GREATEST: Xander Zhou
Inside the mind of China's new wave fashion designer.
Xander Zhou, head designer of his eponymous label and the menswear fashion director of The New York Times’ T Magazine China, was the first Chinese designer to show his collection at London Fashion Week Men’s. That distinction alone is notable, but Zhou produces collections that warrant attention beyond the standards of being ‘Chinese,’ ‘youthful’ or ‘menswear’; his work is compelling without qualification. For his SS20 show, Zhou handed out wrap skirts to each of his guests, presented his work as a film on a floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall screen and didn’t show a single pair of trousers.
As an audience, we are still no closer to predicting what will come next from Zhou. His work is an undiluted physical expression of himself—a mix of his diverse interests, the quest for creative fulfillment, and the rapid-fire connections of his mind. Zhou’s clothes are an unapologetic antidote to what’s come to be expected in the industry.
You’ve stated before that while you may be seen as a ‘fashion designer,’ you consider yourself to be on the “periphery of fashion.” What is your interest in how the conventional ideas of fashion design might be stretched?
When I make my designs, I usually have a certain character in mind who is going to wear [them]—some sort of uniform, befitting that particular character. My starting point does not lie in fashion itself. You could say it’s a script that I have in the back of my mind. If someone makes an appearance who needs a white t-shirt, I will make a white t-shirt. If someone needs a six-armed coat, I will make a six-armed coat. As for the human body, I have a keen interest in it—also in everything else human and superhuman. Even when it comes to sci-fi and cyborgs, I am more interested in the human factor than in the technological aspects.
If fashion is simply the current vehicle you are using to express your creativity, what are the principles at the core of your creative practice?
When creating a new collection, I am basically just expressing my thoughts that I have had in that particular period; things that have triggered my curiosity and interest. If there is one principle that I apply to this process, it would be, ‘Don’t bother too much about principles.’
I especially dislike considering so-called rules of fashion. One of the things that I like most about the process of creating is its randomness. Don’t get me wrong; I do read a lot of theory and I like it, but I just don’t like thinking about it too much when I am actually creating. I also don’t like to use theoretical concepts to describe my own work.
How is fashion particularly well-suited to you as a method of expression? Do you foresee a time when another method of creation will become more effective to you?
I like the speed of fashion. The time between having an idea and having a physical product is relatively short. When I started as a fashion designer, I did not choose deliberately for fashion as the only or preferred way of expressing myself. As you become more experienced in a certain way of expressing yourself, it also comes more naturally. Of course, there can always be a day when I get too accustomed to it, and then it will become boring. That would be the day that I decide to explore other venues more thoroughly.
What is your interest in the future? Would you say you are designing for the present or the future, or perhaps suggesting a possible future?
I do like thinking about the future, but I think that what I’m expressing almost inevitably reflects the present. I believe it is quite impossible for humans to express or give form to something that still lies in the future. What I do is [try] to capture my curiosity and fascination for the future in form.
China and Asia are like an alien place for many other people—a place that is literally as hard to imagine or understand as another planet.
Your work often shows interest in the spiritual, supernatural, mythological and technologically advanced. Why have you gravitated towards those realms?
When I started my own brand, my labels would state, ‘Made on another planet.’ The idea behind that is that China and Asia are like an alien place for many other people—a place that is literally as hard to imagine or understand as another planet. Some time ago, many people would think about China in stereotypes. Nowadays, many people seem overly eager to embrace China. These developments have partly shaped the thoughts that go into my collections. In the period in which I grew up, Western culture entered China, including popular culture like Transformers and stuff. But once these influences arrived in Asia, they branched off into something very Asian as well, a whole localized version of sci-fi if you want. That has also had a great influence on me. As for supernatural and mythological elements, China has many traditional stories containing these elements. Once I had grown up, I came to see the interconnectedness between all these different things. Basically, they are all doing the same thing—expressing our universe, but all in a different way.
