Chris Chang: Designer, Judge & Mother
After starting her own women’s wear line in Taipei and an eight-year stint as the General Manager of Prada Taiwan, Chris Chang headed to Shanghai to stage her triumphant return to fashion, launching Poesia, a line of sophisticated kids’ couture for girls aged 4-14 in Shanghai. The children’s line was so successful that requests for adult-sized versions of her designs convinced her to jump back into the women’s wear market two years later with Poesia by Chris Chang. Now the Parsons graduate has taken to the airwaves, sharing her wealth of knowledge with young designers as a judge on My Style, China’s answer to Project Runway. Shanghai TALK caught up with Chang between filming to discuss the effects of reality TV on young designers, talk about how her enterprising style affects her entrepreneurial success and reminisce about the inspiration behind Poesia.
Do you think shows like Project Runway and My Style are helping young designers?
It’s the 15 minutes of fame that Andy Warhol talked about. Otherwise these young designers would be toiling for years like hundreds of thousands of graduating designers every year, but even that is premised on whether they have real talent or not. And yet, with these shows, designers are able to get instant recognition and work opportunities if they are entertaining enough and have a bit of talent.
When you assess the works of young designers on the show are you more drawn to technical brilliance or do you value contestants who push artistic boundaries?
I judge both on creative and technical grounds. However, given that the contestants are mostly students, the technical part plays a less important role in the final outcome of the score. If the designs are neither creatively inspiring nor technically executed, well, that makes me impatient on the show. I always tell them that they should be at the height of their creativity because they don’t need to be concerned about commercialism too much during this contest, so in the end I guess an abundance of creative energy is still what is most expected of young designers. That means talent.
Is it true that the inspiration for leaving the corporate design world as Prada Taiwan’s GM and your background as a women’s wear designer to create Poesia was your daughter?
I created a children’s line because there was nothing along the lines of what I wanted to buy for my daughter: a shrunken version of adult fashion. The children’s wear I created was irrelevant to traditional children’s wear. To me, [children’s wear and women’s wear] are the same, I don’t design them differently because that is the doctrine behind the two lines: a woman dressed up like a glamorous child with very girly and quirky touches and a child dressed like a grown up fashionista. The difference is with the way the patterns are constructed, and not so much in the ways designs are formed.
You seem like a very impulsive, confident and daring person. I heard that you applied to Parson’s just because you heard it was the best design school, then you sent two boxes of your designs for Poesia to Barney’s New York before you had even set up a factory to produce the clothes. How do you feel these personality traits help you as a designer?
These traits help me as an entrepreneur, but they don’t help me as a business person, unfortunately! I am not a complete free spirit with a daring soul. I do study the facts, but then I jump into it without solid strategic planning. I hope I can improve upon these traits and become more cool and calculating. As a fashion designer I am more and more aware that this is the only profession in the arts field where you have to be an artist and a businessman to stay in business. If not, you either get a CEO or go bankrupt.
What celebrity's wardrobe would you most like to raid?
Daphne Guinness and Lady Gaga.
Poesia. 1-2F, 301 Guangyuan Xi Lu, near Hongqiao Lu. Tel: 6448 3401. Web: www.poesiaworld.com
