PHOENIX is an ode to the joy of making and the pleasure of the hand. A collection risen from the ashes of its predecessor, PHOENIX returned to the root ideologies and worldbuilding of ASCENSION, the designer’s graduate collection, to stand as both process and devoted practice as much as its resolution, becoming a mirror and record of navigating changing personal relationships with making, experimentation, and intention of design over a period of two years while designer Shirley Tang took on in-house design roles at Helmut Lang and Marc Jacobs Runway.

PHOENIX amplifies previous explorations of leather, pushing forward artisanal methods, softly sculpting through curves and geometry. Materials are strengthened to become sculptural foundations, leather carefully hand cut to blur the lines between natural feathers used throughout the collection, and the ones constructed and manipulated by hand. Feminine forms are shielded through boned channels and fortified seams, projecting outwards as armor, yet at times cut to reveal a sliver running through the heart meridian, with delicate feather atop bare seeming skin. Quotidien materials like power mesh and nylon hosiery, a through-line from previous RTW collections, are reconsidered with draping techniques and couture finishings, carefully pleated, hand tacked atop shoulder structures, and knotted with traditional techniques in this new rendering of ORIENS.

The collection’s editorial is shot with an incredible team of intentful collaboration. Lensed by James Bee, whose work spans the likes of ELLE China, PAPER, V Magazine, Vogue China, Vogue US, and with styling consultation from Joe Van Overbeek, who has been a foundational figure in the journeys of prominent emerging designers such as Elena Velez and Jane Wade. The chosen photographic process deliberately mirrors the collection’s making philosophy and process, captured through a process of long exposure and light painting that condenses prolonged moments into a singular image, its imperfections, motions and passage of time preserved in their irreplicable purity.