[Shanghai Fashion Week] Wang Haizhen: Is a Designer Who Wants to Be a Star Immature?

"You'd better play to your strengths. Commercial success is hard enough to come by."

During Shanghai Fashion Week, Wang Haizhen showed his Fall/Winter 2015 womenswear collection.

People talk about three things when they talk about him. First, his architectural military uniforms never forget to undo their own rigid discipline in the details, and the result looks "androgynous." Second, years at commercial brands gave him a steadiness of craft that is rare among today's designers, who are springing up "like bamboo shoots after rain." Third, his alma mater, Central Saint Martins in London, is now turning out plenty of those "shoots."

Wang graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2005 and went on to work for brands including Boudicca and All Saints. In 2010 he founded a womenswear label under his own name in London, "Haizhen Wang." At first it had almost no influence.

Only after he won Britain's Fashion Fringe award in 2012 did Wang begin to appear on commercial platforms of every kind. The veteran fashion critic Colin McDowell founded Fashion Fringe in 2004 to discover new talent in the industry.

Christopher Bailey, Burberry's chief creative officer, chaired the Fashion Fringe jury that year. Afterward he said: "What I'm looking for is an all-round talent. I want him to understand cutting and sewing deeply, but also to understand business, to know how to get a product out there, and to have an unshakable attitude."

On the afternoon of April 10, Wang talked to us about his new "military uniform" collection, the relationship between designers and buyers, his new plans in China, and what "maturity" really means for a fashion designer. His answers follow. Designer, buyer or fashion fan, you will find them worth reading.

Q: What is the theme of this season?

I wanted a theme of military wear and uniforms. I combined color and fabric, using colors and cultures that represent East and West, and joined them to the military element. As you can see, red stands for the East and green for the West. During World War II, every country had its own military green; I took the olive green of the British uniform. The palette is mostly green, with camouflage too, but I blended in some red. Because red stands for the East, two looks appear entirely in red. There is one silver piece, like a mirror, which I added to balance the overall tone and round it out.

Q: Ever since your first solo show in London in 2013, your clothes have had a warrior feel. Has your design theme changed much this season?

I like uniforms. Military wear or functional clothing of any kind, I like it all, especially tailoring and jackets. It's also what I'm fairly good at. But the theme changes every season. The 2013 season was somewhat Gothic, and because it was a show, it had to present a complete picture, head to toe, not just the clothes on the body.

Q: I remember that for the Fall/Winter 2013 collection, the jewelry designer Maria Piana also made silver pieces for the models. This season it's mainly about the clothes?

Yes. When people talk about me, perhaps it's always mostly about structure, or architecture. It's not that I set out to stress this; it's simply the framework I think in. In fact every season of my work is different. Complex or simple, introverted or extroverted, more exuberant or more restrained, I adjust the whole accordingly.

Q: Does the format of presentation also make a big difference to a collection?

Yes, it depends on the format. Is it a presentation, a show, just a showroom (a static exhibition for buyers, agents and distributors), or purely personal taste? That's what I weigh.

Q: After your 2013 solo show you said you were going to a showroom in Paris and would decide the next season's theme based on how buyers reacted. Are buyers still an important consideration for you?

Partly, but I don't decide the next season's theme by what buyers want. At the time I didn't necessarily know what the next theme would be. A showroom is commercial, and its feedback helps somewhat with how I arrange the overall structure of the next season: product lines, product structure, prices. What you need, or what you're missing, also shows up then. But it doesn't really have much influence on what I actually make next season.

Q: What part of a designer's work can't buyers influence?

They don't influence the design structure. To some extent buyers influence your selling structure, or your price structure, and what your selling points are. Specifically, the price ranges and tiers, how high or low the prices are, how the mid-range prices are spread: these affect buyers' decisions, and the information buyers give at that point affects me in turn. All this shapes how consumers finally receive the product, and in what position. I also talk to different buyers about what they see in my collection and what I think its highlights are. Price affects overall sales too.

Q: When did you start planning to bring your products to China?

Now. That's one reason we joined the showroom this season. Before, we did it all in Paris; (doing a showroom in China) is a first try.

Q: Will strong, structured womenswear find a market in China the way it does in Europe?

Yes. I feel fairly positive this time. I also posted some looks of boys wearing womenswear, and to my surprise they were very popular; some boys even want to order. Womenswear worn by men strikes me as a very interesting idea.

Q: How do you see China's womenswear market?

A hundred flowers are blooming and there are many forms, but underneath they come down to two main schools, the same contents in different packaging: either European or Japanese, with American style pulling some along too. (Style) means the direction your personal ideas get carried in when you design. I lean toward Europe and am influenced by Europe, but there is a grounding in Chinese culture in it too.

Q: Once you enter the Chinese market, will you work directly with multi-brand boutiques, or set up a showroom?

I should set up my own showroom first and reach buyers through it. That's how it should work at the start.

