The Designer Bridging East and West, Men’s and Women’s

by Chris Nelson

“Some people think that only clothes with dragons or peonies can be Chinese,” says Xander Zhou, the Beijing-based, Netherlands-schooled designer who’s shaking up the London men’s collections with his just-radical-enough take on traditional attire.

That Zhou’s style is difficult to place in any canon, Western or otherwise, is an understatement — and that’s exactly how he wants it. For spring, although he did indulge in a little dragon embroidery, Zhou took to Western staples with high-minded zeal, applying trenches, windbreakers, and other boxy pieces with offbeat Chinese flourish. Meanwhile, a bomber-jumpsuit hybrid with a pale flower pattern seemed to stoke multiple cultural sensibilities, yet managing to offend no one.

If all this smacks of androgyny — ding, ding, ding. Says Zhou: “My mom, with her hundred pairs of high heels, has had a longer-lasting influence on my fashion sense than any other style icon.”

Xander Zhou, spring 2016