I’ve always loved graphics and studied graphic design at university. I then worked as a graphic designer for five or six years. I always had a passion for fashion though, so I quit my job and applied to study at Central Saint Martins. I found I love London and I just stayed. Now it’s been eight years! After CSM, I started Underage and we focus on graphics, deconstruction and an unorthodox approach to traditional garment construction.

I love the craftsmanship and traditional textile techniques like screen printing, weaving, as well as the skill and processes in tailoring. So these all inspire me on how we make our garments.

The brand is called Underage because we celebrate a youthful mindset. We design clothes for people who are young, experimental and rebellious in their mind, regardless of their age.

I love London and it’s a huge inspiration for me. So presenting in the city is very important to me and Underage. London is young, edgy and vibrant. Then, there’s Paris, a very sophisticated market where you can get great feedback on the brand. Shanghai is of huge importance to us. The Chinese fashion market is the biggest in the world, so commercially it’s very important to get into the market early. However, it’s more than that for us. Being from China, it’s important to me that we take the inspirations and designs that are being born in London and take them back to my home.

We want to develop the brand in London right now and integrate ourselves into the city more. We also want to develop the brand internationally, so we’re looking to do collaborations with some London or global artists in the near future.

I like the eccentricity of the film and also the craziness behind it. Also, it goes with the core Underage concepts of sexual liberation/freedom.

When Janet and Brad enter the house and Dr Frank-N-Furter surprises them.

I felt like it would be great to bring back the fun and excitement from the club kid era. I see a lot of people at work, travelling, etc. in blazers or with flower prints. I wanted to bring some of the excitement from the club kids era into modern-day clothes.

China has a different set of social media to the West. Douyin is a big one for young people nowadays. It has now come to the West in the form of TicTok (owned by TicTok’s owner ByteDance), which is replacing Instagram in many ways for Gen Z in the West. Then there’s WeChat, which looks on the surface like WhatsApp, but really is more like Facebook in the way it is colossal and you can do anything on it (social, messenger, buy things). And therefore, even if it’s obviously true you can’t get on Western social media sites in China, that’s not to say Chinese people have a lack of social media or inspiration for their creativity, we just have a different social media universe to the West.

The situation for Chinese young designers is very exciting right now. Chinese people are beginning to value home brands over international heritage brands, and at the same time, we are also seeing more Chinese brands or international brands by Chinese designers on the international stage. When it comes to fashion and art, young Chinese people are very up-to-date on what’s going on in the world, so it’s not a case of isolation. As we have different forms of social media, however, I’m sure that does have an effect on how people develop as the types of content will differ – so maybe that will be a bigger influence as the wave of Gen Z designers comes through in five to ten years.

We’re in an amazing time right now where people feel more able to express themselves. Their sexuality, gender, or anything else. Our graphics are in part celebrating this freedom that people feel right now, and at the same time, pushing that boundary further. It in part harks back to those standard flower prints I was talking about earlier. We’re trying to take things that are the ‘status quo’ and push boundaries with them – so a flower print that could be an orchid or a vagina, depending on your perspective. I think that’s fun, expressive, and pushes the boundary of freedom of expression.

We’re launching our own e-commerce soon, which is pretty exciting!