GLOBAL YOUNG TALENT 2020: SU YANG AND QIQI ZHANG'S LABEL LAFAÇADE | ELEGANT HANDBAGS THAT STAND THE TEST OF TIME

Qiqi Zhang and Su Yang are the talented designers behind the luxury handbag label La Façade. LaFACADE captures the essence of who we are; simple components that build up people’s identity and make up the human facade. As part of our Global Young Talent in the December issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK, we had the pleasure of speaking to Qiqi and Su about the main inspiration behind most collections, the message behind the label and their plans for the future.

1. Qiqi you are a womenswear and Su you are a menswear designer, what led you to choose designing handbags?

Due to the very competitive fashion design market, we felt stressful. We choose handbags design as Qiqi has a series of bag designs for her bachelor’s degree collection. We thought it would be a good idea to start our business as an accessory design brand and gradually move back to full aspects fashion design, a sort of critical thinking and understanding of how to enter fashion design with experience.

"We thought it would be a good idea to start our business as an accessory design brand and gradually move back to full aspects fashion design, a sort of critical thinking and understanding of how to enter fashion design with experience."

2. What is the brand message behind LaFACADE?

La FAÇADE means the facades of architecture in ancient French. However, it means more than just describing human appearance or object. It meets the intention of the label, and it represents the product as a component part that belongs to a human appearance, an integral embellishment but a modest luxury.

Su used the term ‘THE FAÇADE’ as the topic for his final menswear collection, his research was based on the history of how people dressed and use their appearance as a language to communicate and present their social identity. We both believe that La Façade simply describes what we are designing. Garments, and accessories are components of the essence in civilization, which belongs to a human’s facade.

3. LaFACADE is strongly rooted in cultural identity, how is this translated in your designs?

Every designer has their way to approach design idea and for us is different as well, we have a muse with specific figures in mind for each collection, what we intend to do is tell a story about the muse in our graphic language with the support of historical elements. Most importantly we bring in historical cultures to our designs. We intend to fuse the ancient east or ancient west cultures for each collection.

4. What is the first step when designing and getting inspired for a new collection?

Normally before starting a new collection, there is a basic core we are following: brand DNA, cultural background, targeting customers. As we are doing a business, a collection should be balanced between commercial and designable styles.

We love to get inspirations from the past. When visiting New York, Qiqi got inspired by old pictures of construction workers on New York city’s skyscrapers from the late 20th century. This was the inspiration for our very first collection, “HEAVEN WORKERS”. Majority of our inspirations comes from our experiences and travels.

5. What are the short and long-term goals set for the brand?

As for short term we would like to focus on our powerful brand DNA. We are aiming to gain brand recognition in the handbag industry and improve our production system. Additionally, introducing ourselves to overseas markets. Our long-term goal is to establish a representative commercial fashion brand including all aspects of fashion design, more like a normcore fashion experience centre. With our family business background in branding management, we are looking for innovating business mode instead of inheriting.

Discover La Facade's full collection

Words by Lupe Baeyens