Huishan Zhang (Q4778)
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Huishan Zhang is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Huishan Zhang |
Huishan Zhang is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
“I’ve seen it many times,” noted Huishan Zhang ofBelle de Jour, the Saint Laurent-wardrobed, Luis Buñuel-directed 1967 film starring Catherine Deneuve that was his starting-point for pre-fall. Films form the backbone of Zhang’s collections: some seasons, he directly references palettes or prints, while other times, he captures a mood. In the case of pre-fall, it’s the latter. “I like to express my experience and feelings from a movie,” he said during a Zoom preview from China. “That’s something I always really enjoy doing.”The opener, a double-faced wool opera coat with a detachable embroidered collar, paired with the same fishnet tights and pointed-toe kitten heels that ground all the looks, epitomizes Huishan’s focus on daywear, which amplifies each season. Next up: a salmon-pink sequined dress embroidered with floral appliqué that gave a taste of the elaborate signatures that followed, which were rendered in guipure lace, layers of tulle, and all-over embellishments.A nod to the buttoned skirt-suit Deneuve wears in the film was faintly echoed in pre-fall’s matching separates––though, realized in taupe and hot pink as opposed to Deneuve’s crimson. Looks that leaned more “youthful” were styled with black or white ankle-length socks, including a cocoon-silhouette coat with black and gold jacquard details evocative of ’60s wallpaper.“The whole concept of building this woman’s complete wardrobe is an ambition for me,” Huishan explained. From now until early next year, his loyals will be able to see this vision at a pop-up at Selfridges in London. He’ll be back before his show in February––which will be a continuation of the ideas explored for pre-fall––so he’ll catch the tail-end.
13 December 2024
Huishan Zhang fully immersed himself in the work of Wong Kar Wai as he designed his spring 2025 collection. SpecificallyThe Hand—a short film from the director’s anthology,Eros—which details the relationship of a young tailor and his client.References were both direct and subtle. The most obvious was the finale look: a royal blue dress decorated with crystals, an interpretation of one in the film. Zhang broadly translated Wong’s cinematography with a new technique of threading printed plastic with organza, seen on a coat and two dresses, which made for an interesting textural departure from his signature crystal and beaded embellishments (both also featured heavily in the collection).Other material explorations included intricate sequined patterns, cast onto a long-sleeve top, a skirt, and a dress; angular salmon pink neoprene, to create a contrast for more delicate elements; and cotton-poplin adorned with crystal motifs. Tailoring has become a big part of the business, Zhang reveals—two Italian wool jackets with diamond necklines featured in the midsection—though dresses was the clear focus for spring. The cheongsam silhouette was Zhang’s “muse.” “I believe there’s an invisible cheongsam for every woman in the world; it protects them and empowers them,” he said, so details like high necklines and capped sleeves were morphed into new silhouettes.“I wanted to design a complete wardrobe for the woman, rather than focus on one area of her life,” he said before the show, held in a venue on Cavendish Square that reminded him of scenes from Wong’s work. Zhang achieved this resolve through his own lens: His version of a classic trench coat, complete with beads, would be a bold outerwear choice for daytime, and a cardigan–pencil-skirt combination (beaded too) would take wearing something beneath to become office appropriate. But that’s exactly the designer’s intention: “We want to give them day and night; day through to the evening.”
16 September 2024
Huishan Zhang loves a glamorous muse almost as much as he loves a good story. In Song Huai-Kuei—the late Chinese artist and socialite who was better known as Madame Song, a pivotal figure who introduced Pierre Cardin to China and brought European designers into the wardrobes of Chinese women when such a thing was unheard of—he found both.Song’s legacy was celebrated in an exhibition last year at Hong Kong’s M+ museum, and one of Zhang’s cheongsam dresses was included as part of a section on contemporary Chinese designers, leading him to base this resort collection on her influence. “In my imagination, if she were still alive today, she could become our client and I could make her dresses,” he said, speaking from Qingdao over a video call to his boutique in London’s Mount Street.Like modern-day Madame Songs, Huishan Zhang’s clients are international women who need to be able to move through the world with ease, demanding practical, elegant clothing that can take them from a shopping trip on the Champs Élysées or the Bund to dinner in Abu Dhabi.Pastel-colored separates come in lightweight neoprene (a Zhang staple) that will spring out of a suitcase with ease. Dresses are crafted from substantial denim, swishy scarlet tulle, or scattered with goose feathers to match the mood, while the über-neat tailoring sharpens things up. Nods to Song came through again in the floral embellishments and jeweled details that decorate lapels and dresses, which Zhang explained were inspired by Song’s extensive jewelry and brooch collection.It’s a feast to behold, and Zhang is wise to temper some of the more saccharine impulses. The asymmetrical half bows that belt some of the coats and dresses were a clever example: “We take the element [of a bow], but we don’t want to be too literal by actually putting a bow there,” he said.Still, however much the Zhang woman needs everyday staples to see her through life, the knockouts from the collection were the evening dresses embellished with cobwebs of crystals. You might think that the number of beads would weigh such a garment down, but Zhang thought of that too. “It’s actually very light,” he said. “We think about how she’s going to wear it and how it looks when she sits down, so we deliberately don’t [embellish] the back.” A detail that Song herself would have appreciated.
