Chalk it as much as Bella Hadid’s widely-documented cowboy period or to the affect of Vogue cover-certified horse women Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner, however one thing about stomping round in some leather-based fringe and cowboy boots has conquered the hearts of fashion-minded twenty-somethings.
At face worth, Mark Gong’s spring assortment means that he’s clocked the pattern. However truly, Gong was a pioneer. It was in 2019 that he first riffed on the cowgirl theme, and this season he gave it a do-over. “I used to be chatting with my pals and mentioned I want to re-do it” he mentioned. The impetus was a film night time that includes the 1991 Ridley Scott movie Thelma and Louise.
“I do know it’s not a film about cowboys,” Gong mentioned, explaining that he was interested in the rebellious, freewheeling power of its principal characters, two defining traits of who he calls his “Gong Women.” It additionally impressed him, he mentioned, to take a look at the American West with a extra female perspective, slightly than from the male gaze with which he designed that first connection.
He largely pulled it off, excluding the humorous however largely simply gratuitous rearview mirror and police siren bra tops—which had been truly designed in collaboration with the women-led jewellery design studio Yvumin. Different fashions carried gasoline pumps and wore outlandishly lengthy thigh-high boots with their fringed and ruffled garments.
Among the enjoyable leather-based pencil skirts and bandeau tops he made had been embossed or embroidered with tooling motifs, which reappeared on his energy tailoring and low stacked heel boots (“younger ladies are much less taken with excessive heels!”). He additionally confirmed t-shirts and denims and cargo pants, and unveiled an extension of his ongoing Nike collab. Collectively it made for a covetable, industrial assortment, delectably packaged as an entertaining story. All in all, Gong is proving to be one in every of Shanghai’s most proficient designer-merchants.
