Pullman Voices: Feng Chen Wang

0:00How can we innovate creatively and forge new ideas while still respecting our cultural heritage? This is Pullman Voices, a podcast by Monocle Radio that offers fresh perspectives from cultural pioneers, business leaders and creative minds challenging how we see and engage with the world. I'm your host, Tom Edwards. Today's episode is all about updating tradition and our guest is the designer, Feng Chenwang.

0:42Feng Chen Wang started her eponymous fashion label a decade ago. Originally from China, she came to London to study at the RCA and upon graduation in 2015, was invited to show her final degree collection at New York Fashion Week by Virgil Abloh, an opportunity that set her career off to a flying start, and now sees her running studios in both London and Shanghai. Wang mostly designs menswear, drawing on her Chinese heritage, traditional craftsmanship and ancient techniques that she likes to reimagine in her own way. These historic starting points, combined with the street style she loves, gives her looks a futuristic take on classic tailoring.

1:20Wang's also collaborated with various brands to redesign modern classics, including Converse, Audi and UGG. and she designed the uniforms for the flag bearers at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. In today's episode, Monocle's Paige Reynolds heads to Feng Sheng Wang's London studio to learn more about how she takes classic designs and techniques, whether that be a Chinese dyeing process or a pair of Chuck Taylor 70s, and gives them her own twist to launch them into the future.

1:57Hi Feng. Hey. Thank you so much for joining us today. Firstly, congratulations. You just celebrated your 10-year anniversary. How would you describe the Feng Chen Wang design language? My design language is more about putting together different cultures, but also use a very Feng Chen Wang style to communicate to the world. So you see some sports element, which is a connect a little bit to the street element. And you still see a high fashion, like tailoring things there. You also see like traditional technique, traditional element there. I'm the person who has a really old soul, but have a really modern lifestyle, like living today and future.

2:52so the feng cheng once they'll also come up and like historical but also futuristic traditional but also modern so it's a lot of like contrasts come together which is i love east but also west i know it's quite big to say what's the east culture or west culture it's quite big but just imagine like two different things that come together it's like yin and yang i'm female designer but i'm design may as well so it's all come together and this is a great contrast for me to really bring out together sometimes inside of me also fighting each other say old things new things past the future modern or whatever so it's unique it's not like one's style forever but it's always like come together in a good way so when we talk about updating tradition obviously you throw to your chinese heritage a lot within your designs what does it mean to you and how do we see it in your designs and your design process i grew up in south of china called fujian the way how i grow up is how i watch all these craftsmanship a local artisan all these techniques there's a lot of like natural plants die happening in the connection so there's some like tea tea dye tie dye also the connect technique i just use is called botanical dye which is we are using a natural new plant take it from the tree like a plant and then you need a very specific technique you have to make it through pressure and temperature to be able to have leaf ink transfer into the fabric.

4:46So it's more like you are putting a piece of leaf on fabric and you pressure it hard, then have a specific temperature, then the ink will automatically transfer into the fabric. But then after that, you have to dry the under sun. So everything is very organic, which is beautiful, amazing. So some technique that you know the process, but we're not limited to just using the old process. We're understanding, we're learning. The key things that go into that is am I switching the process? It's saying step three, step two, how about we switch them? So it will come out another version. But then you have to respect, you have to learn that historical technique first.

5:36If you never know the old technique, you never know how you're going to make it happen into the new. Did these historical techniques originate in China? So very good question. It was started from China. That's something I love. Now not limited to China. This is something we always say, international brand, the language you're going to communicate, it's never going to limit it to one place. It needs to be well developed in Japan, but also India has amazing some natural diet as well. Europe also have great natural diet. Japan is great as well. But when you research everything back to the history, yes, it was studied from there, but the world never limited to one place.

6:21So it's been developed into different places. It's just the same idea like tea culture. So this is something I always love. And I would like to communicate with the world through one thing that people also knowing that but they having a different version in a different region. This is very important. It doesn't matter if natural dye is a Chinese technique or some other place. The key message come up is how we link together through this specific technique. And that's something I love to always keep developing. But for me to inspire from Chinese one is because this is a part of my DNA, my blood as well.

7:06So it's easier to communicate with the people I know from the local artisan and then to keep developing, to help the local artisan as well, to bring the new ideas. They sometimes say to me, oh, I've been here for more than 60 years. I never know that you can change these things because most of the people, they always follow the traditions, all the process. But never know that. What about if you put it here and there? Switching that to the beginning. Turn this to the end. So I think that's how my brain working together. New way. New things. I've got an amazing bag in front of me. It's a 3D printed bag and it's inspired by a traditional Chinese tea or traditional Chinese tea ceremony.

7:56Maybe you could talk to us about this bag and the design process behind it. yeah it's lovely bag i always love teabag and i always want to develop this idea back to long time ago but i haven't figured out any process yet until two years ago when i'm here in london i love english breakfast tea i love you know afternoon tea here all moment to come together and it's also linked back to how i grew up in my province so my province is all about the tea culture so the chinese tea culture is actually back to my hometown and the first chinese tea culture come from my hometown fujian province go to europe and not back to thousand years ago as well it's quite interesting story so i think a tea is also one of the great element or story to connect to everyone so it's quite interesting that we i guess chose this bag because as you said very strong tea cultures in both china and the uk yeah do you think that spanning these two cultures is a kind of superpower and that there's this kind of positive friction between london and Shanghai and traveling back and forth and all the influences kind of clashing.