11 June 2024
Cinephile Huishan Zhang’s weakness for Hollywood romance is well established, but the designer has a taste for rivalry too. For fall, he was captivated by the seriously scandalous love affair between the Italian director Roberto Rossellini and the icy Swedish movie star Ingrid Bergman, which, uh, erupted on the volcanic-island set of the 1950 movieStromboli. Rossellini’s abandoned lover, the equally explosive Italian actor Anna Magnani, emptied a plate of pasta over his head when he denied the infidelity. She then made a rival movie on a neighboring island titledVolcano.It’s not hard to see why this clash of classic Nordic beauty and volatile Mediterranean charisma proved irresistible to Zhang. Thankfully, he resisted the impulse to literalize the tension by opting to turn out a perfectly pleasing collection that conformed to his precise, pretty vernacular. His A-list clients will love the Golden Age gown in a metallic-pink polyester he had specially developed with a Japanese supplier to hold its shape and shine just as much as his C-suite executive loyalists will opt for his recycled Japanese wool tailoring, several pieces of which were embroidered with sequins and tulle. There were options for the light-hearted party girl too in the sheer embroidered dresses layered over lightweight silver jacquard minis.If at times the collection lacked the bite of the love affair that prompted a US senator to denounce Bergman in a speech delivered in the Senate as “a powerful influence for evil,” well, you can hardly blame Zhang. As London Fashion Week celebrates its 40th birthday while at the same time conceding that the 2020s remain a stunningly inauspicious decade for independent designers, Zhang is the rare former NEWGEN-sponsored name whose business is in good health. Just this past month, his international team—which numbers 35 people in China and 10 in London—whipped up a last-minute, custom caped confection for the Oscar-nominated actor Lily Gladstone. It was one of the many successes they toasted at a raucous Chinese New Year celebration held in London earlier in the week. “There are lots of emotions woven into our dresses. It’s important to celebrate that,” Zhang said.
16 February 2024
Rather than fixating on a specific muse, as he has done in recent seasons, Huishan Zhang drew inspiration from ’90s coming-of-age films for his pre-fall collection. He explained during a preview, “I was looking at movies like Cruel Intentions and 10 Things I Hate About You, noticing that each character’s wardrobe reflected their personal growth.” The designer emphasized the significance of self-expression and his desire to explore the act of dressing for young individuals as they transition into adulthood, as well as the viewpoint of adults embracing a sense of youthfulness.While the designer showcased his versatility in crafting daytime pieces, his panache for elegant cocktail attire shone through. This was evident in denim sets embellished with crystals, sharply tailored broderie anglaise suits, and smart tweed jackets adorned with frayed edges and ornate buttons. Lightweight neoprene was crafted into a range of separates, including bolero jackets, tailored pants, and boned A-line dresses. Tulle dresses took the form of tiered polka dot gowns and mini dresses featuring floral embellishments and corset details at the bust.Zhang also paid homage to his Chinese heritage by incorporating cheongsam-inspired dresses, which were fashioned from silk satin in a variety of intricate cuts, showcasing couture-level piping and embroidery. There was an inherent lightness throughout the collection, accentuated by the choice of pastel hues, from baby blues to delicate pinks and lilacs.
19 December 2023
In the little more than 10 years since the Qingdao-born, London-based designer Huishan Zhang started his label, attitudes toward luxury craftsmanship have fundamentally shifted. Zhang established an atelier in his native city on China’s Yellow Sea coast in the early days of his brand, and he can still recall his first trip to Paris to meet with buyers, who admitted they admired his pretty, feminine clothes, but pronounced that their clients wouldn’t be interested in them when they learned where they were made. China wasn’t synonymous with savoir faire for a certain type of luxury customer.How times have changed. “You’re telling stories all the time, about where I am now, what I’ve experienced, and on the side I’m telling China’s story as well, about how we manufacture and how we put things together,” said Zhang, characteristically diplomatic and optimistic as he spoke backstage before his spring show. “Along the way, we have collected women who appreciate the thought we put into the garments. We’ve continuously had a cheongsam line [a permanent edit of dresses inspired by the traditional Chinese silhouette], which is a tribute to my own heritage; we use polished jade buttons. All these details go into this cultural project to actually emphasize what Made in China stands for.”Today’s show was a chance for Zhang to experiment with lightness and fluidity while turning out the carefully crafted, delicate eveningwear and sugary daywear he’s known for. Energized by a screening of Luca Guadagnino’sSuspiria, as well as by the striking movement of German choreographer and dancer Pina Bausch, he had raw emotion on the brain. “This season is about the woman who can so freely express herself,” he said. This manifested in supersoft silk jersey dresses in shades of ballet pink and black, in paillette dresses made to swing as they walked, in silk slip dresses trimmed with lace that had been hand-painted in Italy and hand-embroidered with beads and jewels in India (lace is shaping up to be a “thing” for spring).Building on the denim pieces he showed for fall, there was an emphasis, too, on daywear, a category that Zhang has been steadily expanding. White cotton shirts and pleated skirts trimmed with his signature sparkle opened the show, while louche suiting boasted added oomph thanks to trailing fringe at the jacket cuffs. (Zhang likes a trim, and many in the front row were wearing his tweed jackets frosted with pearls.
) One of the best looks paired a heavily embroidered princess skirt with a tailored black jacket, perhaps a little nod to NYFW’s styling tic last week of matching studious tailored blazers with frivolous miniskirts.Still, it was the evening dresses that delighted, particularly the two crocheted tulle tunics embellished with rhinestones and layered over long skirts that could have closed the show. Backstage, Zhang showed how the most sylphlike of pieces had been secured on a base of grosgrain ribbons or immaculately lined, with zippers covered with topstitching to ensure they sat perfectly flat. With other designers cutting corners, presumably in a bid to maintain margins, Zhang’s dedication to echoing the couture studio’spetites mainsmantra that the inside of a garment should look as beautiful as the outside is admirable—and will ensure his clients keep coming back for more loveliness.
