An avid collector of ancient objects, Feng Chen Wang said backstage before her spring show that she felt like a time traveler, one eye on the past looking at heritage crafts from her homeland, the other on what to wear next season.
For spring, she was particularly interested in techniques cribbed from traditional ceramics, translating their surface cracking and glaze effects into textile form. Applied with a light hand, they gave lived-in charm to gradient denims, grandpa cardigans with matching sweaters and even the slip-ons, part of a collaboration with Ugg.
Bamboo crafts and dyeing techniques such as “yuzi xie,” a form of micro tie-dyeing that creates a waffle texture in addition to the patterning, were other ideas that Wang blended into her design. The clothes were cut generously and layered in tonal assortments of celadon blue and a spectrum of earthy browns.
Given the growing importance of these crafts in her work, Wang said she was spinning the most elaborate examples into an upscale capsule dubbed “Feng Line.”
But she also folded them into relaxed, tailored layers along with touches of streetwear, yielding a collection that telegraphed youthful coolness while pursuing a more mature angle, too.
Another evolution for the brand was womenswear. While she’s always nodded to gender fluidity with long knits or wrapped elements, and reached out to a female audience through collaborations with Nike and Converse, this is her first firm play, which came in the form of double-layer jackets that subtly contoured the waist with matching tailored shorts or mini-length pleated skirts.
Along with cool types in her front row including Verdy, Japanese rapper and performer Reo Sano and a clutch of American footballers such as Arizona Cardinals’ Paris Johnson Jr., the collection reinforced the impression that Wang’s street cred is on the up and up.
