«Remain true to yourself», interview with Xander Zhou

For years, European fashion insiders have looked to China as a huge luxury market and an exceptional production hub for numerous brands, almost entirely ignoring the ecosystem of designers and brands that have been there from the start. In Shanghai, for example, there has been a fashion week since 2001, but it is only recently that its shows have appeared on our Instagram feeds, entering the European fashion bubble. This is how numerous designer and brand names – including that of Xander Zhou – have started circulating in Europe. Founded in 2007, Zhou's eponymous brand is today considered one of the leading names of an entire generation of designers, as well as one of the hot tickets of Shanghai Fashion Week. Renowned for his conceptual and imaginative storytelling and experimental silhouettes, Zhou's work stems from a background that blends industrial design with fashion. His rise as a designer has been shaped not only by his creative talent but also by his strategic vision of market dynamics. His early work as a consultant, which led him to establish connections between Chinese brands and international partners, «was a learning path where I mastered the basics of the craft», he said when we spoke with him following his latest SS25 show, titled ANACHRONOTALE. «It allowed me to better understand the entire industry, including the process of collaborating with Chinese brands. I also learned more about the workings of the supply chain and the domestic market, which cannot be learned solely by running your own brand». All this know-how has been essential both for the development of his own brand and for grounding his vision: to unleash creativity, a solid base of practicality is needed. «No matter how imaginative my brand is, I am a person who likes to do things logically and based on facts», he told us.

In his SS25 collection, the fusion of traditional tailoring with a cyber-punk-inspired technological aesthetic dominates, stemming from a unique approach to garment construction and material selection, as well as an engineering understanding of tailoring. «My mixed training allows me to think outside the box of traditional clothing design and consider different ways to express myself», the designer explained to us. For Zhou, clothing is not just a means to follow trends, but a canvas where structural innovation meets artistic expression. This foundation has enabled him to expand the range of materials and designs, offering him an unmatched ability to reinvent traditional silhouettes through unexpected means. It is not futurism for its own sake but a desire to find a point of graft where technological innovation also becomes aesthetic: a process evident in this collection in the vaguely sci-fi reinterpretation of the trench coat which, as explained by the designer in his extensive collection notes, aims to continue its initial technical-military vocation in the trenches and bring it into lifestyle, even imagining a future for it. «I often create virtual entities, virtual worlds, alien elements, and sci-fi atmospheres. I enjoy these surreal themes, but I use them to express my true inner self. [...] I try to express the changes that have occurred within me from one season to another in the most authentic way possible, so that the final looks reflect as precisely as possible what I have in mind».

However, one should not believe that, for Zhou, the surreal worlds he continues to evoke are necessarily distant from the craftsmanship that the rest of the fashion brands typically boast about. «I like high-tech materials and techniques, as well as traditional materials and techniques. For me, combining the two offers more possibilities to express myself through my designs. For example, the mechanical tails from my previous collection look very much like 3D prints, but if you observe them closely, you will notice that they are all handmade leather segments, using the most traditional leatherworking methods to achieve a sense of technology. I enjoy this sense of visual contrast and like breaking people's preconceptions about many things at first glance. The different effects and sensations of an object when viewed from afar and up close are very important to my projects», Zhou said, who in this collection experimented with mechanical appliqués, metallic textures, and deconstructed silhouettes applied to the historical costumes of commedia dell'arte and ballet as well as garments like the Hungarian shako, puffed sleeves inspired by Louis XIV, tournament armor, and medieval poulaine shoes. A historical reenactment that transforms past shapes into styling elements such as an inverted version of the 18th-century jabot turned into a glove, fusions of puffed sleeves and Byronian poet sleeves, fabric reproductions of classic 19th-century military medals. But his philosophy goes beyond rigid notions of cultural influence. «I usually don't particularly distinguish whether it's Eastern or Western culture», notes the designer. «The reason is that I want to throw open the windows and abandon rooted, outdated, and stereotypical perceptions. I like to experience life in different ways. I believe that making the most of life means experiencing as many different lives as possible before leaving this world, seeing different places, so that the game character assigned to you in this life can accumulate as many experience points as possible».

For Zhou, fashion design goes beyond simply creating garments; it is a form of storytelling. «Our brand has never had a so-called strategy. We have always insisted on expressing what we want to express», he says. «Fashion design is actually a medium through which I can quickly and directly visualize a world as I see it. Each season, I first connect with the concept I want to express and then add the right clothes and characters to complete the whole story. For me, it is more akin to an art project, a film, or any other way to express myself. I think this is what resonates with the audience who appreciates us». And these narratives often build upon one another, creating a web of interconnected themes. Sometimes, the focus is on a macroscopic vision of a parallel universe; other times, it centers on the evolution of a single character. This mix of horizontal and vertical storytelling ensures that «the same “clothes” that appear in each collection are not bound by fashion trends». In the case of ANACHRONOTALE, which revisits European historical theatrical elements like ballet de cour and commedia dell'arte, everything was new. «This is a theme I have never used before, and I like to deconstruct themes I have never worked with in my own way», he told us. «I enjoy deconstructing themes I haven't explored in my way. I want to see how my approach can reshape a topic with which everyone is already familiar, to dispel people's rooted perceptions of these concepts. Before starting work on this collection, I considered creating a sci-fi version of children's tales like “Alice in Wonderland.” This remained the underlying idea».

The interesting part, however, especially for the Western viewer, is that the collection does not, in fact, depend on trends but develops from an autonomous idea and thus possesses its own independent stature. «We are exploring different possibilities to recombine elements. Making them familiar yet new», he explains. «It is the surrealism of reality that we always want to express in our projects». A notable example is the treatment of the harlequin diamond pattern, traditionally associated with the comic characters of commedia dell'arte. By inverting and reconfiguring the diamond shapes, Zhou created geometric motifs, reimagined collars, and cuffs, abstracting them into modern geometric forms that maintain a playful nod to their historical roots. «Initially, my starting point was: how can these 'ornamental' elements lose their sense of 'ornamentation'? We needed to translate them into the XANDER ZHOU vocabulary». At the heart of ANACHRONOTALE is an exploration of the balance between elegance and the grotesque—a theme reflected in the dramatic silhouettes and intricate details of the collection. The tips of the poulaines, for example, evoke European medieval footwear with exaggerated curves, symbolizing both status and absurdity. Zhou amplifies this contrast by incorporating sci-fi motifs, creating a collection that oscillates between historical reverence and futuristic fantasy.