Who is Chinese fashion designer Angel Chen from Netflix series Next in Fashion?

May 22 , 2020

Netflix’s Next In Fashion featured creations by Chinese fashion designer Angel Chen. Photo: @angelchenwig/Instagram

Winner Minju Kim’s partner, the Shenzhen-born designer presented at Milan, London and Shanghai Fashion Weeks and merges Eastern and Western cultures

Meet Chinese fashion designer Angel Chen. Chosen as i-D magazine’s designer to watch in 2014, she joined Forbes China’s “30 under 30” in 2016 and the Business of Fashion 500 in 2017 and 2018. She is also a Woolmark prize finalist and the first-ever Chinese designer to collaborate with H&M.

She has also presented at the fashion weeks of London, Milan and Shanghai, and recently took part in Netflix’s competition show, Next In Fashion, as the other half of the much-adored “Dragon Princess” team with South Korean designer Minju Kim. Chen has also joined Shanghai’s virtual fashion show with a smashing five-minute digital presentation.

Digital darling

How does one stage a fashion show in the time of coronavirus? Ask Angel Chen. With limited resources – from having models stuck in lockdown to inaccessible shoot locations – Chen and her team pulled through just in time to make Shanghai’s Digital Fashion Week last April.

In a Vogue interview, Chen credited her team for taking on the challenge, as they strategised how she could best launch her collection in a digital space. The designer styled the collection herself and had to direct the shoot from a safe distance – through video call! – as she was in self-quarantine.

Her virtual presentation, called “Aurora”, showed no signs of the restrictions she and her team were subject to. “The virtual show really allowed me to go all-out creatively,” Chen told Vogue. She uploaded the full video on her brand’s Instagram.

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