The shows are over. The manic two months that constitute fashion week season are drawing to a close, finally allowing the glossy posse of fashion editors, bloggers, designers and journalists to take a break from sprinting to shows across the globe in search of the next big trend.
Taking place twice a year in countless cities around the world – from Bangkok to Islamabad – fashion weeks expose local design to international audiences, often displaying fashion credentials unbeknown to most. And if the rest might lack the international heft of The Gang of Four - New York, London, Paris and Milan - some of them are rapidly catching up.
Shanghai and Beijing’s China Fashion Week (SFW and CFW) are case in point. That the two events may be still be in their infancy is no breaking news. Usually held a month after their more established contenders - this year’s CFW ended November 1 - the seven-days of shows exhibit quite a few shortcomings, from questionable line-ups and a jumble of happenings that have little to do with fashion to their messy scheduling. Late, and not fashionably enough for this fast-paced creative sector.
At the same time, however, both ventures have been slowly developing identities of their own – at times confusing, at times strikingly interesting – and show plenty of gifted forces at work in China’s fashion realm. In the piracy-friendly climate that often shapes the domestic market, the two Chinese fashion weeks have become stages for both industry insiders and the public to embrace the joy and artistry of dressing and taking risks.
Within their backdrop, a new breed of homegrown and internationally educated talent has been upping the country’s sartorial stakes, gradually reshaping Chinese fashion to the global eye – and oftentimes taking concepts to other, more international platforms.
This season, the Shanghai Fashion Designers Association and Chinese multi-brand designer retailer Dong Liang brought 11 Chinese designers to London fashion week. The initiative, called ‘Designed by Shanghai,’ took place at the Royal Opera House, and was the biggest of a series of China-focused events held during the seven-day event in the British metropolis.
Similarly, and not for the first time, a slew of bright, young Chinese things - most of whom live and create between China and the West - took their works to the catwalks of Europe’s top three fashion capitals. There is Qingdao-born Huishan Wang, Xiamen native Yifang Wan and former SFW participant Ping He in London, Beijinger Masha Ma in Paris and Shanghai designer Uma Wang in Milan – to name but a few.
We’ve rounded up some of the most noteworthy names that, over the last few seasons, have come out of our very own SFW and CFW. The list is far from complete, but, if you want to sort the wheat from the chaff to get a better understanding of China’s fashion innovators, this is a good place to start.
Chi Zhang
Known for the edgy elegance and avant-garde appeal of his menswear designs, Chi Zhang could aptly be named the ‘Dark Prince’ of Chinese fashion. The Beijing native left China at the age of 16 to study in the UK, later pursuing an MA in haute couture at Istituto Marangoni in Milan.
Zhang founded his eponymous label upon returning to China in 2008 and debuted at CFW in 2011. He has been turning heads among industry insiders ever since. This season, he showed at Seoul Fashion Week - evidence that his designs are fast catching the attention of fashion insiders beyond China.
Full of mystique and experimentalism, Zhang’s collections play with apocalyptic references, goth-inspirations and S&M. The results bring to mind a quirky Blade Runner meets Mad Max industrial style – think Swarovski-studded gas masks and asymmetric tailoring.
His works regularly grace fashion glossies, and Zhang himself has been repeatedly awarded the title of Designer of the Year by a number of publications. Chi Zhang’s designs aren’t for everyone, but they’re some of the most interesting currently coming out of China.
// www.zhang-chi.com
Simon Gao
Beijing-born Simon Gao is one of those people that just always seems to get it right. A well-traveled chap, the 32-year-old began studying abroad at the age of 15, first in Singapore, then in Switzerland and the New Zealand. He graduated in Fashion Branding Management from the Raffles-BCIT International Fashion College in Beijing and, in 2012, launched his line SIMONGAO.
The same year, his debuting show at Beijing’s CFW made him famous overnight, granting him participation in Paris Fashion Week last February and plenty of domestic and international attention. No wonder the upmarket Galeries Lafayette has just had him design a global limited edition collection for its soon-to-open Beijing venture, marking the first collaboration between the French department store and a Chinese designer.
Where Gao stands apart from the rest is in the quality of his collections. Constantly exploring the bond between masculine and feminine, the designer blends sculptural lines with high-tech fabrics for an aesthetic that is avant-garde without being gratuitously over-the-top and cleverly juxtaposes high and low culture.
// simon-gao.com
Chris Chang
A ‘veteran’ of China’s fashion industry, Chris Chang is a well-rounded fashion maven and entrepreneur. The Parsons School of Design graduate first started her own women’s wear line in Taipei and, after an eight-year stint as the General Manager of Prada Taiwan, headed to Shanghai to launch Poesia, a line of sophisticated kids’ couture for girls aged 4-14. The brand proved so popular among wealthy mamas that Chang soon branched into adult-size versions of her creations, launching Poesia by Chris Chang in 2009 and debuting at SFW on the same year.