15 September 2023
Huishan Zhang looks to cinema to influence his designs. In the case of this resort collection, the designer drew inspiration from Eileen Chang’sRed Rose, White Rose,a 1944 novella by one of the most prominent authors in modern Chinese literature. “I love starting a collection by referencing something romantic, and I think this particular story shares a beautiful way of depicting two different sides of a woman,” Zhang said in a preview. “The red represents fiery passion, whereas the white embodies a classic elegance. However, for me, it’s equally important to celebrate the entire spectrum that exists in between.”Rose-themed details can be found throughout the collection, from ornamental corsages on Lurex tweed jackets and V-neck shift dresses with soft velvet chain trimmings to an embroidered lace decorated with floral patterns that are then cut into trench coats and panniered midi-dresses. For even more ethereal impact, Zhang crafted mini-dresses shaped like roses using moiré. These delicate pieces featured wiring along its edges, allowing the wearer to mold the flower into their desired silhouette.Instead of the ostrich feathers he’s used in the past, Zhang experimented with other materials that maintain the brand’s ultrafeminine aesthetic, including tulle, sequins, and embroidered wrinkled satin. “Historically, people have been coming to us for our feathered pieces, so we wanted to push the boundaries of what else we could offer,” he said.Although the Huishan Zhang brand is known for glamorous evening wear, the designer remains determined to advance his daywear offerings. Through the incorporation of embellished denim, delicate cotton lace, and cashmere knitwear, Zhang demonstrated his ability to align everyday pieces with his luxurious language.
20 June 2023
While pre-fall was inspired by a single cinematic muse, Huishan Zhang shifted his attention to the overarching mood of Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘femme fatale’ for fall. “I wanted to discover my own way of bringing the Hitchcockian woman into the 21st century,” the designer said at a preview. “It’s about creating a fantasy character who’s as dangerously seductive as she is confident in her own self.”From crepe cocktail dresses in aubergine and maroon, to outerwear embellished with the brand's signature ostrich feathers, the designer presented a well-balanced selection of elegant pieces. A couple of couture-level dresses in black and pistachio tulle stood out. “I’m very proud of these dresses,” he asserted. “We hand-embroidered everything in our atelier for over a week—I love that they look and feel light, while being super intricate.”Other noteworthy moments included crinkled silk midi dresses that were overlaid with ruched black organza, as well as a set of gray denim pieces that were finished so precisely that they resembled structured wool on the runway. “We wanted the denim element to be a surprise, but the pieces needed to feel sophisticated and well-made enough to not appear randomly placed,” Zhang said.The designer, who’s had to be based in China for the past three years and hasn’t been able to attend his own live show, was especially thrilled to be back in London: “It feels fitting to have the show at The Londoner hotel—I can’t help but feel like it’s symbolic of my return to the city.”
18 February 2023
Huishan Zhang often dedicates his collections to the cinematic muses that inspire him. Pre-fall was an homage to the character Judy Barton, from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 psychological masterpieceVertigo, played by Kim Novak. “There are dualities to her personality, which I’m fascinated by—she’s elegant yet unravelling, dangerous yet vulnerable,” the designer said over Zoom from Qingdao. “I was struck by her complexities, and I wanted to create a wardrobe that represented her in our own way, without it being obvious.”Across the collection there were contrasts representative of Novak’s character. For instance, a crepe midi dress with jewel embellishments that featured billowing sleeves in tulle. A sultry V-neck was placed on tailored separates; it contrasted with ruched details. There was also a classic cotton drill trench in rust, a tribute to Novak’s distinguished white coat from the film. It opened at the back to reveal an unexpected cape adorned with the brand's trademark ostrich feathers.The rich color palette, and the lookbook shoot itself, were nods to the cinematic styles of Hitchcock. The hues used throughout ranged from jewel tones in aubergine and crimson to darker tones of navy and brown. “We decided to shoot at a mid-century house in Southern California, which aesthetically made sense for the references,” said Zhang. “The photographs were captured at dusk and at dawn for the precise kind of lighting that I had envisioned.”
14 January 2023
While London Fashion Week rumbled on despite the city’s somber mood, Huishan Zhang found himself in the peculiar situation of watching it all unfold from afar. Marooned in his studio in Qingdao because of strict Chinese quarantine rules, the designer reverted back to the dismal reality of two years ago. Still, he is looking forward.“I wanted to know how the clothes of my homeland would look in the future,” Zhang explained over Zoom. “And I didn’t want to wait to find out.” The always positive designer took the traditional Chinese cheongsam as his starting point and then catapulted it into 2046. Inspired by Wong Kar-wai’s sci-fi romance titled after the same year, as well as the AI thrillerEx Machina, the couture-obsessed Zhang proposed graphic silhouettes infused with the love and loss he felt when watching these films. In one case of avant-garde showmanship, the sequins were said to moonlight as microchips. For anyone watching, it was business as usual in his glossy world.The show, held at 180 the Strand, played out as per usual, with an international cast of size-zero models moonlighting as the Huishan Zhang woman who likes her uniform sharp with a side of embellishment. Next season looks bright—not least because of the retina-searing shades Zhang described as “electrifying”—but the designer, who will later broadcast his spring 2023 show at Shanghai Fashion Week, would do well to stick to his own signature Pantoned take on prim and proper.
