LONDON — Rolls of red and green paper scattered with binder clips and notecards transformed Sarabande’s East London space into a DIY runway over the weekend.
It was a fitting set for Neil Zhao’s first collection presentation, which whimsically reimagined pin cushions, buttons and fabric swatches.
Titled “If You Don’t Get It, It Is for You,” the second year Central Saint Martins student poked fun at fashion’s infatuation with exclusivity and status symbols.
Courtesy of Neil Zhao / Helen Yang
“Fashion brings people together and creates community by keeping people out. If it is something that everybody can join, nobody wants to be a part of it,” the Sarabande scholar said.
While design students might not have access to designer labels to flex their fashion coterie, Zhoa observed that specific design studio staples — a specific red and white checked pin cushion or piles of similarly packaged fabric swatches — were used to signal a certain know-how.
Courtesy of Neil Zhao / Helen Yang
Plastic ocean balls stuck onto metal wires swung from a poofy dress, a surreal and fun nod to those pincushions, while a hi-vis safety vest and a denim jacket featured satirical sample tag necklines.
Zhao even drilled ceramic plates into buttons, fashioning them into a minidress.
Courtesy of Neil Zhao / Helen Yang
“A lot of my work is using fashion as a medium to investigate itself,” Zhao explained. “I’m coming into it from this outsider perspective. Most of what I do is about me looking in.”
It’s a sensibility that comes from Zhao’s upbringing, the designer moving from Australia to China before settling in Norway at age 13, a result of his dad’s job as a Chinese language teacher.
A patterned sweater nodded to that, featuring a subverted traditional Norwegian knit.
Courtesy of Neil Zhao / Helen Yang
The print, ever-so-slightly shifted downward, may not be noticeable to a casual passerby but could send Scandis into a tailspin.
It might be early in the designer’s career, but Craig Green, Machine-A founder Stavros Karelis, and Sarabande chief executive officer Trino Verkade were in attendance at the show.