Caroline Hu (Q4038)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Caroline Hu is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Caroline Hu |
Caroline Hu is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Backstage before her show, Caroline Hu said she wanted to create a little more space to dream. Her retort to the headlines is to build a fantastical world.“Up until now, I had been trying to build up protective space around me,” she explained. By contrast, this season she considered within a very small space. “It’s like dancing in my bedroom,” she said. “I always have a lot of things going on in my mind, so I wanted to use a small space to create the craziest things.”“I want more peace to try and build up a safe space,” she added, describing her inspirations in dramatic terms of love and death, joy and shadow, connection and reflection.Sartorially, such musings made her want to freeze moments in time, for example when a breeze buoys the folds of a skirt. Achieving such volume demands a whole lot of invisible engineering—the designer was adjusting wired hems, ballooning skirts and bows up until the second before models set foot on the runway. The effect was poetic and virtually weightless.One idea carried over from past collections was a pillowed silhouette, here in deep rose red or saturated blue. “I think of those like a canvas,” Hu offered. “When I have a new inspiration, I put sketches on top of that canvas, and then I can judge whether it's the right feeling.” Blurred prints, extrapolated from photos taken from her apartment window on a rainy day added to the moody romanticism.Hu mixed the classics, such as taffeta, printed silk organza, hand knits and jersey, with performance fabrics treated to look like taffeta. Her tableau-like smocking—for example on a baby pink number—was produced thanks to an ongoing collaboration with the French lace maker Sophie Hallette. A handmade ceramic pendant top came by way of a new partnership with phone case and electronic accessories maker Casetify. Her spin on the Adidas SL72 and Superstar sneakers will be on sale in just a couple of months.To emphasize movement, Hu tapped dancers Emma Portner—whose recent work includes collaborations withVogue, Apple, and Netflix—and Léo Handtschoewercker (who has modeled for several top houses) to perform an interpretive number. “I always try to find that moment, the one where light comes through the clouds,” said Hu.
27 September 2024
Caroline Hu showed a series of one-of-a-kind pieces in a dilapidated Paris apartment, whose dark, moody atmosphere somehow offset the lineup’s flamboyance, its intricate execution and the vibrancy of printed surfaces. Generous plays of draping and layering made every creation a fantastical, voluminous presence, each taking lots of space and attention. “It’s about relationships and keeping a distance,” said Hu rather cryptically.Hu starts every collection from her oil paintings, which capture personal feelings she then translates into textiles and patterns; shapes are fashioned directly on mannequins. This season the feeling was of struggling. “Lots is happening in the world now,” she said. “Politics, the economy, everything is harder, there’s darkness around me, so I wanted to create something to protect people from this darkness, creating a world of romance and fantasy, because life needs hope.”Colors were bright and saturated, with flashes of black as a counterpoint; smocked silk and tiered tulle, vintage crocheted lace and plastic lanyards, overlays of beaded and sequined silks were layered and draped into abstract, imaginative shapes—some lean and liquid, some billowy and airy, some bulky. A standout was a concoction of yards of black tulle suspended over a bulging crinoline made of inflatable pillows, printed in vivid hues of green and pink, then appliquéd with round-shaped sequined rosettes. Artsy and imaginative, Hu’s creations seemed born out of spontaneous, emotional gestures turned into beauty and fantasy.
2 March 2024
With her first official on-calendar PFW presentation, Caroline Hu made a case for requiring some space.Called “Reverie,” a short collection of 22 looks materialized the need for preserving a measure of personal distance, even from friends, family or lovers. That manifested in various ways, in layers of gauzy materials or theatrical pseudo-armor made of pillow-like shapes created using balloons encased in silky or lacy fabrics. Though some pieces were composed of as many as 40 elements, all were based on patterns in primary shapes—a square, a triangle or a circle.The “mind gap” pneumatics were for dramatic effect, of course. Once those dresses hit the racks, they will have assumed their intended forms: deceptively simple bias-cut gowns with pretty lace trim, column dresses veiled by a ghostly overdress, experimental fringed knits layered atop each other like an oil painting, and floral prints extrapolated from photographs taken through a cloudy glass.Elsewhere in this grand Haussmannian space, Hu continued exploring favorite themes, for example caging flowers between wisps of fabric, or taking traditional techniques and translating them into her own language. One white dress turned out to be made not of beading but of hand-crocheted plastic lanyards. That kind of sleight-of-hand—plus several covetable custom-ruffled Adidas Originals—makes Hu a compelling talent to watch.
27 September 2023
Caroline Hu describes her design philosophy, charmingly, as “creating a delicate path between romanticism and pandemonium.” Her aesthetic may manifest differently depending on geography and headspace, but finally being able to walk through the streets of Paris put her in a sentimental, sprung-free frame of mind. “It touched me more than I imagined when I saw falling leaves and petals,” the designer said during her presentation this week at the Galerie Hussenot in the Marais. “There's a sense that all will pass, yet everything will return.”In Shanghai, Hu and her team channeled that sense of release into poetic dresses with large, periwinkle blooms sandwiched between layers of pale beige tulle, or dark hand-crocheted buds strewn over a hot pink knit dress. Some pieces were shown under a cloche-like shell intricately woven from plastic lanyard thread. Those were more about artistry than practicality, but for Hu they represent an expression of hope. Though not immediately obvious, flowers also informed a column dress with a blurred abstract print developed from photographs many times enlarged; that was shown with a cloud-like shoulder piece spun from fishing line and flecks of fuchsia silk.Hu’s process is more painterly than designer-y: she admits to following her instinct without a specific end customer in mind. Regardless, she’s obviously doing something right: her romantic, and intricately hand-smocked, -pleated, and -draped pieces, styled here with combat boots, have lately caught the attention of clients in the US and the Middle East. Next season she’ll be joining the official PFW calendar. She has every reason to stick to her own path, and to be proud of herself.