Joyfully flamboyant, Chang’s style is humorous, witty and ever-so buoyant. Fascinated by insects – check out her website – but also by children's dolls, cartoon characters and birds, as well as her own Peruvian ancestry, her collections are injected with a sense of pageantry and high doses of fun. Mixing and matching patterns and materials, Poesia by Chris Chang is pure jet-set material yet maintains a colorful childlike touch that makes you smile – a faultless combo of fashion and style.
// poesiaworld.com
Ji Cheng
A leading influence on China’s fashion scene, award-winning Ji Cheng trained at Istituto Marangoni in Milan and has worked at Basic Krizia, Missoni Sport and D’A as designer and visual director. In 2002, she founded her eponymous label, La Vie by Ji Cheng, and has since participated in industry events and fashion weeks in China, Thailand and Singapore, as well as been featured as one of China’s most sought-after fashion designers in the 2006 New York Times documentary Growing China.
Having debuted at SFW in 2011, she has continued making waves across the industry on a global stage, with an Eastern-inspired catwalk debut in London in 2012. This season, she has opened SFW – an honor only reserved to the top of the crop.
Designing clothes that re-interpret forms and colors from traditional Chinese fashion using Western techniques, Cheng preaches a Zen aesthetic through balanced design: bound but moving, heavy but unoppressive, bright but unassuming. Her creations are simultaneously futuristic and referential to ancient Chinese beauty, and it’s this encounter of two worlds that raises her above the rest.
// www.lavie.com.cn
Helen Lee
Shanghai designer Helen Lee has been both witness and leader of China’s design development since its inception, making her one of the most interesting designers to come out of the local fashion pack. Having trained in China at a joint program conceived by Shanghai’s Donghua University and LaSalle College in Montreal, she spent three years honing her craft in Japan upon graduation.
Lee returned home in 2003, launched accessibly-priced brand insh and was invited to attend Shanghai’s first fashion week. In 2008, Lee evolved from insh’s youthful edge to a more sophisticated, chic look under her self-titled brand, Helen Lee - now one of SFW’s main focal points (Lee’s show closed last month’s event, which, like opening it, is a major moment for any designer).
With a higher-end positioning, advanced manufacturing techniques and luxury fabrics, the label Helen Lee offers a more mature approach to fashion. Lee has her eyes firmly focused on China’s past, present and future, and that shines through in her aesthetics, inspired by Chinese elements reimagined with new flair. Her stunning collections reflect Shanghai’s culture.
// www.helenleefashion.com
Qiu Hao
If we had to name a Chinese designer whose work is truly bringing creative avant-garde forward both domestically and internationally, Qiu Hao would be first on the list. Starting his first ready-to-wear line Neither Nor in 2001, Qiu went on to study Fashion Womenswear in Central Saint Martins in London and established his second line QIUHAO in 2006.
This namesake soon garnered enthusiastic praise worldwide, and has since been featured in major fashion publications both in China and abroad. In 2008, Qiu joined the ranks of Armani, D&G and Karl Lagerfeld when he was awarded the inaugural Woolmark Prize. Two years later, Forbes named him one of the 25 most influential individuals in the Chinese fashion industry and, most recently, he was nominated by WGSN for the “Breakthrough Designer Award.”
A real Chinese fashion hero, Qiu’s shows are some of the most anticipated events on the SFW calendar, perfect displays of conceptually-driven design and deconstructed fashion - all done through an aesthetic permeated by a subtle Chinese philosophy. His sculptural silhouettes are a wonder to behold, and so is his use of contrasting symbolisms.
// qiuhaoqiuhao.com
George Chen
China-born, US-educated George Chen is a graduate of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, where he developed a passion for clean lines and dapper menswear tailoring. In 2010, he started designing for Shanghai label threeSociety, of which he’s now Creative Director, broadening horizons for menswear made in China. The brand has just made its debut at SFW with a rave-worthy show held in collaboration with accessory brand Tendence – a jump that puts Chen at the forefront of China’s designers to watch.
Classic without being boring, threeSociety has shone since their launch for its strong emphasis on fabric quality, creative details and simple yet edgy masculine fits that blend opposite cultural aesthetics – think East meets West but in a sophisticated, devoid of clichés way. Injecting lively jolts of colors or forms to traditional constructions, Chen likes to play with diverse textures, ranging from leather trimming to silk printing, while staying true to a gracious approach to style. Most remarkably, his designs have a distinctly 'clean' feel to them, making its collections highly wearable samples of high-fashion.
// www.threesociety.com
0 User Comments