New York is one of the most diverse cities on the planet. More than 200 languages are spoken within the five boroughs, and according to the city, 37% of New Yorkers were born outside the U.S. and close to half are bilingual.
That diversity was on display at New York Fashion Week on Saturday. Shows from designers who hail from Africa, Asia and Europe, or whose parents came from those places, were the norm. And at a time when diversity initiatives are under attack by the new presidential administration and the threat of deportation hangs over immigrants from all over, the importance of a global background was even more apparent.
In Tribeca on Saturday morning, British-Nigerian designer Chuks Collins debuted a new collection in collaboration with Lush Decor, a multimillion-dollar home decor brand founded by Chinese-American Jenny Jing Zhu. Both designers told Glossy that their immigrant backgrounds have played a huge role in their design inspiration and the way they run their businesss.
Zhu, who immigrated to the U.S. 20 years ago speaking very little English, got her first job in the country working as a nanny. In the intervening years, she raised her kids as a single mother, faced the threat of deportation from her former business partner, and managed to turn Lush into a $100 million business.
“I had two babies, kind of” Zhu said. “A 1-year old child and a new business. It was hard, but immigrants have a drive. You come here, and you want to put your head down and work, buy a house, and build a life for yourself, and you work so hard for it. That’s my American dream.”
Zhu, a Fashion Institute of Technology graduate, has a fashion background and sees decor and fashion as complementary art forms. Her collection designed with Collins is debuting on Amazon later this year.
Collins similarly drew inspiration from his international background. Born in the U.K., Collins grew up going back and forth between England and Nigeria. He first developed a love for clothing from his grandmother in Nigeria, who taught him the art of tailoring.
“I’ve lived in Nigeria, I’ve lived in Europe, I’ve lived in the U.S.,” he said. “I bring all of that into my design, and I really try to bridge the gap between African and Western design philosophies.”
The collection was entitled “Mycelium Whispers,” and mushrooms were a prominent motif. Collins said he designed the collection while undergoing chemotherapy treatment and using mushroom-based ayurvedic medicine. He was fascinated by vast networks of mushrooms that grow underground and the unseen connections between many lifeforms.
Those hidden connections are an apt metaphor for immigrant designers, whose cultural heritage often informs their work in ways both visible and invisible. Allina Liu, the acclaimed designer of her relatively new namesake brand, was born in the U.S., and her clothes don’t explicitly show influence from her parents’ Chinese culture.
“Early on, I felt this pressure to design with things like Mandarin collars to honor that side of me. But the more I did it, it just didn’t feel right,” she said.
Instead, she was drawn to more outré sources of inspiration. Her latest collection, shown in an intimate, appointment-only presentation in the East Village, was inspired by cinema, in particular the arthouse 2009 Greek film “Dogtooth”. The film, the breakout feature by director Yorgos Lanthimos who would later win wide acclaim with the Oscar-winning “Poor Things,” is a surreal, often terrifying film about social isolation and familial abuse.
“I consume a disturbing amount of horror,” Liu said. “And horror imagery is often a jumping off point for my designs.”
A previous Liu collection took inspiration from the 2019 horror film “Midsommar,” directed by Ari Aster about a sinister Scandinavian cult. Liu is a bit of a cult favorite, worn by celebrities like Cardi B, Justine Skye and Awkwafina.
But Liu said her parents’ experience of immigrating to a new country was still formative, even if her designs don’t explicitly nod to anything visibly East Asian.
“It absolutely shapes me. … Watching my parents come here and [seeing] how hard they struggled in a new place, it lights a fire under your ass,” Liu said. “You don’t want to let them down. My parents don’t really share the love of horror, but they’re just happy as long as I’m successful. It’s a very Chinese mindset.”
The Trump administration has made its intentions on immigration clear. Even in the first few weeks since the inauguration, the crackdown on immigration both legal and illegal has been swift, including mass deportations and the announcement of mass immigrant detention on Guantanamo Bay. Zhu said it’s a difficult time to be an immigrant trying to make it in the U.S.
But a survey of the NYFW calendar shows a variety of designers whose backgrounds lie outside the United States. Also on Saturday was Filipnxt, an event showcasing the work of Filipino designers like Gabby Garcia and Adante Leyesa. Bevza, a brand led by Ukrainian designer Bevza, also showed on Saturday, and late on Friday, Shanghai-based Juzui showed its newest collection under designer Taoray Wang.
Wang was born in China, raised in Japan, lives in the U.K. with her English husband, works in Shanghai and travels frequently to America. The Juzui collection she designs is based on the theme of a winter garden, inspired by Wang’s own nine-acre garden at her home in England, filtered through a Chinese design lens.
“All the traveling, having friends and family all from many different cultures, it all just naturally blends together,” Wang said. “A lot of cultures combining into something new, it’s a good thing.”