5 March 2023
Even when they’re just hanging on a rack, there’s something wistful and touching about Caroline Hu’s clothes: hand-pleating as fine as the gills of a mushroom and intricate smocking, sometimes spliced with scraps of lace and other fabrics salvaged from the cutting table, carry an emotional charge, like they’re yearning for something. On one dress, a blurred print of birds in flight imparts all the nostalgia of a sepia-tone photo, though it’s not a photo at all. The designer, an artist and ceramist in her spare time, painted what she saw out the window from her bed in Shanghai during all those months stranded in lockdown.Hu said that her inspirations are always rooted in her emotions. For spring, sadness and the feeling of being let down after her last show, which featured a short and intense collaboration with dancers, were her baseline. ”We had tried to put together this beautiful story, and afterward I just felt a little sad because everyone went back to their normal life,” she explained. In her spring collection notes, she added: “As the tide of life, the stage welcomed a blank period. This is love.” That explains, in part, why part of a dress might be left unadorned, like a work in progress.Juggling two registers—with 21 couture pieces and about as many ready-to-wear looks—the designer transposed her paintings into prints for crop tops or dresses in delicately worked smocking. A more conceptual dress reprised a sculpture as wide, sinuous columns of densely sewn pleats. “I always try to redefine and figure out what might be artistic yet still commercial,” Hu said of a light top and skirt with no discernable seams. “And I’m always trying to make shapes with no traditional lines that will look great on the body. Fabric or ceramics are just different tools for me to express my artistic work.”Hu’s opinion on whether fashion is art may vary from one season to the next, but several industry players have already made up their minds: the French lacemaker Sophie Hallette regularly sends Hu stock overrun to use in her designs, and for spring Ugg invited Hu to romanticize its classic footwear. Wherever that leads, it will be worth following.
6 October 2022
There’s no mincing words when it comes to Caroline Hu’s inspiration for her balletic spring 2022 collection. The short, mournful poem “Two-Billion Light-Years of Solitude” by Japanese poet Shuntaro Tanikawa was one of her primary references. A translation of the middle stanzas of the short poem reads: “The universal force of gravity/ is the mutual attraction of loneliness // The universe is warped / That is why we are drawn to each other // The universe keeps on expanding / That is why we all feel anxious.” Sound familiar?Hu dwells on the sorrowful aspects of modern life with a resilient beauty. Presented in a dance performance choreographed and directed by Zhihao, her new lineup is one of her spriteliest and most whimsical yet. Speaking over a video call, she explained how the ongoing conversations with Zhihao led her to try out a new medium for her show as well as new modes of design. Because the garments are made to complement bodies in motion, tops and skirts are cropped. In light silks, they look like pearlescent little puffs—and they’re now available in a wider range of sizes to span the spectrum of bodies and genders.
26 October 2021
The fall 2021 season has been going on for about three months, and like any person who has given up the peppy rhythm of life for lockdown languishing, I have been crankily wondering: What is the point of all this? Then I talked to Caroline Hù. On a late-for-me, early-for-her video chat between Brooklyn and China, Hù echoed my sense of malaise. “Everything is about waiting,” she said. “Love, work, health…my mood is waiting.” But rather than sulk, Hù is keeping the flame of inspiration burning. “I just want to express something about myself,” she said. “There are no dreams in this collection. It’s all about me.” All about Caroline, in a way, is all about all of us: waiting, wondering, wanting.The potential for a garment to act as connective emotional tissue between two souls is rarely discussed. But such clothes are Hù’s expertise, and a 30-minute chat with her is enough to remind even the most jaded of us exactly why we must continue.Since her last collection of kerchiefs and doilies remade into lace dresses, Hù has moved on to painting, creating delicate floral works on canvas that inspired the moody, dripping florals in this outing. Her commitment to couture-grade craft has pushed her to make even more elaborate and delicate shirred and pleated pieces—mille-feuilles of tulle, chiffon, and silk. She reported that these high-priced, high-value dresses have been selling well, but she’s also thinking about those without deep pockets, ingeniously stitching up tie-on tops—almost like breastplates—that don’t compromise on beauty, but do compromise on cost. Her palette is as ethereal as ever, ranunculus stem green against peony pink, but she’s also introduced a wearable shade of brown as well.As we came to the end of our call, we had a brief chat about the past year, the future, and where we go next. “I think it’s been a good time for designers,” she said, reflecting on 2020. “To express yourself, you need time. You need to have a life.”
20 April 2021
Caroline Hu’s handmade smocked pieces have won her international acclaim. Still, as she explained from her new studio in Shanghai, “A lot of people and stores asked me when I would have a ready-to-wear collection; everyone was asking me when it would be more commercial.” Rather than compromise on her vision, Hu defined exactly what commercial and wearable look like in her world. Her spring 2021 collection repurposes kerchiefs, curtains, and tablecloths into beautiful blouson dresses, held together by jersey or elastic.During a video call between Shanghai and New York, Hu showcased the artistry behind her work. She has been collecting vintage lace materials and draping them—without cutting—on the model forms in her space. The results are the bulbous dresses that populate her spring 2021 collection: Napkins and collars hang from the body of dresses in shapes that look like bubbles or seashells. From the front her silhouettes seem properly demure, but many are backless or coyly hooked together by bra straps.During our call her assistant tried on several pieces, walking, swaying, and gesturing about the space. The effect was of a relatable beauty, one in step with our times. Who doesn’t want to feel this sense of wafty elegance —free, comfortable, unfazed by the world outside? For those averse to ivory, Hu also offers all her dresses, tops, and skirts in black.
19 October 2020