17 September 2022
Huishan Zhang looked at a multitude of references for resort, but the 1950s Italian movie stars Silvana Mangano and Anna Magnani served as the initial inspiration. “There was a celebration of curves in women’s clothes throughout their rise to fame,” the Chinese-born designer asserted from his atelier in Qingdao. “I wanted to explore the exaggerated female form of this era’s nipped-in silhouette.” Whether by way of a full brocade skirt that’s panniered at the hip, or a corseted denim jacket with contrast stitching, the collection features cinched waistlines throughout.In contrast to the hyper-feminine silhouette, Zhang also took inspiration from the ’90s for its minimalist aesthetic and radical attitude. Even the imagery—lensed by Alice Neale amidst the morning sunshine of London’s swanky Mayfair district—aimed to emulate the mood of leaving a raucous after-after-party in the wee hours. Naturally, there are plenty of party-appropriate pieces, from a sensual wrap-around sequin mini-dress in jet black, to a pink pleated figure-hugging frock, and a powder blue crepe dress embellished with red hand-embroidered crystals.A standout piece, which feels refreshingly new for the brand, is a silk rendition of the classic MA-1 bomber jacket that features a cinched waist, dropped shoulders, and voluminous sleeves. This development of everyday outerwear feels like an area that Zhang could push further. “Overall, I wanted everything to be luxurious, but with key, down-to-earth items for daytime, as well,” he said.
28 June 2022
What would it look like if the younger generation were invited to Truman Capote’s legendary Black and White Ball now? It’s something Huishan Zhang, who has recently become obsessed with the style of American socialite Babe Paley, has been ruminating upon. While pouring over the rarefied uniforms of the Upper East Siders, he homed in on the few for whom “personal style becomes an art form,” he said. Zhang then took these exclusive fashion codes and shook them up.“I wanted to break through society’s rules by creating something really free and forming a new identity,” he said of his bold, Pantoned take on polished. His mini dresses, accordingly, looked like they had been repurposed from big fancy ball gowns and appropriated for dancing in today’s clubs, rather than the Grand Ballroom of the Plaza. Crystals and denim were frequently paired; ditto sequins and bralettes. The cacophony of hot pink babewear-cum-eveningwear looked riotous, yet refined.To realize his new haute mash-up, Zhang did his homework. He scrutinized couture techniques, particularly the construction of corsets, and then used them to “turn classic garments into modern shapes.” The diamanté-speckled sunflower-yellow bustier and jeans symbolized the new, edgier direction for the Huishan Zhang customer, who will be teaming her occasionwear with rectangular sunglasses next season. It would have been good to see the body-diverse client reflected in these unapologetically sassy looks.The show, set in a townhouse in the middle of Mayfair, was designed to emulate the intimate air of a salon. Zhang wanted his guests to be able to hear the swish of his clothes and to almost touch the detailing he has worked hard to finesse. “I’m so happy to come back to London Fashion Week for the first time in two years,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to host friends.” Now, where’s the party at?
19 February 2022
Huishan Zhang is arming his young clients with a wardrobe chock full of couture-inspired dresses for when the world truly opens up—bows at the ready. These are women out for a good time. Not only do they have a keen eye for haute detailing, which Zhang says he has been honing, they want an individual spin on their eveningwear. As such, pre-fall 2022 sees Zhang teaming feather-trimmed tweed dresses with combat boots, and confectionery tulle numbers with sporty latex headbands.“Clothing is inseparable from the wearer,” said Zhang, who is clearly feeding off of his customer’s enthusiasm for this new era of “mix and match” fashion. “She is channeling a new energy and creating a modern look of her own.”The future looks particularly bright for this decisive Zhang fan, with pops of lilac, blue, and yellow permeating the edit. Denim, too, brings a freshness to evening silhouettes, while crystal-flecked shirting is bolstered by several sweaters of the same sparkly ilk.The look book’s dramatic poses evoke the glamour of ’40s Hollywood—“one model looks like she is about to sing,” Zhang commented. Awards season is tentatively getting off the ground, and you can easily imagine celebrity stylists looking to this brand for dresses serving drama. Zhang, who is doubling-down on his craft, is out to make the most of that.
20 January 2022
Huishan Zhang sees his spring collection as a postcard to his customers. “It says, ‘We’re missing you; it’s been a hard time, but there’s always something to find beauty in.” It comes from Italy by way of China, where Zhang has been since his fall 2020 show—and specifically the palatial Villa Arconati.Models moonlighting as well-travelled women having quite the fabulous time at the 17th-century palace are this season’s protagonists. They are, of course, much like Zhang’s loyal clients, the ones who demanded fashion frippery despite having little to RSVP to during the pandemic. “Huishan Zhang women all have a power and an elegance inside them; they love luxury, craftsmanship, and originality—and they really enjoy life,” shared the Dior-trained designer.The new collection fizzes with this positivity. From the intense color palette —a cacophony of tangerine, fuchsia, apple green, orchid pink, and lapis blue—to his usual sprays of levity inducing marabou feathers, this was, as Zhang said, fashion “to feel the vibe” in.But while much of the collection reads like the usual Huishan Zhang headlines, he also used the pandemic to double down on casual pieces to mix and match with his glossy eveningwear, like tees and T-shirt dresses laced with crystal jewelry and embroidered shirting and beribboned jackets.These new-look separates might not win him a different audience, but for the women who share his “impulse for beauty,” there was much to delight in. As Zhang asserted, “An evening dress is not only an evening dress; it represents the hope of a brighter future.” You can’t argue with this happy-making strategy.
