Canwen Zhao

Grey Sheep

canwen35.fashion

Location

Melbourne City Centre / Australia

University

rmit university

Graduation year

2022

Contact

Zhao Canwen is a multidisciplinary fashion designer temporarily based in Melbourne. Her work has ranged from fashion, the costume of film, and production design to IP design and commercial illustration. Zhao's Chinese background, painting passion, and further studies in fashion and art over the past ten years give her a unique aesthetic vision. She likes using colour and materials to express concepts, and her experience working and living in various fields has given her unlimited inspiration and critical thinking. Her work often addresses cultural, religious and environmental issues. Zhao believes that fashion is not only about style but also life.

Latest Collection

35 life

Canwen's project, 35 Life, represents her design aesthetic and sustainable practice. The project uses upcycled second-hand clothing to create urban outdoor style products with highlighted colour design elements that always look 'new'. The products can quickly transform into a pretty bag for daily carry and home storage, and the bag serves as an original package for sale, providing more opportunity for resale in the second-hand market. The project aims to reduce the waste of resources and over-packaging products in the fashion industry. The concept comes from the traditional Chinese cultural trigram ‘Fire Feng Ding’, which means ‘change the old to the new’. The designs are more functional for groups that cannot expose skin to the sun for long periods, accommodating changes in urban living scenarios. 35 Life brings a relaxed, pleasant visual and wearing experience to the highly stressed urban population.