BEAUTY: Clothing--Xander Zhou

Many designers express thoughts and feeling about the current state of our world through their work, but sometimes a designer looks forward to the future. Of course we are seeing the future unfold before our eyes with the advance of extreme climate change and the transformation of social ideas. For his Fall-Winter 2019-2020 collection at London Fashion Week Men's, Xander Zhou showed how we might look in a future that definitely seems dystopian. Working with ideas of cloning and surgery, he sent twins down the runway along with pieces that look like futuristic medical scrubs. Some garments featured a simple diagram of our solar system in a reference to possible space travel. He also followed up on an idea he introduced in his last Spring-Summer '19 collection where several models sported pregnant bellies. Here, for Fall-Winter '19-'20, the men have obviously had their babies and Zhou has furnished them with special tops featuring a carrying pouch on one side and a space for a bottle on the other. And finally, Zhou presented ways to traverse our morphing terrain...whether drought, rock slides, wild fires, or complete submersion under water, he has us covered with springy runner extensions and fins. Yes, it is an extreme expression, but really, we are facing some extreme circumstances.

https://www.xanderzhou.com/