Xander Zhou took another risk this season, opting for a digital version, but that didn’t stop Beijing designers from starting Shanghai Fashion Week on the first night of the show. A favorite video premiered at System’s screening and party last season week, the city’s Fashion Week contingent’s favorite now-discontinued club space. This time, he relies on the same community (some other international friends) to make fun of his fall lineup on social media. Zhou shared a preview image of the lookbook with his friends, asking them to share it with them within two hours before he posted the photo himself.
Zhou explained that the idea behind this “interaction” is to allow people to explain his collection before it is released, so it will “use multiple versions online.” What he gained in his typical philosophical style is to ask our collective relationship through perception and how to change through technology. Zhou believes that perception is no longer limited by biological functions. From artificial intelligence to online information, and even things as simple as filters applied to photos on social media, it’s all helped and changed by everything. Does reality still exist when reality can be adjusted, reconstructed and recalibrated our whimsical?
The real Zhou seasonal scheduling includes a powerful research archive and his own metatheory. They are always for engaging, thought-provoking readings. The same and even more striking than his reflection on technology and the way it continues to influence our experiences in the world is Zhou’s tailoring plot. “From the beginning, I decided to create a collection of completely suits and I wanted to explore a system with a fixed structure and see how far I could drive changes within that framework,” he said.
Each unified extrapolation of Zhou starts with the same braided onesie, where he places carnival ready stud platform boots, military-inspired bands, and, ultimately, a stylish swagger through paper interpretations and a series of truly fantastic jackets. The stylish swing once again supports the dress, Zhou’s riff on men’s jackets is the funniest and latest of the season. What’s notable include the way he turns the lapel into a vampire collar with a navy single-breasted jacket, or how the closure on the other side is made up through pointed panels. He also moved the folding point of the lapel to his chest and secured it with a button, then applied the pocket of the hoodie to another outline. When it comes to 93 appearance, there must be a lot to parse. Zhou knows how to build momentum and keep his attention, but he can still do it with more rigorous editing.
He insisted: “I’m not trying to deconstruct the costumes, I’ve been asking myself how I can strip the reallocation function of these elements and give them a new, even undetermined purpose or form?” He finished this. Zhou is a rare designer whose tangible output is to his more conceptual speech. He has performed well this season. Hopefully next time he can return to the runway – Summer Fashion Week benefited from his figure.