9:23Exactly, because I would say myself never really just stay in one place forever. Also, the world changes fast. Fashion industry changes fast as well. And for me as a designer, it's great for me to really get experience from different things, different culture, different history, working with different people as well. At the same time, I would say that from now to future, we're still not just limited to ourselves as just China or UK. Things will go more globally. I would love to experience more. You know, it could be some other country's culture, But then you still bring them back to the two nodes where we base.

10:15And I think it is also quite a great experience to be open-minded enough to knowing different cultures, to knowing different countries as well, because the world will become smaller and people will know everything through social media. And then to be able to also create an international brand like us, Feng Chen Wang, I think it's such great to connecting all the different things together as one. So in a way, spanning two cultures also opens your mind up to how cultural collaboration can be so beneficial. It doesn't matter who's involved. Yeah, exactly. I think it's very important for us to see a bigger picture.

11:00Fashion is evolving so quickly at such a crazy pace. Do you think your approach to design, where there is a nod to tradition, but also, you know, very much an appreciation of more kind of future looking forms and shapes. Do you think that that helps your designs feel timeless in a way because you've got this tradition that's kind of merging with the kind of more future focused designs as well? Definitely. One example I would like to share, which is the combination with Converse. So I'm the person who loves something has a known history, classic heritage as well. So one of the famous footwear, which is people love that footwear, which is a Czech 70 Converse.

11:50but how I design that in a new way which is I deconstruct them cut two pairs putting them together again it's still track 70 but then it has a new knife it's like a new bird so a challenging things in the design process is every time how you're going to give a very historical classic product a new knife it's not easy either can you do a better design or you're never going to achieve this classic shape so i love this process i enjoy that a lot do you think when you do these collaborations let's say the collaboration with converse is it hard to keep i guess fans of feng cheng wang and fans of converse happy you know the consumers of both brands and the conversations that you have with converse that push and pull between the two brands aesthetics and identity how does that unfold it takes a long time but i'm really enjoying the process i think it's i love my challenging things as well i working on the vision picture first like the world and like what things i want to bring to the world what i want to communicate to the world what's in the brand there i'm talking about the brand brand it's not just about a product design It's a brain communication as well, come together.

13:12So I think it's been very successful. Even say Converse customer, Fington One customer, they both love it. And I think once you're having a great design with a great story, also communicated with a meaningful message, people will love it no matter who they are. We have enough product, to be honest. You don't need a new, new, new design for every single product. And sometimes timeless product will be great. And that thing is really connect to your consumer well. That's more important. When you're dealing with a brand like Converse, you're kind of dealing with a whole other set of traditions that that brand represents, particularly when those kind of those iconic basketball shoes.

14:04So when you're trying to think about respecting those traditions, what elements of those designs do you have to stay true to and which elements can you update or change? A lot of other brands always have their own rules, say something you can change, something you cannot change. But I always like to give a challenge in things and say, well, what about if I want to change that? You know, so never say no, never say yes. So I always keep a door open there. So I think there's also another thing that when I'm working with a brand partner, I always want to challenge something. I know a big company always have a certain news there, like, oh, you can't change this, you can't change that.

14:56But for example, Converse Seuss, like the shape of the Chuck 70, which is already amazing. for me i'm not saying that i'm going to change track 70 into a totally new that people not even recognize what's that so i love as what it is as what it was in the history that's something related to the heritage as well but then a lot of people were just updating the cover based on the old silhouette or given a new a piece of fabric but i don't want to do that so that won't require another thing that you open your own new model which is quite challenging so i think the best design language will be people still can recognize is still track 70 but the new way i always say that is part of the evolution as well.

15:52You take it to future. What does it mean to be a global designer in 2025? To be a global designer in 2025 is about open mind, open your heart to listening different things, but then you're still knowing who you are and what you stand for. I think everything what I design, what I bring to the world is also connect to my community. So there's a big group of people as a global citizen. They also travel a lot. They have a multi-background as well. Maybe they was born in one place, rising up in another place, educated somewhere else, and then traveling a lot as well. So to be honest, as a designer, I think we just need to stand out of our own box and not limited to one thing.

16:49And also to brave enough to have evolution and innovation in our mindset. Looking ahead to the next 10 years, where do you see the brand from a business perspective? What are your ambitions? I think for me, definitely, we would love to become a very successful international brand. but what successful means to me it's not just a business growth. I'm more focused on how we're going to build a brand that people appreciate. I appreciate the word, the technique, traditional things, all these amazing history as well. Successful also means how we're going to support more people, people like us people who can dream bigger and how you can make your dream come true i'm not person i'm still on my way i'm still saying to my team saying hey it's still beginning of our brand it's new start you know like yeah it's back to the day that i just created my brand like 10 years ago and now how i see my brain is like another new start for now and I'm really excited to the future.

18:09So the team also growing. My team are very international from everywhere. Yeah, mix of different nationalities as well, which is a lot of. And then I think this is one good sample that we are also having this sustainable process. A lot of great things come from the history, but protect some great technique as well, pass to the new generation. We also impact the new designer or student. They know that they can dream big. They will be able to do it. And that's something I think in the brain can do more. A good impact.

18:57Thanks to Feng Chen Wang and to Paige Reynolds. This is Pullman Voices, a Monocle Radio production for Pullman Hotels. This episode was produced by Holly Fisher and Paige Reynolds. I'm Tom Edwards. For more on Pullman Voices, head to Pullman's Instagram page at Pullman Hotels. And for more information and hotel bookings, you can visit pullman.accor.com. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, head to monocle.com forward slash radio or wherever you get your podcasts to follow and subscribe.