Milan Fashion Week was the main witness of XU ZHI’s beautiful merger mixing Chinese Sentiment with a touch of London. Xu Zhi is a London based Chinese fashion house founded in 2014.
This season took much of its inspiration from the conceptual art piece ‘The Visitors’ by Ragnar Kjartansson which shows a great contrast of vulnerability versus strength. Emotions, as it proves, can be translated into all media, and although they may appear to be falling apart, they are in fact held strongly together. Like ‘The Visitors’, Xu Zhi Autumn Winter 2017 collection is a play on the idea of individuals being physically apart but symbolically together – and the truth that as people we can be connected, whilst still being alone. Loose fitting wool and chiffon are teamed alongside intelligently deconstructed tailoring and lengths of raw denim, all creating a relaxed, subtly feminine silhouette. Exploring the studio technique of braiding yarn yet further from the previous season, the individual strands have been placed onto real hand-painted brushstroke templates in a gradient formation, as to create the illusion of the yarns being painted onto the garment. As well as making the pieces incredibly light, it has taken the concept of the house method to new heights of unique texture construction. – from Xu Zhi
See more than thirty new looks sent down the Milanese runway by the breakthrough designer after the jump:
All images courtesy of Xu Zhi