21 September 2021
There were almost as many empty chairs as there were marabou feathers at this morning’s Huishan Zhang show. Even once the standing queue had been seated, then the PR team, it was way under capacity. It’s not difficult to develop a theory as to why so many invited and expected guests did not show up. To err on the side of caution during a global health scare is fair enough, but to no-show without letting the designer’s team know is to err on the side of rudeness.But whatever. Even if served to a dwindled audience, Zhang’s classically trained recipe for (relatively) affordable couture-ish day-and eveningwear was delivered with typical deftness: a lot of oversize double shoulders; probably an overemphasis on sequins; some good-looking oversize Chanel-style coats that emitted a workwear vibe and would work well with jeans; an abundance of tulle-skirted and -sleeved, silk-bodied, single-color dresses; and a great many of the aforementioned feathers, each dyed at the tip.A green sheath dress saw lace layered over tulle. One strong frock in an autumn heather russet wool was a reminder—after member of Parliament Tracey Brabin sparked both prudishness and prurience when she showed hers during a debate recently—of the power of a bared shoulder. A ruched Lurex bodysuit in black bared nothing while suggesting all, and you could discern from the fishnets that Zhang was looking to emanate a jolt ofooh la la. The result?Comme ci, comme ça.
17 February 2020
Apologies to Huishan Zhang for the lateness of this review, however when it’s a pre-fall squeezed into menswear done via a phone call from China as you look at the stuff in London but are thinking that you might just miss your flight to Florence, it just all slips to the bottom of the must-do’s. Appropriately, however, these clothes are timeless and worth investing in.Zhang’s Dior-honed eye and domestic production operation have combined to make a label that is pushing out powerfully feminine trend-transcending pieces that are priced extremely tantalizingly.Down the line Zhang talked about refining his brand, focusing on the reasons behind his embellishment, nodding to elements of 1990s minimalism, tweaking his volumes, and reassessingle bon ton. Dip-dyed feathers and a new diversion into denim were fresh for a designer who riffs on the old with a fresh-but-cultured eye.
29 January 2020
Mixing the fruits of his education at Dior Haute Couture with the design language of his cultural heritage seems like a canny strategy for Huishan Zhang, a designer who is well positioned to exploit the growing enthusiasm of Chinese luxury consumers to buy homegrown products.At this show Zhang returned to a signature Chinese garment on which he has worked before, the cheongsam, to incorporate its architecture in sleekly cut minidresses, jackets in floral jacquards, and a marabou-fringed pajama suit. Cheongsam apart, this collection was marked by its abundance of dresses clad in tiers of ruffles whose edges were set with tiny pearlescent beads. They also edged the wedding veils worn with some of the looks. The beads made for an engaging delineation, and even when variations of the trick were repeated again and again and again, the visual message Zhang was stressing was easy on the eye. Attractive asides included a long unbeaded ruffle dress in heavy black silk and a high split-skirted marabou evening dress in black.
17 September 2019
Huishan Zhang gravitates towards a certain type of throwback sophisticate for inspiration: the Zeldas, Ginevras, and Hadleys of the world. This season, the designer was pondering what it meant for women of bygone high-society eras to make a lasting impression with their style. He found himself revisiting his own archive in his research, specifically the textiles with which he first made his mark. Using his signature east-meets-west shapes as a blueprint, Zhang reworked the black and red lace that appeared in his debut collection. Patchworked with graphic windowpanes of that pretty lace, the empire-line mini and maxi chiffon dresses proved that upcycling can work just as nicely on the red carpet as anywhere else—and that’s bound to be music to the ears of Zhang’s high-profile clientele, such as Gemma Chan, Naomi Campbell, and the like.Zhang isn’t the kind to reinvent the wheel each season; instead, he gently evolves his familiar monochromatic looks with texture and color. That said, he has shifted his design process to better align with the transitional nature of Resort, like many of his peers in London and New York. To wit, there will be a good number of his trademark pleated trench coats in weighty tweeds and wool for sale in his salon-style boutique on Mount Street come November.
11 June 2019
“All night long I’ve had the most terrible impulse to do something.” “Oh, never resist an impulse, Sabrina, especially if it’s terrible.”Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart’s back-and-forth inSabrinaprefaced this collection and, in turn, inspired a most terrible impulse: that is to declare that while Huishan Zhang is a borderline shameless miner of Euro-couture designers past, he does it terribly well. From the Chanel vintage bouclé to the up-to-the-minute super-volumized Valentino (via Dior) references, Zhang knows his onions. We can just look on and weep.And yet he’s not an entirely empty copyist. The asymmetric peplum effect belting leant heavily upon at the start of this show breathed a gasp of life into seen-it-all-before shapes. It was fun to apply a quilting effect in crystal to dresses so tiered they seemed tantamount to breakdown. Stringing pearls around a right ankle rather than the neck had a similar spirit.The clearly enthusiastic clientele here was evidence that Zhang has found a niche. He does his thing excellently. What it lacks is any spark of progress—a building upon and addition to the language—but maybe that just doesn’t matter to the bottom line. But he should seek that spark nonetheless.
18 February 2019
“I took the idea of autumn and thought about what it means in terms of color and emotion,” said Huishan Zhang of his Pre-Fall collection. The designer, who divides his time between London and his native China, has been making regular pilgrimages to the English countryside, and it’s that pastoral region that came through in these looks. Zhang had a still life by early 20th-century British painter Ivon Hitchens in his mind’s eye when it came to bronzed, khaki, and crimson designs with recurring motifs like pearls, deconstructed trenches, and tweeds. “The painting reminds me of visiting friends in the Cotswolds,” he said of the 1932 canvas,Autumn Composition, Flowers on a Table. “I love that idea of bringing the rural world back to your city apartment.”Zhang meditated on the naturalistic mood with a series of exquisite fabrications: There was a fine, pale tulle with gold cord embroidery, a jet-black velvet floral moire, and tweeds that magically morphed into lace. Everything had a softness to it; even the trenches and shirting was embellished with ruffles running from wrist to wrist and along the backs of garments in pretty sweeps. “I wanted to call to mind the warmth of the harvest, that feeling when you’ve absorbed so much sun throughout the summer,” he said. “I see that time of year as a new beginning.”Zhang is set to celebrate the Chinese New Year with his family in the countryside for the first time in six years. “It’s a very good omen,” he said of the incoming Year of the Pig. “The pig represents harmony and calm.” We can but dream—and these are certainly clothes for dreamers.
