed the show through actual athletic movements. Through this real setting, viewers could quickly and deeply grasp the collection’s concept through a range of details.
For this presentation, #DAMUR transformed UFC Gym into the runway for Taipei Fashion Week AW26, creating a dynamic and distinctive show experience. Photography by Danny Chiang @danny880103.
Huang believes that both boxing and HYROX, the indoor fitness sport currently gaining popularity around the world, reflect the genuine physical and mental needs of this era. “What is most interesting about these two forms of exercise is actually the process of training yourself — whether we can upgrade ourselves to the next level or fight one more round. That journey of persistence is in fact extremely lonely. But we all need this path in order to remove distractions and hear what truly matters most inside us.”
Speaking from his own experience, Huang shares that when he was younger, fitness may have been about pursuing a certain physical aesthetic. But as he accumulated life experience, he gradually realized that what training seeks is not necessarily that. “What matters more is tempering the mind through the process, finding balance between body and mind, or releasing stress.”
“For #DAMUR, fashion has never been merely a visual output, but a language directly connected to the state of the body.” — Designer Damur Huang
Photography by Shawn Sun @shawnsun.photography.
Fashion for Every Mind Fighter
From the muscles or sensual physique of athletes, what Huang sees is a process of persistence that can never be achieved overnight. He translates this imagery into the details of his clothing designs. This season, #DAMUR focuses on sports aesthetics, the potential of the body, and physical expression. In addition to using lightweight, skin-friendly, breathable stretch fabrics and cut-out designs to create looks that flatter the wearer’s figure, the brand also adds prints of human muscle lines to looser silhouettes.
The electrocardiogram waveform holds particular symbolic meaning for this season’s designs. Huang explains: “For every Mind Fighter, the most important thing is to understand your own condition so you can keep moving forward. During exercise, heart rate is an important indicator that helps us understand the state of our body. Expanded into everyday life, the heartbeat is the driving force that supports all of our actions. In terms of achieving goals, it is also a very important conceptual symbol.”
“When the body is placed in an environment where it needs to breathe, exert force, and withstand pressure, clothing truly begins to be experienced.” — Designer Damur Huang
From left to right: human muscle-line prints, electrocardiogram waveforms, and cut-out designs are all thoughtful design elements in this season’s #DAMUR collection. Photography by Shawn Sun @shawnsun.photography.
The concept of this collection is further echoed through the casting of models, reflecting #DAMUR’s long-standing support for LGBTQ equality. In addition to continuing to introduce styles that break away from binary-gender clothing conventions, Huang also moved away from relying solely on professional models for this show. Instead, he held an open casting before the presentation and selected an unconventional lineup, including Taiwanese national boxing twin athletes Wang Ching-Hsin and Wang Ching-Jung, national basketball player Wu Hsiao-Fan, and UFC Gym coaches.
He further explains: “Through differences in appearance, temperament, and body type, I wanted to present a diverse range of faces. Activities like boxing or HYROX should not be absolutely associated with masculine traits or the impression of being ‘strong-built.’ This impression has gradually faded in recent years. In fact, it is a form of dialogue with the self. In addition to professional athletes, we also had models who were not especially skilled at boxing, as well as slimmer male and female models. But you can still see their attitude toward pursuing the self and toward the act of fighting.”
#DAMUR’s model casting was also distinctive. This presentation, for example, included Taiwanese national boxing twin athletes Wang Ching-Hsin and Wang Ching-Jung.
Photography by Shawn Sun @shawnsun.photography.
Inviting Everyone to Co-create and Define Fashion Through a Party
When breaking down the brand’s DNA, Huang points out that “emotion” is a very important core value for #DAMUR. “I believe every design object must contain some kind of emotion. If an idea cannot bring out any feeling, then I think it is not good. I often tell interns that a design can be ugly, and you can hate my design, but at least it has stirred some feeling. The most frightening thing is when it evokes nothing at all.”
Fashion and clothing are, in fact, forms of experience. To make that sense of feeling more complete, #DAMUR has added an After Party segment after its runway presentations over the past two seasons. Through ticketed entry, everyone can take part in a style party derived from the season’s design theme. By participating in person and interpreting the Dress Code for themselves, audiences develop a deeper understanding and identification with the season’s concept through lived memory.
“Contemporary fashion has long been built upon viewing. #DAMUR AW26 attempts to break this structure — shifting fashion from something that is ‘seen’ to something that is ‘experienced.’ This is not merely a formal transformation, but a more fundamental question: when fashion is no longer only visual, is it still fashion?” — Designer Damur Huang
When the runway ends, the structure does not come to a close, but continues into the After Party. Huang also moves fluidly between the roles of designer, creative director, and DJ, allowing creation to extend beyond clothing itself into sound, space, and the body. Photo courtesy of #DAMUR.
“I don’t think a season’s concept should remain only within a 20- or 30-minute show. Through the form of a party, the brand can connect more deeply with audiences and its customer base. It is more like the result of co-creation. Through this kind of occasion, people can try, or be willing to wear, clothing that differs from what they usually choose. Within this experience, we feel, express, and inspire one another.”
Huang says that fashion designers can be seen as “spiritual magicians.” Amid the currents of fashion, they must sensitively perceive the pulse of society and offer their own perspectives and responses. As he puts it: “We grasp change and transform that understanding into clothing and the show space. What is presented there is the real emotion each of us holds toward life. And what fashion reflects is people’s longing for, and love of, life.”
▐ Interview & Text / Vivienne Lin
▐ Editor & Coordination / Irene Lin
▐ Interview Photography / Shouya Sung
About the Brand
#DAMUR
Founded in Berlin in 2015, #DAMUR is a genderless high-end streetwear brand connecting Berlin and Taipei. Through asymmetrical cuts, cut-out designs, and recycled fabrics, the brand shapes silhouettes and turns clothing into an attitude: work or walk the streets by day, party by night. #DAMUR advocates gender and bodily autonomy, asserting that boundaries should be defined by the self.
About the Designer
Damur Huang
Damur Huang is the founder and creative director of #DAMUR. After graduating from the Department of Textiles and Clothing at Fu Jen Catholic University, he continued his studies in Belgium and attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp and La Cambre. Based in Berlin, the brand has presented multiple collections and curated immersive fashion shows and large-scale live projects in Berlin, Taipei, and beyond in recent years. Its collaborators include Uber Eats, MSI, UFC Gym, Paul Mitchell, BVG, Jägermeister, NIO Deutschland, Adidas Deutschland, L’Oréal Paris, Häagen-Dazs, as well as ProSieben / Glow Up Deutschland and Carnival Catwalk.
● Brand Website: http://www.damur.fashion/
● Contact: huang@damurstudio.com