PING CHEN: Thing in Itself

2025 Christine Risley Award Winner, Ping Chen, presents Thing in Itself, a design inquiry into the fluidity of masculinity and identity.

Articulated through a reversible tailored suit with multifunctional structures, and inspired by his great-grandfather’s gentle presence in a Chinese tunic suit, Ping Chen's designs translate caring gestures into structural garment language.

Drawing from androgynous tailoring, deconstruction, and multicultural identity, the design subverts menswear’s conventional boundaries by integrating historically coded feminine elements. A reinterpreted baby carrier becomes a back panel and collar, linked with apron forms and engageante-style sleeves and connected by brassiere hooks for easy assembly and disassembly. Trousers feature extended zippers to transform into a skirt, altering form and function.

Each garment in itself—fluid, hybrid, and genderless—is like an orchid blooming quietly under every gaze, embodying a softness that is not weakness but strength, and a design that does not dictate who one should be, but frees one to become.

Join us for the opening reception on Friday 26 September, from 6 - 8 pm.

The exhibition will be open weekdays, 29 September - 31 October, 1 - 4pm.