1 February 2019
Held in the Sackler Galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts, this Huishan Zhang show was a Spring exhibition in which he played creative partner to the artist Vivien Zhang. Sadly there was no time to hang around afterwards and determine whether the two are related but, either way, there was a discernible rapport between the prints Zhang H. incorporated from the work of Zhang V.The designer began by placing a series of semi-sheer plissé separates in saccharine hues sometimes accented with ostrich-feather detailing over ’50s-cut underwear printed with the artist’s fossil-like symbols. He then veered towards Prom Night/Deb’s Delight via a series of gowns of the full-skirted and whoosh-y variety in recipes of organza and silk that were sometimes grounded via blessedly straightforward sneakers.There was a trompe l’oeil story being told via suits with false pockets and lapels accentuated in pearl, and a discernible attempt to mediate a balance between lightness and form in his socialite-friendly, quiveringly meringue-skirted mega gowns. A long feathered dress interestingly reduced the density of the feathers from top to bottom as the intensity of the colors they were dyed in increased.Zhang is neither a cutting-edge designer nor an earth-shaking revolutionary. However he does plough his fruitful field of the well heeled with all the dedication and attention they deserve. This was absolutely appropriate opening-of-an-envelope wear, articulated with skill and care.
17 September 2018
Huishan Zhang leads something of a double life. Half the year the Dior couture–trained designer lives in London, within easy reach of his Mount Street flagship, and the remainder he spends in his native China, where he’s just completed a major overhaul of his Qingdao atelier. It’s all part of his grand plan to seamlessly unify his dual operations and to forge ahead in an increasingly nuanced Asian fashion market. However jet-lagged he gets from the constant shuttling between the cities, Zhang is also creatively fueled by his dual existence. This duplicity came to the fore in a Resort collection that was by turns pretty and practical. At its heart was a capsule print depicting the ingredients of a love potion, pulled from an ancient Chinese medicine book. Dang gui, believed to amp up fertility, and the red ginseng flower were delicately drawn onto a sinuous series of silk dresses and trenches. As ever with Zhang, it was the feminine detailing that made these pale-hued looks sing. Hems were studded with pearls or zigzag stitching, fabrics were perforated, and intricate printed pleats were interspersed with lace. “The whole idea is that the inside is as beautiful as the outside,” said Zhang as he revealed the impeccable interior of a pink pleated shirtdress.Then came the practicality. “It all fits into two suitcases,” declared the designer proudly of the 80 looks, which placed an emphasis on light, wrinkle-free fabrications. Everything here had been conceived to be as versatile and hardworking as possible. So a short shift hemmed with ostrich feathers and inscribed with contrast zigzag stitches can be worn with matching trousers by day or alone as a vampy minidress after hours. There were lots of adaptable components, too: A khaki jacket comes with a detachable peplum, and tailored blazers with removable feathery cuffs. Zhang’s play on denim saw a stretchy white iteration in an accordion pleat contrast printed with deep blue for a vivid concertina effect. This focus on daywear will be welcomed by Zhang’s most loyal customers, though the standout moments were when he allowed his romanticism to let rip, unfettered by functionality.
26 June 2018
In a fashion moment thronged with bankruptingly-priced Barthesian hoodies, hundred-buck tube socks and ironically scuffed month's-rent Asics-like sneakers, it remains probable that a woman might sometimes want to drop four figures on a dress that looks like it: in this regard Huishan Zhang delivers. The designer said tonight’s collection was inspired by the “dark romance” of Wong Kar-wai’s oeuvre – and there was certainly plenty of darkness and provocation in the high-shine leather and Swarovski-etched mesh dresses. There was also overt luxury in the richness of Zhang’s embroideries and the heaped fringes of pearlescent beads that lined hems and ran in jostling, rustling chevrons from shoulder to chest. Plain silk suiting played against iridescent dipped rainbow sequin and spray-colored floral lace evening dresses in a collection that it would be fruitless to over-intellectualize.Sure, both Dior and Chanel sometimes had inspirational cameo roles at least as marked as Kar-wai’s – as did the Cheongsam, whose neckline in Swarovski mesh was the recurring motif of this collection. Sometimes – notably in looks that layered a one-shouldered silk external boob-tube hung with pearls over fil coupe ornament – Zhang’s garments looked double-wrapped andde trop: but that’s subjective. What’s not is that this designer has found a client-base that responds to his particular brand of finely applied lushness. Many of them attended this show, and seemed enraptured – the buyers that were seated alongside them should expect more four-figure goodness come delivery o’clock.
