The past has long been a source of inspiration for Shanghai-based designer Ziggy Chen, who previously explored the Song dynasty and the Roaring Twenties.
But his first runway show on the official Paris calendar called for something more personal, he said backstage through a translator. He cast his eye back to the ’80s, when his teenaged self discovered fashion as China opened following a period of isolationism during the Cultural Revolution.
He rooted the season in his fragmented memory of the time, particularly the way an older generation began blending European influences like check patterns and Western suiting.
Chen has a deft hand with patterns and proved it in the way he skewed trousers with pockets that ballooned out on one side and curved along the back of a hip on the other, or jackets with deep-cut collars.
Precisely executed, the proportions nodded to the designer’s interest in vintage clothing, particularly the way clothing warps through wear and time.
Worsted, nubbly textures evoked the architectural backdrop of Chen’s recollection, as did a color palette of grayish blues and mossy greens that evoked the humidity of the Jiangnan region that includes Shanghai.
The result was compelling and for those who didn’t yet have Chen on their radar, provided a crash course into the veteran designer’s universe.
