XuZhi

Born and raised in China, educated in London, working in New York – today’s young independent designers are global citizens, absorbing influences from different cultures and translating them into their own unique visual language. Xu Zhi is emblematic of this new wave of transnational designers, constantly travelling between London and his native China to seize the best of both places, cultures and lifestyles. Far from feeling misplaced or confused, the designer fully takes advantage of this duality, turning to the idiosyncrasies of the two countries as a means to constantly feed his creative vision.

We caught up with him soon after the launch of his second commercial collection.

I know that you were born in Shaoxing, China. Could you talk about your background? Do you think that where you grew up reflects on your designs?

Xu Zhi: My parents are from Shanghai and I was born in Shaoxing, but we moved to Shenzhen – near Hong Kong – soon after I was born, so I actually grew up there. It's a very modern city and I went to an international school. I always feel like I'm between modernity and history, which is what I saw in China when I grew up. Culture is in your blood, it is beautiful and it will certainly influence you. It becomes your memories, it becomes who you are. That is what influences me every single day.

How did you begin your career in fashion design? Was it something you have always been interested in?

Xu Zhi: I've been painting since I was very young, then I went to study art. It was always paintings, colours and prints that interested me the most. At Central Saint Martins we had a one-year Foundation course and we actually tried everything. That’s when I found my way designing fashion.

Do you still paint?

Xu Zhi: I think a lot of our designing is actually painting in a way, just with a different canvas. I work a lot with textures. For example, for my previous season I used a special braiding technique, embroidering braids into fabrics and garments, like brush strokes almost. To me that felt like a new way of painting. I really like to study textures and then use them as a tool to create proportions of colours.

When you moved from China, why did you choose London instead of Paris or New York?

Xu Zhi: It just came to me while I was in high school. When we were going through A levels, we had to research the way British students study art in high school. The British fashion and art scene seemed more vibrant, more exciting and more accessible in a way. It's very experimental, but also very grounded, and not intimidatingly out of reach. The young designers I looked up to at the time, such as Christopher Kane, seemed very approachable. In London everyone has a chance – if you work hard and create something, just put it on the street and people will pay attention to it. And if you're good enough you might make a difference.

Both your SS16 and AW16 collections were inspired by films, the first by Bruce Nauman’s “Art Make-up” and the latter by Michel Gondry’s “The Science of Sleep”. Is cinema one of your biggest sources of inspiration? And how do you think you translated the film into the collection?

Xu Zhi: I get inspired easily by stories, or by the sentiments behind the stories.“The Science of Sleep”, happened in between the two seasons. I had watched it a long time ago, but when I watched it again it just hit me. The story that I created for AW16 just came along. I always try to recreate the sentiment that inspired me the most into a fashion conversation. I think that is what interests me the most as a fashion designer, that fashion is a whole, not just a concept, not just a colour. The whole film is kind of bizarre and it doesn't actually have a story. The protagonist is constantly in between dreams and reality and that's what the whole collection is about. Charlotte Gainsbourg plays the main female character and she is extremely charming – she automatically became the muse for this project. I tried to recreate this whole world of ordinary French women, living in between dreams and reality. As a young designer, you're always trying to refine your craft to tell stories. Every single season is like a challenge. You get inspired and you try to tell the story differently and then, at the end of the season, you realise that something you wanted to tell didn't translate. So you work harder the next season.

When did you develop your braiding technique and why did you choose to use yarn?

Xu Zhi: In the beginning it was an experiment, we tried with a lot of different materials – chiffon, cotton, ribbon – but yarn was just more appropriate to bring out the fringe effect I used in the past collections. Yarn is not something that we will always use, although the technique will be. It's something that we spend a lot of time experimenting with and developing.

It could be a sort of trademark for your designs as well, making them recognisable at a glance.

Xu Zhi: Definitely yes! People will be like "Oh that's the weird texture that this person is doing, let's keep going back to buy those things!" It’s very interesting to us as well because it allows us to create a texture that is really subtle, but when you think about it and you look at it closely you know how much work went into it. That's why we like it so much!

You are just about to leave for China, where your production is based. How often do you go back? Do you follow production closely?

Xu Zhi: I only started my commercial collections in September and so far I’ve been back every six weeks to follow production. We are trying to train our own team, because we want them to understand what we do and to be able to help us in the most effective way in the long run.

How do your rhythm of work and your lifestyle change between when you work here and when you work in China?

Xu Zhi: It changes a lot! There are definitely differences in the working mentality, it's very interesting. In China we don't have weekends for instance – there is no concept of Sundays, so everyone is working. Even when I'm in London, I sometimes email people at 12am and I’m always chasing my suppliers and my clients. When I’m in Asia people actually reply to my emails, even at 12am. You never have a weekend off. Even Western people I deal with in China sometimes still reply saying "I'm having my weekend, I'm sorry. I'll reply to you on Monday." They feel like they have to explain themselves. It would never happen in London.

You told me that you are influenced by what you saw growing up in China, but what do you think you're taking from England and London in terms of inspiration and creative energy?

Xu Zhi: I think my entire design process is more related to what people do here. I think only 20% of what my design language is comes from Asia or Chinese culture. From research and development, to experiment and what I believe is contemporary, my entire vision and structure was built or influenced by the designers here. But my unique sentiment and identity come from China.

Do you follow Chinese fashion and Chinese designers based in China?

Xu Zhi: I definitely follow them quite closely. We are now starting to enter the Chinese market, which is actually our biggest. It has been developing really fast in the past few years. For example, if you look at the opportunities for Chinese designers in China five years ago they were way less compared to what we have today. There were less magazines, less independent magazines, less stores endorsing Chinese independent designers. Now big department stores such as Lane Crawford, where we’re stocked, try to work on projects that emphasise Chinese independent designers.

Have you ever thought about moving all of your production to China?

Xu Zhi: That's something that I have been thinking about as well, because resources are very accessible in China. It’s very tempting. But I think London also has its charm, and that's why we all end up here. When you move back and forth so frequently. You are always very aware of the disadvantages that both places have. I’m constantly reminding myself to not get into the bad things and just keep looking for the good ones. This excitement is maybe what pushes the brand ahead.

What are you planning for the brand and for yourself?

Xu Zhi: Myself? Actually I don't know, it's all about my brand. I really enjoy what I do right now and it's very rewarding A lot of people are to recognise our brand because of our braiding technique, but I think we haven't really shown people who our woman is yet. People look at our clothes and recognise them, but they don't recognise the woman behind them. I'm hoping that in the next year – with two new seasons – we will be able to reiterate our point of view so people will actually imagine a specific woman that would wear our designs. The challenge that we are facing right now is to define this woman.