Today we’d like to introduce you to Jinghan Zong.
Hi Jinghan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Born and raised in Jinan, China, I recently finished my Master of Fine Arts degree in Fashion at Savannah College of Art and Design. My design aims to represent the next generation of fashion by building a timeless wardrobe that shares emotional and cultural connections with consumers. My international background and Bachelor’s degree from the University of California San Diego have based my keen interests in art, culture, and humanities. Exploring novel shapes and silhouettes, I value the balance between functionality and aesthetics. Ultimately, my designs wish to join the ongoing movement of slow fashion and be cherished by the wearers for a longer time. In addition to fashion design, I am also a fashion illustrator who is drawn to both digital and watercolor painting. My works are characterized by the balance of color as well as the expression of moods and emotions. I favor the use of controlled brush strokes and gradient colors during composition. After winning FIDA’s Student Poetic Award in 2022, I continue my exploration of digital illustration.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The biggest challenge comes from the dramatic change of major from science to fashion. In the summer of 2017, I did an internship as a lab assistant at Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena, Germany, where I started to think seriously about what career I would have passion for the next twenty or thirty years – an insightful question raised by my undergraduate Chemistry Professor, who dabbles in both Organic Chemistry and Music. Fashion has always been a dream for me since my younger days in middle school, but everyone then was subconsciously superimposed with the expectation of a future scientist, engineer, or financial professional. After finding out that I should stay true to myself, I eventually made my decision one year later in 2018, after volunteering at LA Fashion Week and completing various art courses at my undergraduate college. Preparing my fashion portfolio was another struggle because I had to start from zero. Luckily, I was supported by my family and my advisor during several sleepless nights.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My undergraduate study in science has given me numerous inspirations in fashion. I’ve made a collection that took shapes from the moving patterns of electrically charged particles and another collection that captured the rhythmic flows of the Fibonacci sequence. Ultimately, I pursue clean and voluminous silhouettes that are innovative in pattern cutting. Converting two-dimensional patterns to three-dimensional shapes is my main focus of research. I aim to make my design look effortless, timeless, and comfortable, but with adequate design details that will interact with the wearers and promote their wearing experiences. In addition, I am keenly interested in designing print patterns. My primary inspirations for print design come from abstract concepts, which allow me to freely translate them into organic and artistic shapes. In my thesis collection Yóu: Wandering, I have created a series of interconnected accordion-like patterns for printing, laser-cutting, and layering that captures the poetic aesthetics of Chinese philosophy.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I believe risk-taking and problem-solving are inseparable parts of a career in fashion. I enjoy taking risks and breaking challenges, which usually bring me creative outcomes that I’ve never expected before. Moreover, there can always be a balance between the risks and the foreseeable results. During the design process, many risks are negotiable. I remember when I was working on one of my studio collections, I planned to use the element of red blood drops. My professor opposed this idea because she thought the result would be visually provoking. After several discussions, I determined to adhere to my idea because it was a crucial element in my concept. But instead of directly spreading red dots on white fabrics, I enlarged one dot, cropped part of it, toned the red to a saturated pink, printed it on sheer organza, and layered it with another pink camo print I designed. The result was much more implicit and muted.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jinghanzong.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jinghan_zzz/
Image Credits
Image 1, 2 – Photography: Andrew Gabay; Model: Lauren Kenya, Jillian Snapp; HMUA: Isabella Ramsey; Jewelry: Zhuwei Lu; PA: Kazimir Skye, Genevieve Kerr Image 3,4 – Photography: Jonny Image 5,6 – Photography: Jacqueline Kim; MUA: Shreya Dhar; Model: Aviana DiPasquale, Evelyn Skyrm, Sydney Brown