Q: This season, many foreign agents brought various designers to trade shows such as Shitang. Would you consider having a foreign showroom represent your brand?

That kind of showroom is a company, an agency. What I'm thinking about is what fits my own business model and business plan. I still feel my brand is somewhat different from others. If you show alongside other brands in a showroom, you have to look at that showroom's brand mix and market positioning, and whether they're at your level, because that reflects back on your brand. It's the same in Europe: you check whether everyone in the room is talking about the same thing. You can't just join any showroom. Some may not suit you at all, or your customers may not belong to that crowd.

Q: After you won the Fashion Fringe award in 2012, you received two years of sponsorship, including support for a studio. The two years must be up by now.

They ended last November.

Q: What new business plans have you made since?

First, I've moved out, into a new showroom much bigger than the old one. In two years the brand has changed a lot in what it has to do, and its size has started to change too, so I need a bigger showroom. Second, I'm thinking about developing a second line and pooling resources. A second line gives me more room to play, and it will also support the main line, so each will have a clearer role and goal. Right now the main line is quite distinctive: it targets one type of customer, its direction is narrow, and it can't be mass-produced. I'll adjust things on the business side and the structural side. I'll find stores I like, and agents, to help me with promotion, and then go down to individual VIP clients.

Q: How is the second line coming along?

It's still in development, and so is the name. There will be an announcement in six months, and I'll pick a time to launch it in China.

Q: Have you thought about moving your studio to China?

I'm about to. I'll go back and forth between Britain and Shanghai.

Q: More than a year ago, when Gemma A. Williams asked you, you said you wouldn't consider moving your studio to China. What changed your mind?

I feel it will help me grow locally, especially since the Chinese market is huge and needs a particular eye to read it. Europe has a well-developed market for small-scale manufacturing; China is very different in this respect, so part of my studio will be here. And the new business plan has to be carried out in China.

Q: So the second line is mainly meant to open up the Chinese market?

Yes. It grows out of the structure of my main line, so that more ordinary people can see my designs. It's very sensible, and easy to afford.

Q: The brand is more than four years old. How are the finances?

We break even now. Breaking even already makes me happy.

Q: How long does it usually take an independent designer to break even?

At least three years, I'd say. In 2010 the brand was struggling badly and had no influence anywhere. I thought hard about a lot of things then, hoping to do something on some platform that would make a difference for the brand. Only after the award in 2012 did I really start to grow on mainstream commercial platforms, and now we break even. What comes next is how to grow better.

Q: Unlike many emerging designers today, you worked for brands such as Boudicca before founding your own label, which you once called "a last resort." But more and more people in fashion now think this path deserves more encouragement. In your view, what path gives a designer the best chance of a long career?

I took this path, but I wouldn't say it necessarily suits others. It's just that at that stage, in that era, it was the best decision you could make. With life and work experience you think through problems much more fully. But building your own brand straight out of school isn't out of the question either. If a good opportunity comes, seize it.

Q: What counts as a good opportunity, a good moment?

Hmm... A good opportunity is a very good platform that can launch you, where you can truly show yourself in full. But such chances are rare. There are many graduates every year. Why would you be the best? Why would everyone think you'll succeed? That's the question. You face a lot of competition in the industry. It's hard.

Q: More and more Chinese students are studying at Saint Martins, and Saint Martins encourages students to break the rules and found their own brands. Since the PSW visa (the Post-Study Work Visa, which let overseas students stay and work in Britain for a year after finishing postgraduate study) was abolished, many have chosen to return to China. What is the mindset of the designers coming out of this environment, your juniors?

Every graduate faces the same question: work for someone else, or start your own business? It's a big choice. I can't promise you which is best for you; you can only weigh it against your own situation.

Q: The wider environment has nothing to do with it?

For me, getting a job and some training is better, and steadier than suddenly starting your own brand. School and the market are completely different. Building a brand means many difficulties, many decisions and many small chores you have no experience handling. It's agonizing. After working for two years, you're much calmer. So if you have the energy and the opportunity, work for someone else for a while. You'll see more clearly what you want, and many people don't actually know what they want.

Q: What do you think marks a mature designer?

First, there are two broad camps: do you want to succeed through form, or succeed in real commercial terms? Me, I'm better at product: its craft requirements, its concept, or starting from function. In the end I make clothes so that more people will wear them and they become part of everyday life, so that people talk about them and they have an effect out in the world, not to please everyone or to look good in photo shoots. That's why commercial partnerships, selling points and how widely the clothes are stocked all have to be considered. The other camp wants to be stars. For them the product isn't the most important thing; what matters most is getting talked about.

Q: So is a designer who wants to be a star an immature designer?

It depends on how you run your business. If that's the impression you give and those are the resources you have, why wouldn't you make use of them? It's just that my strengths are different from his, and this is the area where I'm most at home. But in the end I believe that the essence of a clothing designer, a fashion designer, is making clothes.