The use of technology has always aided humans throughout history, but now more than ever it feels as though technology is no longer reliant on humans, rather, we rely on it. Susan Fang knows this, which is why when she used the help of AI to create her SS24 collection, she still wanted it to feel as human as possible.
This collection was an experiment for the Chinese-born designer. “We combined [AI] with hand craft painting to see if through that, you can still see a lot of emotion and what is still most important in our lives in this technology-based world,” she exclusively told Culted.
Despite the use of non-human intelligence, the collection still had a certain human vulnerability and a femininity that almost felt child-like. In fact, Fang explains that she used “my mum’s paintings of her childhood memories and my boyfriend’s childhood paintings” motivated by the fact that “we wanted to do something very pure and emotional.”
We saw lots of frills, such as in black lace socks reminiscent of girlhood, and pink and orange-stained three quarter leggings decorated with hanging bow ties. Though there was a girly feel to the collection, it was still designed with a young adult in mind with the use of exposing, sheer fabrics and midriffs being exposed.
Florals and Susan Fang basically go hand-in-hand. This season we saw them printed onto fabrics, stitched in sporadically and on accessories. One pair of sunglasses in particular took the shape of two blossoming pink flowers. It fed us the signature romantic Susan Fang feel, motivated by “the most beautiful thing in our memories between humans is invisible — whether it’s love, or care or empathy.”
What did feel different for the designer this season was the set design. We’re used to an extra agent display from Fang — last season the entire runway was covered in rose petals — but this season only a sculptural piece was placed in the middle of the runway resembling an origami-shaped human figure. “We wanted to have less of a crazy set and more fun styling this season,” she says, and that she did.
The accessories were the most playful and experimental we’ve seen Fang produce. Bulbous hard bags, bags with hanging pearl-like details and star-shaped beaded necklaces added a fun crafted element to the collection. To achieve this, Fang played with this idea of human versus machine yet again, creating “textural shapes that only 3D printing can create.” The human touch was still present as “we still had to hand spray paint everything so it’s a combination of craft and technology,” she explains to us.
Susan Fang found that sweet spot between technology-generated and human-made without compromising what makes each of them unique: precision and production on one side, and emotion on the other.
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