18 February 2018
Does fashion have the transformative strength to mend a broken heart? That was the question posed by Huishan Zhang with his darkly romantic Pre-Fall collection. Just as his newly opened London store, designed by Fran Hickman, explores ideas of equilibrium between East and West, and light and dark, so too do these heady, atmospheric clothes seem to suggest that you can’t have the purity of love without the corresponding darkness of heartbreak and betrayal.A focus on the fragility of romance is not new in the work of the rising Chinese designer, who caters to ready-to-wear, demi-couture, and couture customers, but this season it brought a twilit mood even to the frothiest of red carpet confections. It’s little wonder the palette was so inky and iridescent: Zhang has been immersing himself in the cinematic world of film noir, and fell too for the 1960 French-Italian filmPurple Noon,which is loosely based on Patricia Highsmith’s twisted tale of obsession, The Talented Mr. Ripley.But even when things fall apart emotionally, the Zhang woman is not one to let herself go. “She’s going through a heartbreak, but she still looks very elegant,” he said from his atelier, which is in the throes of a major renovation. “This is a woman who is being reborn after a relationship breakup.”Zhang explored these emotional highs and lows with textural clothes that juxtapose soft silks and ostrich feathers with tough—and now completely vegan—leathers. “I don’t normally mix and match materials,” he explained. “It’s been interesting to see how fabrics work together when they are technically very different.” These experiments gave rise to some exquisite looks: tweed trenches cut with silk panels and sleeves; fitted tweed jackets with shearling peplums; and a deliciously vampy vegan leather coat with a dainty Chinese lace hem. One thing is clear: The power of these pretty pieces is not to be underestimated.
16 January 2018
For whom is Huishan Zhang designing? That’s not a rhetorical question. One of the difficulties of engaging with Zhang’s collections is that it’s hard to picture the woman he sees in his clothes. You catch certain qualities—she’s classically feminine in the way she dresses, a little quirky, extremely fond of embellishment—but not a lifestyle or a point of view. Zhang, as a designer, is completely nonpsychological. That’s why his collections tend to fall flat, despite all their flair. This season, for instance, it was really hard to envision the person who was looking for a pearl-embroidered, ruffle-trimmed red metallic knit hoodie, a scallop-detailed trenchcoat, and a flounced floral brocade shift with peekaboo openings. The pieces were consistent in their cheer and their decorated-ness, but they didn’t string together to tell a coherent, meaningful story.According to Zhang, the story he wanted to tell was about the 1960s—to take the mod mood and give it a contemporary spin. His instincts about how to extrapolate that concept were often good ones: There was some nice work with the plastic paillettes, and Zhang was onto something with his bright, maximal graphics (though the look lost force as it was prettified). And the free-spirited, on-the-go attitude of the mod woman does probably translate, today, into the sporty elements that were sprinkled lightly through the collection. But then Zhang loses you again by, say, putting a whole bunch of feathers on a pair of shorts. Who is this woman? It’s hard to believe she’s been glimpsed anywhere other than on Instagram, the place reality-in-fashion goes to die.
19 September 2017
Many designers pay tribute to Resort’s beginnings as a market devoted to travelers, but this season, Huishan Zhang looked to the practicalities of international jet-setting rather than its decadence. By focusing his latest collection on day-to-night essentials made for packing, Zhang aimed to create a wardrobe for those women who jaunt regularly between continents and live chicly from their suitcases.Translating the detail-filled prettiness of his look into something that could be folded into a carry-on wasn’t easy, but the shift began with fabrics. From crinkle-free silks and pleated khaki to cotton covered in eyelet embroidery, the materials were an essential part of the collection’s visual interest and wrinkle-free appeal. Zhang kept the silhouettes ’60s-influenced and played with variations of mod wardrobe standards like cut-out-laden minidresses, patterned jumpsuits, and cocoon-shaped outerwear. Though functional pieces such as reversible bomber jackets and day dresses will likely prove the most useful, Zhang wasn’t ready to give up the impractical. With a marabou trenchcoat and a petal pink floral appliqué–covered gown, he indulged his playful side and customers who’ve come to expect his flights of fancy.
6 June 2017
Huishan Zhang likes to make pretty clothes. On the evidence of his show this afternoon, the China-born designer also feels a certain obligation to complicate his prettiness, notably by means of unexpected embellishments and fabrications. That's a fine instinct — indeed, a correct one — but Zhang's way of complicating his clothes has a certain missing-the-forest-for-the-trees quality. As this collection reaffirmed, he tends to complicate by adding quirk, rather than by subverting his looks’s ultra-femininity or charging them with emotional content. If Zhang is going to evolve into a more noteworthy designer, he has to learn how to do the latter.That said, if you're in the market for a pretty frock, as many women are, Zhang’s latest outing offered quite a few to choose from. His tiered dresses of blocked grayscale check covered with lace had a nice geometric edge to them, which cut the treacle. Elsewhere, simple red and pale pink sheaths trimmed with pearls offered a sexier, more sophisticated tone. An organza trench in a bold painted print had an eccentric appeal, as did Zhang’s tailored looks in a graphic black-and-white floral. Zhang would have done well to hew closer to these few themes. This collection had too many ideas that didn’t fully cohere. Some of them, like the much-reiterated pearl motif and eyelash fringe embroideries, were a carryover from last season; others struck out for a futuristic vibe that seemed entirely out of place.Overall, this was a very polished collection — one that periodically seemed to promise more than it ultimately delivered. Zhang is on the cusp of finding his own distinctive voice as a designer, and a sustaining raison d'être for his brand. But to achieve that, he needs to think deeper, and then focus.
