Louis Shengtao Chen has a lot of feelings. “This season, the woman is getting angry,” the designer said backstage after his fall 2024 show in Shanghai. ‘She’s a bit crazy, isn’t she? angry!” Like every season, Chen explained, the woman in question is the female version of himself. Then what is he angry about?
A looming sense of instability, the long-term effects of the pandemic – which we are now experiencing in real time – an industry under pressure from economic uncertainty, your daily worries. TL; DR, just pick your poison.
That said, Chen also has a lot of ideas. Although he was quick to explain that this is not a thematic collection, there were some common features: there was some flora and fauna in the form of rosettes and prints of butterflies and deer (the latter adorning the cover by Fashion Chinese Shanghai Fashion Week edition on a jacket); there were wonderfully bouncy, exuberant bustles and panniers and crinolines fashioned with Chen’s trademark irreverence and exacting technical finesse; and there were riffs on what the designer called “streetwear glamour.”
These consisted of demi-couture-style cropped zip-up hoodies covered in rose appliqués, slouchy trousers, ultra-suede shearling cardigans, mohair maxi dresses with wide tentacular hems, and sequin “puffies” worn as gloves or leg warmers, which created a soothing atmosphere yielded. ASMR effect on the runway. Counterbalancing these more casual offerings were a range of delightfully tailored jackets, roomy louche slips and deftly shaped corsets. If you need proof of how well Chen can handle a belt, just look at how he took a pair of sheepskin and made a mutton jacket. satin and a few pieces of whalebone.
Chen identified evening fabrications as his comfort zone, “what people identify as Louis Shengtao Chen,” he said, explaining that the challenge here was to extend his point of view to the street. “We feel very comfortable doing things that are very romantic, softer and beautiful,” he said. “This was the first time we did something in this real combination with streetwear.” He did this with great success. At 27, Chen is remarkably self-aware, but still retains the naivete that makes his work exciting.
But what makes Chen crazy? “I always love it romance!” he exclaimed, to which his publicist joked in response: “such an a Pisces.” Emotional, sensitive and imaginative, yet introspective and intellectual. A duality between fantasy and reality. Sounds just like a LouisShengtao Chen collection.
