A Feel for Fashion: Tasha Liu
Tasha Liu is the founder of Labelhood, a platform and incubator for emerging designers in China. With boutiques in Shanghai’s French Concession neighbourhood as well as in four other cities in China, Labelhood also exists as a growing retail concept. Liu and her team produce runway shows for young designers at Shanghai Fashion Week. In 2019, Labelhood curated Guest Nation China at Pitti Uomo, an exhibition showcasing 10 young Chinese men's wear designers.
What creates an emotional response for you in fashion today?
For me, fashion is now not just a job, or a career; it is my way of thinking. Fashion brings together the best of art, culture and creativity and expresses it in a certain way, which can be a piece of fabric, a garment, a series or even a runway show. Through this language, we connect interesting minds and diverse values. Such moments are always fresh, sensitive, moving, and inspire me to keep my passion for fashion.
Often we see several designers arriving at a similar idea during a season. how do you explain this creative intuition?
People always resonate with something that evokes creativity, like a social event in a specific time period, or something beautiful. The fantastic aspect of fashion is that designers of different backgrounds and personal preferences will develop different answers to similar propositions. As garments are closely related to our skin, they are the most immersive form of art. Through clothing, designers carry their rich understanding of the music, culture and art of the times, which is a very contemporary and intimate expression that goes beyond a simple figurative idea.
How do you feel about designers expressing or interpreting their worldviews in their collections?
As I always say, there are two forms of the aesthetic of clothing. In the physical sense, such as a piece of clothing, you need to pay attention to it, watch it, touch it, feel it with tangible five senses. The second one is imaginative. The whole process of one collection – from a small piece of inspiration, using the cut and fabric to weave a story to a worldview of the collection – is actually very delicate and humane. The Chinese culture that LABELHOOD has been promoting through various campaigns is also based on this kind of storytelling, using the works of Chinese designers as a carrier to convey the beauty of Chinese culture and the changing times of China.
How would you like to see fashion evolving this year?
Fashion has always been one of the most dynamic and creative industries. Since the return of New York Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week, I am so pleased to find that Chinese designer brands have had positive presentation in both quantity and quality. I am personally looking forward to more creative cross-fertilisation from different cultural backgrounds this year at the four major fashion weeks, especially Shanghai Fashion Week which we will hold at the end of March this year.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.