Designer Stalking: Son Chu, Fashion Designer at Paris Fashion Week

1 October 2014

Paris Fashion Week has just finished and although I wasn't able to get out there myself, I was able to do a spot of designer stalking with one of the designers who were exhibiting.

Son Chu is a very talented designer who graduated from the Academy of Fashion and Design (AMD) with a BA in fashion design womenswear. No surprises he received the 'Best Graduate Award 2014' in fashion design for his undergraduate studies and graduate collection 'POLYGON'. During his studies Son worked for the incredible Mary Katrantzou. Son Chu’s work is based on craftmanship, experimental fabric manipulation, use of new materials and innovative digital printed fabrics. He is definitely one to watch. I caught up with him as he was preparing for fashion week!

What do you do and what do you love about your job?

I recently started up my own brand SON CHU, which focuses on womenswear clothing. I love it because working in such a creative way and there are no visual boundaries. As a fashion designer you must handle with different tasks at the same time such as do research for the next collection concept, draw sketches, make patterns, sewing toiles, telephone conversations, answering emails and so on – all these are challenging responsibilities I have to take daily, but I love it.

What are your influences?

My work is inspired by nature, science, architecture, paintings, music, movies and literature. But also my multicultural background and cultural ethnicity inspire me.

How did you get into fashion? And what has been the most challenging aspect of starting up your own brand?

When I was a child I was so keen to do handicrafts especially paper figures. I was fascinated about how to create three dimensional objects from only a flat piece of paper by using a scissor and a little drops of glue. Later on, I did photography and I admire the artistic staging and storytelling fashion pictures by Tim Walker. So I decided to explore the crazy and fascinating world of fashion by studying it intensivley at a fashion academy.

The most challenging aspect of starting my brand was actually to have the courage to the first step towards economic independence. But if you do not try and take a risk, you will never know about your personal success as a fashion designer.

If you could live in an up and coming fashion city where would it be and why?

There are several cities which I would be interested to live, but the most important attribute a city worth living should have are the symbiosis of opend minded people, tolerance, cultural events, arts, music and nature.

How would you describe your approach to fashion?

My approach is to find a balance between commerce and creativity in order to find a compromise between a wearable style and contemporary-avantgardistic design. So in my latest collection POLYGON I created three-dimensional geometrical structures on the surface of the garments by applying complex handmade-smocking techniques. So this handcraft in the combination of digitial prints and high-quality material mixes made of pure new wool, silk or cotton can add individuality to each and every garment oft the collection