PRONOUNCE‘s Spring Summer 2025 collection, titled “The Wild, Wild Garden,” draws inspiration from Grace Chang‘s iconic role in the 1960 movie “The Wild, Wild Rose.” Known in Chinese as Ko Lan, Grace Chang was a celebrated Hong Kong actress and singer in the 1950s. This collection reimagines her persona in a contemporary, gender-fluid context, where the soul of her character travels to the present day, challenging conventional notions of love and relationships. The collection explores the antagonistic and romantic dynamics between Grace’s character and her lover, symbolizing the eternal conflict and passion inherent in love.
The collection’s narrative creates a story of a soul that once scorned love, now embodying a new, ambiguous gender. This soul, harboring a conqueror mentality, initially views love with skepticism and disdain. However, through a journey of self-discovery, it realizes that true wildness lies in the spirit of self-sacrifice. This duality—ruthlessness on the surface and profound sentiment beneath—defines the essence of “The Wild, Wild Garden.” The collection’s design language reflects this theme, with elements that convey both the destructiveness and the beauty of love.
Handmade textile patchwork with a sense of rupture, intentional exposure of skin, and three-dimensional winding ropes symbolize the chaotic and fragmented nature of love. Contemporary Chinese tunic suits made of threaded jersey material, alongside workwear-style and long proportion fringe-like skirts, reinterpret traditional Chinese garments. These pieces illustrate the complex, evolving nature of love relationships in 2024.
A standout feature of the collection is the revival of hand-woven insect craftsmanship from the 1980s and 1990s in China. This traditional Chinese folk handicraft, utilizing wild resources like cattail grass, corn husks, wheat straw, and tree sticks, is recreated by skilled artisans. The weaving of small insects and plants, requiring up to 500 hours of work, reveals the dedication and artistry involved in preserving these techniques.
MILANO FASHION WEEK
Upcycling and sustainability are central to PRONOUNCE, and this collection highlights clever weaving techniques that transform scrap fabric into beautiful, functional pieces. The use of vine elements made from recycled materials is prominent throughout the collection, creating a visual metaphor for the theme of “Wild Garden.” These handmade fabric linear vines, with their abstract language, add a layer of organic, natural beauty to the garments. Hidden within the collection are hand-woven representations of grapes, butterflies, grasshoppers, dragonflies, cicadas, and small crabs, adding a whimsical touch to the designs.
The collection’s emphasis on exposed skin is a metaphor for the ambiguous and evolving nature of relationships. By not requiring definitive results from these relationships, the focus shifts to the experience and journey of love itself. This philosophical approach to fashion mirrors the collection’s designs, celebrating the process of creation and the beauty found in imperfection and transience. See all the looks from the collection in the Gallery below:
