Yes, since I was 8 years old, I wanted to be a fashion designer. I was in a boarding school and my mother bought me several craft activity kits. I did all of them in the set and then I saw some fashion programs on the television. This inspired me to cut my grandmother’s pajamas and I sewed them into a new garment. This was the first piece I ever made.

I don’t think my nationality is a guiding influence as much as it is inseparable. China is a very isolated country, and it is very different than other countries that I’ve been to. I’m also from the south, which is very different from central or northern China. It’s impossible to remove myself from the world I was steeped in. This being said, it gives me a unique perspective which allows me to see things clearly as an outsider.

I never consciously linked my nationality to my design but there are some ancient stories that I explored for my final collection at school and for the first collection of my brand. I have also been interested in Chinese handicraft revitalisation. When China opened up for international trade, focus was placed on fast and cheap. Our country turned its back on slow and intricate work, which seemed necessary at the time, but I want to go back to the time where China was known for intricate and delicate design.

I don’t consciously use my culture as a starting point, but I start from something personal hoping it can be extrapolated to the universal.

Seeing something in my daily life that evokes the feeling of familiarity and curiosity. These little details attract me like a magnet, and they feel as if they were being pulled out of my subconscious.

One thing I loved about Guccifest was seeing everyone’s short films. We were given lots of freedom to do as we wanted, and every artist interpreted the project in a very different way. We see the work from many designers, but we seldom get such an intimate view into their world. If it wasn’t for Guccifest, I wouldn’t have been challenged to make a film. They also gave me some feedback that was really great for the growth of my brand. It should also be known that when I got the call, my brand was less than a year old, it was the beginning of the pandemic, and I had a few family members and interns stringing beads around my mother’s coffee table.

When I first started, I was very inspired by Jun Takahashi’s Undercover. He was never pigeonholed to one concept or idea. He was free to reinvent himself every season. I find his work to be in service of story instead of self.

There is something imperfect and honest about my graduate collection from CSM, especially the purple beaded cage dress. It has a sense of naivety and freedom which is a fair reflection of who I was. I had no business responsibilities, no staff to pay, no worries about anything other than making art. I mostly try to get out of the way with my recent collections. If I can accomplish that, then that’s my personality. I don’t want to hold clothes hostage at gunpoint. I want them to be free.

I have a few techniques that I have been developing. You will see them sometime soon. I also have plans to do more gallery-oriented work in the future.

I was interested in space exploration and the Apollo 11 mission from 1969. The backdrop of the event was the height of the cold war, but we were still able to celebrate the human achievement of landing on the moon. I found some similarities between this and the state of the world right now. I also thought about the astronauts and what they would have been wearing in the American southwest after they finished training for the day, blue jeans. Then I dug deeper and thought about the history of blue jeans from the Gold Rush to Marlon Brando to everyone and their mother. I thought about the uniformity and the rebelliousness that can exist within the confines.

For this look, I built upon the love symbol which I have been using in my work. Last season I laser cut hearts, folded them, and chained them together to make a garland. This season, I took a similar approach but fawned the lines outward and back and reworked the suspension system. Last season I came up with this technique, this season I was able to focus more on the silhouette.

I can’t disclose what story I will be telling next, but I will say that if the last collection was an outward exploration, the next collection will be inward.