Interview: Fashion Designer Alexander King Chen

Sep 28

Sep 28 Interview: Fashion Designer Alexander King Chen

After years in Taiwan, where he’s dressed A-list celebrities, undertaken humanitarian endeavors, and made three fashion films, designer Alexander King Chen decided to retreat to New York to ask himself a simple question: Where am I?

Scroll down to hear about the designer’s journey of self-discovery, as well as his thoughts on everything from currents trends to eastern vs. western fashion.

Photos by Asante Holder, ***@capturebyasante.***

Why did you decide to go into fashion?

I want to say that I knew I wanted to be a fashion designer when I was a fetus—almost like I was born knowing that's what I was going to do, like it wasn’t even a decision. My mom loved art and fashion, and since I was really young we'd go shopping and do lots of artsy things, so with her influence I feel pretty much like it was meant to be from day one.

How would you describe your work?

Well for years I designed ready-to-wear, so my early work was really dictated by trends and what was selling. But then 5 years ago, I shifted directions and decided to make my work more story driven versus being driven by sales. Now it’s so much more theatrical, it’s dramatic—almost like a production compared to what I used to do. Much harder also, because it’s not designed with sales in mind. But this storytelling type of designing is much more true to who I am, and in combination with the short films I’ve done I feel that my work is much more impactful now for the audience as well.

What would you say is the biggest difference between western and eastern fashion?

The east uses a LOT of color. We’re always embellishing, adding beading, adding drama. But in New York, for example, it’s very black and white, very neutral. You’d be surprised but it’s a whole different way of designing even when these basic tenets are different.

Do you draw more inspiration from eastern or western fashion?

Fashion in both cultures is amazing so it’s hard to say….I’d really say it’s an even mix between east and west as well as what I imagine the future of fashion in both those places to be.

What city do you consider the most fashionable?

Well every city definitely has its own unique fashion sense…this is really hard! Honestly, this doesn’t exist anymore, but Hong Kong in the 90’s was so interesting with the mix of British influence and Asian culture. People were pairing Chanel with H&M and Versace….I kind of really like that! Even still, when I go to weddings in Hong Kong…it’s like going to the Oscars, everyone is so decked out, like we’re in the 1920’s.

What was your inspiration for your SS24 collection?

I’ve been on a bunch of different journey’s the last few years…my mom passed away, I made films, I moved to a new city…so I decided to make every look in this collection representative of an important event in my life. One of the designs tells the story of my birth, another is a visual representation of my time in Taiwan…just keeping true to myself and how I perceived all these personal histories.

What is the process of creating all these pieces like?

This collection was SO hard to make—at one point my hands were bleeding because of how difficult some of the fabrics were to work with. It was just very tedious and meticulous because of the vision I had, I’d say even more so than previous collections because I was really trying to incorporate lots of different things from my life, which meant using a wider range of fabrics than usual. But you can’t say something represents your life and then just use one fabric!

Will this collection be getting a film?

Not yet :).

What do you think of all the shows you’ve seen so far? Any trends you love?

To be honest, I’m not in the scene as much in terms of trends these days—personally I’m just wearing the same thing every single day. Of course I’m scrolling, but personally I’m not putting that sort of effort into myself, just really focusing on my own designs. I love the focus on ethical materials recently though, the shift to pleather, for example, I think is really admirable.

Lastly, any advice to up and coming designers?

Please have perseverance! You need a big heart because there might be a lot of people who will pull you down—even just by accident—but you need to not let it stop you from being kind to yourself and others. It’s a very ego-driven industry, but being kind will help you so much. And I’m not here to say that I’m the nicest person, but we’re all human beings, so it pays to be kind.