The Global Fashion Collective featured an array of international designers Sunday morning as they presented their latest collections at New York Fashion Week, blending their cultural heritage with extravagant design. The runway, which was hosted at Chelsea Factory, was the first of the GFC’s three NYFW shows this season.
The Open Studio Academy
The show opened with five high school students’ NYFW debut, who presented a grab-bag of intricately-designed patterns and blends of contrasting fabrics. The Open Studio Academy of Art and Design — a Vancouver high school that trains students to matriculate into top design universities — presented a collaborative collection titled “Imprints of Time” to highlight five different aspects of Chinese culture and history.
To emulate the art of Chinese calligraphy, designer Amanda Niu embraced asymmetry through rich blue and purple printed fabrics in all three of her looks, complete with gold wire detail that created an exposed frame beneath the garment. Silky fabrics gliding elegantly over the models’ natural silhouettes gave each look lively movement and struck a balance between the sharp precision and free artistic strokes that characterize calligraphy.
“It’s really important to find our heritage,” Angela Chen, co-founder of Open Studio Academy, said in an interview with WSN. “It’s nice for them to research the Chinese heritage and culture and understand, ‘How do we bring it out by using a more Westernized design aesthetic?’”
In stark contrast, designer Cindy Tsai then showcased looks that layered heavy, dark red fabrics and black leather with an airy black tulle. Tsai told WSN that the large three-dimensional shapes hanging off of her designs actually spell out her name in oracle bone script — the most ancient form of Chinese writing. While the unique, faux oracle bones did not distract from the overall designs, the third look felt out of place with its bright red cloth detailed with intricate white writing that leaned more into the traditional realm.
Designer Georgia Li’s work, inspired by Chinese ceramics, captured both Niu’s three-dimensional dynamism and Tsai’s warm colors, pulling all of the looks together into one cohesive collection. Li told WSN that the large, structured pieces of fabric over the shoulders and arms in her looks spoke to the sculpting of ceramics, while the blend of cooler tones with a velvet red captured the process of baking ceramics in a kiln and glazing the pottery.
Within this collection, designer Koni Peng’s looks were a crowd favorite. She described how she pieced together watercolor samples to capture the essence of Chinese landscape paintings, layering colorful strips of fabric with white ruffles to craft a flowing, floor-length silhouette.
“I wanted everyone to feel this mystical, ethereal type of feel,” Peng said in an interview with WSN. “I wanted people to feel at peace when looking at my garments.”
To close out “Imprints of Time,” designer Mandy Fu used neutral black and silver colors and sharp, angled silhouettes inspired by the archeological discovery of Sanxingdui artifacts. These looks leaned more into elegance than the others, but Fu made up for a lack of whimsy with unconventional, standout hairstyles that drew all three designs together.
Alex S. Yu
With upbeat pop music and colorful cartoons lighting up the runway, the Alex S. Yu collection “Interlude 3688” began its dive into nostalgia, playfulness and the unpredictable. Child models opened the show, sporting a nostalgic blue checkered print and white tennis sneakers reminiscent of “Alice in Wonderland” — which Yu said was an inspiration for his 10th anniversary collection.
In an interview with WSN, Yu said that he adopted a darker color palette and silhouette than his usual looks. He said that he aimed to reflect the uncertainty and confusion around current events and the future, specifically referencing the political relationship between the United States and Canada.
“The main message that I want to send is that there is always optimism,” Yu said. “I want my collection to be the line between reality and fantasy, so I want people to be able to wear my clothes and feel a little bit of fantasy and joy.”
Although this collection was a lot less cohesive than others on the runway Sunday morning, it still preserved a clear sense of progression. The looks shifted from wholesome nostalgia to a sense of the unfamiliar, emulated through unconventional pairings of patterns and textures and the use of airy fabrics to create fluid silhouettes. A few repeated accessories added unity to the show, including black, three-dimensional flower-like embellishments on dresses and silver high-heeled boots.
S. MU
The final designer of the show, Serena Mu, embodied a minimalist, intergalactic theme in her second collection, “Beyond the Stars.” Each look featured a mesh of white fabric, sleek metallic silvers and green-tinted denim that gave the designs a futuristic yet 1980s retro feel.
In an interview with WSN, Mu explained that she incorporated denim to represent the “physical world,” while the outer space-esque materials embodied the cosmos. She said that “Beyond the Stars” goes hand-in-hand with her first collection, which featured ocean-inspired designs. In both, Mu said that she wanted to create experiences for both her audience and models to explore different aspects of nature.
Mu also incorporated capes and dramatic, structured shoulder silhouettes into many of the garments, contributing to an air of fantasy that contrasted with the streetwear-style hoods, zippers and denim. Complete with silver gloves, belts and buttons, S. MU’s designs added a refreshing edge of fantastical to fairly practical looks that captivated the audience throughout the show.
Contact Aashna Miharia at [email protected].
