NYFW Runway Report: PH5 Spring 2017
PH5 is an up-and-coming womenswear label, who are trying to change the knitwear game one cool sweater at a time. Â The power behind the young brand are Mijia Zhang, who came from Nike and had a stint at Christopher Kane, and Wei Lin, whose background is in sportswear. The duo held their SS17 presentation — and NYFW debut — Â and we caught up for a brief chat.
FashionFiles: Who is the girl you’re designing for this season?
We design for sneaker girls, for girls who want to be comfortable and are a little bit sporty. We’re putting as many pockets as we can, as many reversible as we can, no dry clean only fabrics, we’re trying to be as friendly as we can.
We try to stay contemporary and functional. We want people to actually wear our pieces and have fun. We’re never high heel girls and we don’t want to be high heel girls.
FF: What were you inspired by for Spring 2017?
In one word, layering. We look at different artist work and how they play with different materials and textures on top of each other so that’s why you see a lot of transparency — so we can really layer them.
FF: What is the meaning of the name PH5?
It comes from the chemistry value, the PH value, on a scale of 14 where 7 is neutral, so we are gender neutral but slightly feminine. So in our collection we try to be feminine but still us, not a very girly girl.
FF: And why knitwear?
Wei Lin: I grew up in a knitwear factory; my parents ran the factory so they’ve been doing this for a long time. We know there is so much more that can be done with knitwear that no one else is doing.
FF: How does technique influence your design process?
With knitwear, you start from designing the fabric, choosing the right yarn. From the very beginning, it’s about the fabric. It’s not like you’re buying it at the market, it’s not fabric you cut. We take the time to understand the fabric and the technique.
A piece takes about 19 hours on a computer, and that’s not talking about the sewing of the sheer yarn, which you have to do very well, or else a lot of the yarns will come out.
See each look of the PH5 Spring 2017 collection in the slideshow above. And do tell — what are your thoughts on the collection?
