Cowboys, knits, a touch of goth

Designer Wang Zhi's clothes feature Western cowboy dusters combined with traditional knitwear for an avant-garde, Gothic aesthetic, Chen Nan reports.

Wang Zhi, better known as Uma Wang in the West, has been dreaming about making clothes since she was a teenager. As one of the country's leading fashion designers who has also launched a career in the West, she is in Beijing to showcase her designs. Held at the Gehua Design Hall, the show displays her works created during the past three years. Wang has just opened her first store in the capital's trendy Sanlitun Village.

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"My inspiration comes from the mundane and everyday. Any small experience can touch my heart: people, objects, colors, smells, memories," says Wang. "The fashion I create is made of these emotions, feelings and impressions, and inspired by the materials themselves. Everything I encounter influences my work in a different way."

Before launching her own label in 2005 in London, Wang, a native of Hebei province, studied at China Textile University and Central Saint Martins, and had 10 years of experience designing for Chinese labels. Her training and the years of experience are evident in her signature knitting techniques and have helped Wang created her own style.

In 2010, she opened a flagship store in Shanghai's affluent Xintiandi neighborhood, was in the headlines during Shanghai Fashion Week, and had been featured in Vogue.

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In her latest fashion show, the 38-year-old presents her clothes in a quiet way, instead of the usual runway style. She hangs her clothes in a spacious room with the hope of engaging and communicating with the visitors in a soulful way. By doing so, Wang says, the connection between her clothes and visitors is direct yet unconscious, without the distractions of models.

The exhibition also shows off her new creations from the 2012 Spring/Summer series and 2012 Fall/Winter series, which debuted in Milan in April.

Keeping to her East-meets-West concept, Wang's clothes feature cowboy dusters with traditional knitwear for an avant-garde, Gothic aesthetic.

Using mostly black with hints of olive green and the occasional khaki, her color palette is deceptively simple, and the attraction is in the combination of fabrics and textures with subtle detailing, rather than having complicated prints.

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Next, she hopes to balance shapes and fabrics. Wang says her priority has always been to create high quality fashion with functionality, keeping her designs chic and simple.

"I hope a person wearing my clothes can feel more self-confident and free, and the quality of the clothes can arouse in them a romantic feeling," says Wang.

A fan of vintage clothes, Wang says she is "someone from the past".

"I love the smell of a vintage store, which makes me excited," she says, adding that she has never expected her design to receive critical acclaim internationally.

To widen her domestic market, Wang also cooperated with Brand New China, a two-year-old fashion store located in Beijing's Sanlitun area, to sell Chinese designs.

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn.