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“Echos in the Fog” is the title Louis Shengtao Chen, Shanghai Fashion Week’s resident romantic, gave to his cinematic spring collection. Chen opted out of a runway presentation this season in favor of a film and lookbook. “I started knowing I was not going to do a show, so I didn’t have this huge mission of having a big presentation,” said the designer, explaining that the format switch-up altered his approach altogether. “In the past we had been looking at what kind of woman we are dressing in a sort of illusion [of a show], but developing this collection was a different mental state.”
It was introspection, really, that drove Chen this season. Like many of his generational counterparts, Chen is experiencing some growing pains. Let’s not forget that China’s economic landscape, and the world’s, has been challenging for designers in his position—young, independent, emerging—but Chen’s propensity for self-reflection was personal. The fog in question is a nod to his home city of Chongqing (“it’s a very foggy city, very gloomy”). As for the echoes, well, consider all the voices in your head, and around you, as you navigate your late 20s. The crux of Chen’s reflection, he said, is whether he’s leaving or staying. “It’s not only physical, it’s emotional, something beyond this brand,” he said.
Chen found inspiration for his video in another great Chinese romantic, the Sixth Generation-era filmmaker Lou Ye and his films Summer Palace and Suzhou River, which encapsulate the gritty urban life and youth culture of China in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. “Those movies are about girls who are struggling, who are figuring out if they are staying and hiding or running away.”
Something else Chen did differently this season, he said, was taking the time to make things like he did when he first started his collection, by hand and alone in his studio. The standout results were a series of “wig hats,” a corseted pannier, and a lace-up jacket all covered in a bouquet of handmade little flowers made out of cotton shirting and leftover georgette. He also produced a fantastic gown in an intricate 3D rendition of a classic argyle, which he flattened into a more commercial multilayered rendering of the same pattern for blouses.
He also experimented with jersey, creating a range of slinky frocks that rendered his signature draping style a little sexier and certainly more accessible, added denim to his mix, and expanded his ultrasuede story with a range of ’60s modish mini dresses accented with silk ribbons and creases (“otherwise it’s just too pretty”). This was Chen’s most successful outing since launching his brand, a polished intersection of his deft technical skill, madcap creativity, and honest commercial propositions.
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