SANKUANZ autumn/winter 2022 collection chapter one: a room with no sound

SANKUANZ AW22, titled A Room With No Sound, re-deconstructs high fashion and street culture in its symbolic method of destruction, combining with the classic elements from previous collections, enhancing the narrative style of the brand through the transition from the old to the new.

This collection breaks the barrier of distinct social classes with a combination of high fashion and street elements, while retaining the sharp contradiction and antagonism between diferent styles. Thrusting square-shouldered suits represent the originality of contemporary youth who refuse assimilation. The fluctuating pleats is a continuation of fabric exploration, expressing surging emotions in a destructive and abstract way with layers and twists. Street-art grafti and bleach efects of a casual and crude style all over hoodie ensembles emphasize the rebellious spirit against mainstream social norms. The juxtaposition of holes, spikes and tulles with a stark contrast of perplexity, brutality and poetry reveals the opposition of high-end exquisiteness and chaotic disorder, constituting a two-way contradiction of resistance and desire.

The sculpture pieces carried by models are created by artist Yuyu Wang. The organic shapes, made from silicon, plaster and resin, arouse the imagination of human body parts, or even internal organs. In collaboration with SANKUANZ, these works are held in hand or wrapped around models’ neck or limbs, presenting a scenic structure consisting of body and bionic objects, artificial parts and “organs”. This method, similar to proliferation, can also be seen in footwear. The collaboration between SANKUANZ and SCRY (an innovative and experimental footwear brand) hybridize two types of shoes made with 3D printing technology based on the idea of shoe-in-shoe, combining two shapes which oppose each other yet cannot be split apart.

The show takes place at former Union Church in Shanghai. A whole new version of A Room With No Sound, created specially for SANKUANZ and tailored to the brand by the band MUMA, is performed in the solemn space. The poetic rock music conveys the rebellion spirit of idealism against the existing systems. The dance under the sunshine after being silenced, depicted in the song, is transformed into models with milky white eyes or painted faces walking onto the runway. Hearing is replaced by the optical sense, and silence is transposed into blindness. Humans are driven by missing senses to explore new ways of connection with the world, towards reconstruction from the chaos, and a new birth after destruction – which coincides with the theme of this collection.