Yso

Siphay Southidara, better known under his professional name, Yso, is a fashion designer and artistic director. He puts together outfits with clothing and accessories in addition to creating design concepts for magazine editorials, ad campaigns and fashion shows. He is also a costume designer. Yso has been represented by the Folio agency in Montreal since 2010.

A native of Laos, Siphay Southidara earned a diploma in women’s fashion from Montreal’s Collège Marie-Victorin in 1994. After apprenticing with designer Marie Saint Pierre, he launched his own women’s clothing label in 1999 under the name Yso.

His ready-to-wear collections were sold by several retailers in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Halifax.

Yso also received clients in his atelier for custom orders. Designer Denis Gagnon worked for him back then, a relationship that was later reversed when Yso became a freelance designer in 2005 and Gagnon was a client from 2008 to 2012.

Over the course of his career, Yso has worked for magazines like Dress To Kill and ELLE Québec, as well as with theatre and dance companies like Sybillines, run by Brigitte Haentjens, and Fou glorieux, run by Louise Lecavalier. As of 2018, he was still working as an artistic director while preparing to launch PHAY, a new line of ready-to-wear clothing made of recycled material.