There is a quality in, not only your clothing, but the way you present your work that creates spectacles verging between the sublimely beautiful and the grotesquely repulsive. How do you balance the two extremes?
I am afraid I have to admit that balancing is not my strongest quality. Since my AW16 collection, diversity has played an important role in my work. Also when it comes to what is beautiful and what is ugly, I believe there are not really fixed norms or standards. What I find more important […] is if something has personality.
Where do you find your confidence as a fashion designer? Do you think about your positioning relative to other designers and brands?
My confidence mainly stems from the level of satisfaction that I feel towards my own work. That plays a way larger role than what other people think about my work. If anything, I will sometimes feel that I am underestimated. But then again, when one is expressing supernatural and superhuman stuff, it should not be surprising that only a select group of people really get it.
You run through source material quickly. When do you know you’ve exhausted one inspirational source and are ready to move on to something else?
As I said, my design process is like following a script. A script that has different chapters. I don’t necessarily feel that a certain inspirational source is exhausted when I move on, I just feel that it is no longer suitable for that new chapter. Actually, I do revisit previous source material, but from another perspective and in a new context. Some people say that you need to repeat the things that you want people to remember. But I am confident enough to think that people will remember each and every one of my collections even without too much repetition.
As a Chinese fashion designer operating in the fashion industry in the Western world, do you ever encounter preconceived expectations of you that are exasperating? Does this lead you to create work that responds in a certain way?
I am not someone who thinks of himself as a victim. Racism is not something that plays a role in my life, neither actively nor passively, partly because I don’t let it. Of course, I have encountered my share of preconceived expectations and stereotypes. The fashion world is not as inclusive and enlightened as one might think. Sometimes I find to my bemusement that if I come up with an innovative way of expressing something and it hardly creates any waves, that same thing can be all the rage a few seasons later if some well-established European designer uses it. I think partly because mainstream media prefer to showcase designers and work that reconfirm a preconceived identity rather than showing what is actually happening in the fashion world.
As the Western world learns more about China through various means—traveling, popular media, current news—people continue to build incomplete or perhaps inaccurate pictures of the country and its people. How do you operate within or against that?
I don’t think this is something I deliberately address in my work. I am not in the business of representing ‘the real China.’ Having said that, I do think many foreigners are a bit naïve when it comes to China. Both the way that the West has overlooked China in the past, and the way it is overestimating it in some respects nowadays, are different manifestations of that naïveness.
Dividing my time between China and Europe, I think Chinese people who do business in Europe are better in understanding how things work in European countries than the other way around, partly because they are more willing to accept that it is quite different.
Your work has been described as unorthodox and explorative. Do you feel obligated to maintain that reputation?
After my shows, friends often jokingly say, ‘How are you going to outperform yourself next time?’ I, too, will think about what’s going to happen next. But making the next collection more crazy or awesome than the last time is not really what guides me. [My last collection] went much deeper in terms of exploring the underlying concept—in this case ‘consciousness.’
Who do you consider to be the primary audience for your work?
People who think that our present-day reality is boring— I believe that is potentially quite a considerable audience.
[Confidence] plays a way larger role than what other people think about my work. If anything, sometimes feel that I am underestimated. But then again, when one is expressing supernatural and superhuman stuff, it should not be surprising that only a select group of people get it.
Xander Zhou
You appear to find great personal satisfaction in what you are doing. How has your work been satisfying to you?
Of course, I find great personal satisfaction in what I do— otherwise, how could I have put up with carrying 20 suitcases from Beijing to London every six months for the past seven years? I will challenge myself, sometimes driving myself to the brink of breaking down, but then satisfaction when pulling through is only bigger. This is really an all-in profession. And I think I need a profession that is like this, or I would feel very empty inside.
What does success look like to you?
For me, success is always being able to be most satisfied with the thing that I am currently involved in. That I can do what I am interested in every season, not guided too much by market forces and things like that. Freedom, basically. Both professionally and privately.
Interview by Charis Poon
Photography by Fan Liao