Milan, 25th February, 2024.
Feminine will and creative power, the peaceful strength of a thousand-year-old culture and the invincible energy of modernity. Playing between these opposites, the Hui FW 24/25 collection was designed by Hui Zhou Zhao, a Chinese fashion designer who loves Italy and has been showing in Milan for years. The starting point is always the reinterpretation of ethnic and cultural Chinese traditions, but this time it immediately gets to the cosmopolitan and sophisticated image of Chinese women who today attend Western universities, do international business, travel the world as well as new technologies. Hence the idea of the Panda bear restyled by artificial intelligence and transformed into patches on camel pullovers as a symbol of radical change. On the other hand, the intricate women’s hairstyle captured on the invitation and on the fashion show 3D immersion projections, evokes the traditional Hmong women’s head wears, the Long Horn tribe of the Miao people. Made of hair passed down and preserved for generations and assembled on long wooden frames tied to the head with black and white bands, these special hats represent an ancient Miao tradition in which clothes are defined as “a history book to wear”. The classic red and blue stripes of tribal costumes take on chic shades of ebony, camel and black in the jacquard part of the sequined acid green skirt. Made of ultralight PVC, the sequins turn into a sophisticated black coat, an elegant passepartout bomber jacket, an unusual patch decoration of a wool-crepe long skirt and a refined decor of a denim blouse. Mini skirts are in traditional colours and with five sections, which in Miao traditions represent the five rivers crossed by this nomadic people originally from Guizhou province. Cashmere vest coats with silk interiors decorated with precious ancestral patterns are paired with iridescent sequins with knitted stitches. Jacquard textures with floral and geometric motifs face colour block printed chiffon, while mohair volumes shirts are layered on the scuba effect jersey. Likewise, the accessories convey in a different way the message East meets West, for which the frail mules covered in sequins takes turn with the great colds’ boots, and the scarves are floral ramage embroidered in 3D thread.
