“I took the idea of autumn and thought about what it means in terms of color and emotion,” said Huishan Zhang of his Pre-Fall collection. The designer, who divides his time between London and his native China, has been making regular pilgrimages to the English countryside, and it’s that pastoral region that came through in these looks. Zhang had a still life by early 20th-century British painter Ivon Hitchens in his mind’s eye when it came to bronzed, khaki, and crimson designs with recurring motifs like pearls, deconstructed trenches, and tweeds. “The painting reminds me of visiting friends in the Cotswolds,” he said of the 1932 canvas, Autumn Composition, Flowers on a Table. “I love that idea of bringing the rural world back to your city apartment.”
Zhang meditated on the naturalistic mood with a series of exquisite fabrications: There was a fine, pale tulle with gold cord embroidery, a jet-black velvet floral moire, and tweeds that magically morphed into lace. Everything had a softness to it; even the trenches and shirting was embellished with ruffles running from wrist to wrist and along the backs of garments in pretty sweeps. “I wanted to call to mind the warmth of the harvest, that feeling when you’ve absorbed so much sun throughout the summer,” he said. “I see that time of year as a new beginning.”
Zhang is set to celebrate the Chinese New Year with his family in the countryside for the first time in six years. “It’s a very good omen,” he said of the incoming Year of the Pig. “The pig represents harmony and calm.” We can but dream—and these are certainly clothes for dreamers.