Inspired by how womenswear can allow itself to be influenced by menswear tailoring as a way to combine innovation and tradition, Paris-based fashion designer Christine Phung has been producing garments and fashion looks whose silhouettes constantly strive to resolve the balance between opposing aesthetical concepts. Furthermore, her collections have tended to feature bold-coloured and printed pieces made from luxurious fabrics (such as silk and cashmere), and combined couture techniques such as detailed pleating and patchwork with a graphic contemporary feel that conjures Cubist abstract paintings, Russian constructivist design and Art Deco architecture.
In her Autumn/Winter 2013 range, Phung’s continue to explore these sartorial tropes in a seductive way. The collection (inspired by the emptiness and vast circular fields of Nevada) is called ‘Round Fields’ and was underpinned by the dialectic between nature and artifice, between tension and release, and between straight lines and curves. Such concepts are manifest in Phung’s confident geometric patterns and colour combinations as well as in the layered fabric blocks, providing a highly textured and three-dimensional feel to the pieces.
Christine Phung was raised in France by a Cambodian father and a French mother. She studied fashion design at the Ecole Duperré and at the Institut Français de la Mode before working for Christophe Lemaire, Chloé, Vanessa Bruno, Lacoste and Baby Dior. In 2008, she exhibited her designs at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Liege during the Biennale du Design and in 2011 she won the Grand Prix of design for the city of Paris. In 2012, she was a finalist in the global Mango Fashion Awards.
