Since September 2021, Parsons graduate and New York emerging designer Lu Chen has been crafting and releasing collections for her label, Lùchen, with a meld of ready-to-wear and conceptual, demi-couture styles. Following two New York City-set runway shows in 2022, Chen is shifting strategies and leaning into the demi-couture angle of her business to present a 35-look collection for the first time at Couture Fashion Week on Jan. 23.
“We currently don’t have stockists yet, but the shift in our strategy was heavily influenced by the continued curiosity and interest from a few key stores we hope to work with soon,” Chen told WWD of her label, which offers ready-to-wear from $270 to $1,800 and demi-couture styles (on average) from $1,000 to $4,000 direct-to-consumer. “They’ve come to us organically, appreciating what we are doing and we feel lucky they are taking so much interest and offering their input as to how we can grow our brand to fit the opening in the demi-couture market. In some ways it feels like we are already developing a partnership from the ground up.”
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Known for her conceptual, couture-like, gender-fluid designs (as seen from spring’s voluminous ruffled and tiered bright blue “winged” dress or fall’s layered chiffon coats and fabric-roll frocks) and theatrical-style runway performances, Chen’s decision to debut during Paris couture was also derived from finding more of an open space in the market.
“This is a huge decision for me and for our team, to move to Paris and release our first collection during couture week. The positioning of the brand before was a bit upscale — what we’ve been doing is really high-pitch of quality, craftsmanship, experimenting and refining out details, so we feel we need to define our value with a more accurate genre. We found out that demi-couture, right now, is a bit of an empty space,” Chen told WWD. “We like this demi-couture category because it offers a client that appreciates the quality and material craftsmanship of luxury fashion but is more affordable than haute couture. The customer for our demi-couture line is someone who is looking for high quality with more of a creative edge or simply fashionable clothing.”
Chen said it also presents an opportunity to purchase well-crafted pieces for those who may not need one-of-a-kind or the full customization process of haute couture.
With the couture week debut, Chen’s collection will include the brand’s endeavors to incorporate excess fabrications from prior offerings.
“We are making an effort to reduce the environmental impact by transforming existing or ‘headstock’ fabrics, repurposing older garments and using sustainable techniques — quilting, layering, recoloring, adding embellishment to existing fabrics, etc. I’m working with my wider team on this concept of using old fabrics and reworking them to give them a new life through techniques like coding so we can deliver a uniquely new product,” Chen explained, adding that while the brand is crafted all in-house in New York, it is looking for new factories in Italy.
Although this marks Chen’s first endeavor at Paris couture, the designer is “flexible” and doesn’t want to be constrained to one category when it comes to future Lùchen shows in the brand’s NYC home, she said.