20 February 2017
Judging by this dreamy Pre-Fall ’17 collection,Huishan Zhangis still on a saccharine high after making his runway debut at London Fashion Week last September. There’s certainly a growing appetite for his youthful brand of ethereality, which is all ruffles, lace, and fondant dresses. Thanks to new stockists like MatchesFashion.com, the line is becoming as international as the designer himself—Zhang currently splits his time between London, where he studied at Central Saint Martins, and his 20-strong atelier in his hometown of Qingdao, China. There was plenty of polish among his 50-odd looks, which he called “elegant yet ethereal,” evidence perhaps of his time at the Dior couture studio.Zhang’s reference point for this collection was, he said the “nostalgia of the French bohemia.” He spent the summer traveling around the rural provinces of Europe, and was later charmed by French films, notably 2000’sChocolat. It was the warm, autumnal patina of that picture that most impressed the designer. This came through in a series of peasanty, polka-dot dresses and separates in a palette of moss, berry, and muted pink which wouldn’t look amiss on that film’s coquettish star, Juliette Binoche.The mood elsewhere was a little more urban. Touches of ingenuity came in the accordion-pleated khaki trench coats, and flares, which were a masculine counterpoint to all the femininity. Still, Zhang couldn’t resist skirting a neat little khaki jacket with white feathers (as anyone who caught his Spring 2017 show knows, helovesplumage). That tough fabric sang when embellished with oxblood sequins, which pooled together in a kind of camouflage on trenches and pants, and were layered onto dresses with meshed floral fabrication.There were a few firsts for Zhang here, too. Neoprene cropped up on tangerine cape coats and simple silhouette two-pieces. He also introduced knits with a series of pearl encrusted flares, and tube skirts, which were paired with ’50s cardigans, each stitched with a woman’s hand clasping a single pearl—apparently this speaks of eternal love. That symbol came off best on a black bomber with big pearl buttons. It was a good accompaniment to all those frothy dresses, which will hit stores in time for Valentine’s Day.
19 January 2017
With his runway show staged today,Huishan Zhangfelt exuberant—and proud. His namesake label, now more than five years old, has only recently caught on with a wider audience, thanks largely in part to retailing through Moda Operandi and at Bergdorf Goodman in New York.With that pride, the Chinese-born designer referenced Pan Yuliang—one of China’s first contemporary female painters. “She was a survivor and she was so committed,” Zhang emphasized (many of Zhang’s pieces are made by hand in the country). The artist drew headlines by rendering nude female forms; Zhang interpreted Pan Yuliang’s bodies physically, as pearl-embroidered outlines on dresses.Otherwise, Zhang showed a range of less literal looks, all with a demi-couture focus on workmanship and fanciness. The palette ran from black to pastel—perhaps with too much variance. A more controlled presentation would’ve been more compelling. Yet even so, there were moments of utter prettiness in Zhang’s vision: a banded lace coat in sky blue and lime green topped with PVC pailettes springs to mind.
20 September 2016
Huishan Zhangis going places. Just last month, the London-based designer with the 4-year-old self-titled brand was named one of the winners of the BFC Fashion Trust prize. His workshop in Qingdao, China, now employs 49 people. Building on his hometown’s long tradition of lace-making, he’s developed compelling new ways of handling the material, with technical and pre-waxed treatments that tone down prissiness in favor of a more urban attitude. Worked into a 3-D coat, it’s as pretty as traditional lace, but feels modern—and it travels better.To that point, Zhang’s Resort collection is called Voyageur and features clothes—lots of dresses, and more separates—that will cater to his society clientele’s lifestyle, for example, with a vertically striped black-and-white lace top that weighs nothing, won’t wrinkle, and lends itself to dressing up or down. His popular knife-pleated sheer trousers returned this season with pewter-like metallic lace. Daywear and day-to-night is a new emphasis, notably with more playful pieces in denim; wide trousers embroidered with silk thread flowers or a crisp jacket and flares embroidered with leaves, branches, and flowers in seed pearls looked like a nod to his country of origin. Elsewhere, a sandy fringed linen top with lacelike embroidery was a winner.Not that his party girls will feel at a loss. Between a flash of plastic discs over a lace dress and silver sequin stars on a black gown (plus shirred ribbon trim that reprises the symbol for the yuan), there was plenty that was shimmery, shiny, and sheer happening here. But most of all, this season Zhang seems to have pulled off one of the hardest tricks any designer faces: While staying true to his roots, he’s making a place for himself not as a “Chinese designer,” but as an international one.
30 June 2016
During his Fall presentation at the Connaught hotel in London, Huishan Zhang said something very interesting: “I’m looking differently at something that’s around me all the time.”In a way, his phrase was a succinct descriptor of fashion’s current preoccupation with reinvention: at Gucci, with playing dress-up; at Vetements, with streetwear; and overall, with how to fix the “broken system.” No one is necessarily trying anything brand-new (unless you count the shop-now-buy-now concept), but rather people are casting fresh eyes and blank sketchpads over what we all know so well: this entity called fashion. Zhang didn’t say it with that much of an umbrella intention, but it resonated.What the designer was referring to was his view of China, where he keeps an atelier in Qingdao, his hometown, located on the coast between Shanghai and Beijing. (Everything in his collection is made at the workshop, though the brand is based in London.) For Fall, he reinterpreted a commonplace Chinese pattern—a sort of micro-floral tapestry, the country’s equivalent to, say, red-and-white picnic checks in America—into uptown eveningwear. The best example of it was a cropped, oversize-sleeve top with a matching ankle-length skirt in baby-girl pink, embroidered with the rainbow botanicals. They looked almost like confetti. Other pieces that garnered interest: pooling pleated lace pants ironed with gold foil, and an ostensible maxi dress in black with cutout shoulders—it too featured the everyday Chinese pattern.The label reportedly sells well at places such as Bergdorf Goodman and Moda Operandi, which makes sense given the collection’s grown-up evening appeal. Zhang has a bit of trouble with consistency and editing, though; he’d do well to focus on the little things, like those miniature flowers, and not go overboard, as he did with a white fur hooded jacket at the presentation’s end.
22 February 2016