Zoe Champion and Wei Lin’s first runway show for Ph5 culminated in two models carrying piles and piles of clothes down the runway. Was the eco-minded label trying to make a statement on overconsumption? A laundry day joke? Instead, it was a way to reference the facility in Dongguan, China that makes their clothes. The whole collection was in fact a “homage to our factory,” per the show notes, which also read, “this is the heart of Ph5, our factory is our atelier, they are our cheerleaders, and our innovators.”
Lin’s mother worked her way up from the factory floor to running the business. As a result, Lin has known some of the employees since she was a child. Suddenly, those sturdy graphic pieces felt sentimental. “We wanted to show that there is real beauty in a factory, and in a Chinese factory,” Champion said. “I don’t think people see knitwear as an atelier practice, but there’s so much knowledge that people have acquired over years and years and years.”
The past few seasons, Ph5 has been experimenting with trompe l’oeil prints in its knitwear, printing five pocket denim on top of skirts or pants. This season, they took pictures of the factory and turned them into pop-art prints. The label is best known for its compact, heavy knits, but the moments of lightness were most memorable, such as a floaty Pepto-pink dress that had a flouncy variation of the brand’s signature wave. The show was staged outside on the roof of the Public Hotel, which was an opportunity to show off the dyes that change color with UV exposure. The eclectic styling—with chunky Hoka slides, knee-highs that could be compression socks, and extraneous belts—was a little much at times, but felt appropriate for the downtown setting nonetheless.
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