For her Paris debut, New York-based designer Lu Chen explored her feelings about the industry and her relationship to technology — social media in particular.
“I’m always cropping in 4-by-5 [ratios] but I can find so many possibilities within that frame,” she explained after the show, acknowledging the inescapable tech-enabled mores of the modern world.
And certainly, with the rise of AI as a creative force in its own right, fashion design will only become increasingly enmeshed in it.
The lineup, which she described as demi-couture, was cathartic and explored feelings of isolation and detachment, influenced by Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner.“ It also led her to parade her clothes quite far from the audience.
Despite this, Chen’s knack for construction and sharp tailoring skills came across in a voluminous peacoat, overlaid with matching chiffon; or a bustier dress that looked like a garment turned inside out and stitched into place.
Elsewhere, patterns of dots that formed anatomical outlines based on the heatmaps used for 3D capture had her commenting that “sometimes you see the dots before you see the body.” Likewise, the 3D-printed sleeve of some dresses forced the arm into place across the chest while leaving the impression of a protective gesture, epitomizing Chen’s contradictory feelings of welcoming technology while feeling trapped by it.
Off the back of this show, the brand formed in 2017 by Chen and fellow Parsons graduate Hui Huang is looking for new factories and workspaces in Europe, a region the designer feels would allow her to find “a more accurate definition to the work and better context for make [them] come out.”
With knits and shirting that could easily be industrialized well represented in Lùchen’s demi-couture offering, reducing the distance to both Italy’s knitwear and Paris’s couture scene is a logical next step.