Meet Yuhan Wang, Fashion East’s Latest Talent
By Something CuratedWith London Fashion Week imminently approaching, Fashion East, the creative support initiative helmed by Lulu Kennedy, has added to the anticipation by revealing the three emerging womenswear designers in its Spring/Summer 2019 line-up. Newcomer Yuhan Wang will join members of the existing roster, Asai and Charlotte Knowles, who are returning for another year.
Wang, a Chinese-born designer, previously interned at JW Anderson and Oscar de la Renta, graduating from London’s Central Saint Martins in 2016 with a BA, receiving the runner-up prize in the L’Oreal Young Talent Award. She showcased her MA collection at CSM in February, exploring the concepts of coverage and exposure through the windows of Asian and Western culture.
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Yuhan’s work has previously engaged with the distinction between outside and inside, those parts of ourselves that we keep private. It’s a theme she began to explore in her BA collection, inspired by the ritual of laundry, exposing, layer-by-layer, the inner world of women. Curtains became her MA collection’s principal idea, an object that determines how much we reveal. A barrier between inside and out was reflected in her designs in cut-outs, knots and unexpected layers.
The collection’s essence is an intense, concentrated femininity, oscillating between notions of tenderness and power. “In Asia, we don’t show that much skin and for me, womenswear and being powerful isn’t just about being sexy. Sometimes you don’t need to show the skin, just show the shape of the body,” the designer explained to 1 Granary earlier this year. Developing on this outlook and aesthetic, the young designer will be presenting her latest collection on 16 September.
Feature image via Yuhan Wang