Feng Chen Wang AW23 Show, Paris Fashion Week

You and I… Knitted together… Hand to hand, knot by knot… – Feng Chen Wang The idea of connection lies at the very heart of Feng Chen Wang’s Autumn/Winter 2023 offering – not only between individuals, cultures and communities, but time periods too: the present and the past. The Chinese word ‘缝’ – pronounced ‘féng’, which means to sew, to stitch, to knit together – is key here. ‘鳳’, also pronounced fèng, means phoenix, symbolises the union of yin and yang, and relates to the designer’s own name and her signature motif. The Autumn/Winter 2023 collection features much of this ‘meeting’ and ‘knitting’; much coming together of disparate parts: from the male and the female, to the eastern and the western; the traditional and the modern. We see Wang’s gender-liberated sensibility on clear display, as well as her union of traditional Chinese techniques and modern western styles; and her seamless incorporation of tailoring and denim. Even the colour palette follows this alchemical approach – for amid a cool sea of black, white, grey, indigo and khaki, comes a blaze of warm pink and fiery orange. This season, Wang was thinking especially about the original Chinese “Hundred Families Robe” tradition, whereby, 100 days after giving birth to a child, parents will visit 100 people – from family members to friends and neighbours – and receive a piece of cloth. These fabric donations are then sewn together into a patchwork robe, a shared symbol of love. Similarly, this season, Wang gathered