By Alonso Dominguez (City Weekend)
Updated: 2007-05-05 10:51

The decision of what to wear to a concert is always hard. There's the band's t-shirt from last year's tour, the outfit they wore in their last music video and, of course, the little number you secretly wear when listening to their album at home. The possibilities are endless and the pondering excruciating. Thankfully, this year, some of our (musical) fashion prayers have been answered in the form of eno, a limited edition apparel brand dedicated to nurturing urban trends through several artistic collaborations. Their latest project, enoise, is a line of t-shirts in which the musical and the artistic jive together. "eno will partner up a music band–foreign or local–with a specific designer or artist, and have them work together to create a design," says Alexis Yang, eno's public relations coordinator. "We're trying to give people an opportunity to express themselves through apparel; to create products that serve as canvas for China's diverse artistic influences."

For the first stage of enoise, the brand will present six collaborative, limited-edition t-shirts. The participating bands are scheduled to play in different venues around the city throughout the summer, and eno's intention is to link these concerts back to the enoise program as much as possible. "We're aiming to have live music in the store, or pre-concert parties, twice a month or so; all concert ticket holders would be invited to attend," says Yang.

The first enoise band scheduled to play in Shanghai will be Pretty Girls Make Graves, an American indie-rock band who will play at 4 Live on April 28 (see nightlife listings). The artist chosen to collaborate with this band is Guangzhou-based designer Popil, who creates illustrations for books, magazines and short animation movies on a regular basis, and is "the perfect match for Pretty Girls," assures Yang, since Popil is actually a big fan herself. "I love the band and especially their style. I like how they restore the old with a new punk-ish feel to it," expresses the local designer.

The limited edition t-shirts, which will be available through eno's physical and online stores, will launch in the first half of May. The buzz amongst the city's urban fashion community has already begun and rabid t-shirt ultra-fans are dying to get their hands on one of these tees.

eno's spring 2007 collection also features eno3/3, a program that runs parallel with enoise. eno3/3 is a collection that presents three kinds of design: The first, are designs created by eno's in-house design team; the second, is the product of collaboration with different artists and designers in China; and the third, is a process in which anyone and everyone gets the chance the become a designer. "We encourage regular people to submit their designs, and if chosen, they'll be sold in the store," says Yang.

The ability to re-invent the way we think about urban fashion is now a dear concept to Shanghai. And with artistic collaboration programs like enoise around, the only thing left is to "imagine, create, listen and wear."

Eno Shanghai Flagship Store
Location: No.139-23, Changlelu
Tel: 021- 63860120

What to expect

Enoise first collaborations will include:

Band: Pretty Girls Make Graves–Seattle indie band

Artist: Popil–Guangzhou based designer

Band: IGO–new wave electronic pop from Shanghai

Artist: James Chang–graduate graphic designer from the Pratt institute in New York.

Band :Antidote–Shanghai DJ group

Artist: B6–minimal techno DJ and designer

Band: F*ck n'd Rolls–Shanghai based garage rock band

Artist: Nial–Irish graphic designer based in Shanghai
Band: A Kiss Could be Deadly–LA-based band

Artist: Rubber Pixie–local artist

Band: No Name Band–punk band from Xian

Artist: 223–Guangzhou based artist; editor of 1656