Oscar Ouyang doesn’t approach design like most people. Where others work with what already exists, he’s more interested in building things from scratch — starting with the material itself. A Central Saint Martins graduate now based in London whose brand is stocked in Dover Street Market and H. Lorenzo, his focus on knitwear comes from a love of process, texture, and storytelling. We talked about how that interest started, how it’s evolved, and where it’s taking him now.
Where did the interest in Knitwear originate from? I did a deep dive into your past videos, and saw you had a bunch of knitting tutorials saved from a long time ago.
Oscar Ouyang: Probably when I was about 18. When you enroll in [Central Saint Martins], they have you start with foundation, and then they ask you to choose between different courses – womenswear, menswear, knitwear, prints, etc. From the beginning, I’ve always liked creating things with my bare hands. The idea was to create a new texture or something completely different. Whereas womenswear or menswear, you’re just building off something that is already there. The more I get into knitwear, the more I see that fashion is a very systematic thing. You can’t just change what people wear instantly; people wear t-shirts, they wear hoodies, people will always wear basic garments. But what I can do is change the texture of it. If you think of womenswear and menswear as painting on a canvas, knitwear, you are building the canvas from the base.
Speaking of that, functionality seems to be a big part of your process of making pieces. Was this something you were always focused on?
Oscar Ouyang: I mean, I have to [focus on it] now. When you’re at CSM, especially on the B.A., the tutors definitely encourage you to do whatever you want, just make art. But on the M.A., they really push you to understand that you can’t just entertain yourself by creating something that you want.
Fashion is very different from other art forms, as much as we try and elevate it to fine arts, it’s not “that” artistic. At the end of the day, you need another party to engage with your work: the wearer. You really need to consider what they’re thinking when they pick out your garments, what scenario they can wear them [in], and what kind of elements can bring those garments to life. It has to serve a sense of purpose.
Growing up Beijing and getting into fashion, I know you said your parents had you do several different hobbies, and you were inspired a lot by what your mom was wearing. Were they directly involved with fashion?
Oscar Ouyang: They were not that involved with fashion, my mom had quite a big impact [on] me when I grew up. I developed [an] interest in fashion when I was around twelve of thirteen. I think fashion was a way out of the regular education and social realm [for me]. When everyone else was playing basketball and football, I was just with [a] girl, [and we’d be] drawing in our sketchbooks. I think that’s what [was] great about my mom – she didn’t really care what I wanted to do. As long as I was focused on something, it was fine.
How important is self-expression in your work? Do you make a conscicious effort to “add a little of yourself” to your garments.
Oscar Ouyang: A little bit yeah, there’s always a piece of me when I’m creating stuff. Now that I look at it, it has to represent some of my wardrobe elements in there. Something I want to wear. If I don’t want it, why would I put it out and try and convince other people to wear it? Then another element is the story is always based off of the animation or stuff I watched growing up. Somehow I can’t get bored of it, so it’s a theme that keeps on coming back.
You described your time at CSM like a bubble. Having graduated what has changed the most for you?
Oscar Ouyang: I do feel like if I just left on a B.A. there [would be] a reality shock for me like: “Oh! This is what the industry is like”. Even though I graduated with an M.A., [the industry] still has a bit of that element of surprise. You have to very quickly become a professional; you can graduate, and in a year or two, there’s a completely different expectation of you. You can’t just go around pretending you’re a student anymore.
How has your process changed from sketch to a finished garment, from school to now?
Oscar Ouyang: Yeah, not just the work being produced but also how you communicate with most of the people and how you present yourself. At this point it’s just like show the best idea rather than showing everything that you think has the potential. Only select the things that are really ready. Ideas are great, but they’re not professional, you can have a million ideas but you can probably only select two or three that are strong enough.
How do you decide on those ideas?
Oscar Ouyang: At the end of the day it’s all about the message you want to send out and which communicates the best.
For the next season you’re producing do you feel like you message has changed drastically? Looking at your previous B.A. collection, it seemed heavily nature inspired.
Oscar Ouyang: I think the current we’re working on is going back to that, we’re using a lot of similar color tone and a similar narrative. I think our last spring/summer collection was bit of a different tone, but we’re trying to get back.
Do you use elements of nature towards the structure of your garments as well?
Oscar Ouyang: There’s still a lot of elements, leafy elements, greenery inspired. It does circle back yeah, it inspires the garment.
What is the importance of building a team? Did it take awhile to get the right people around you?
Oscar Ouyang: It really does yeah, we had a struggle in the beginning. When we first started it was just me and two people in my flat. Now we have a proper studio space with all the machines. So yeah, it can take awhile to build.
You’re producing everything yourself?
Oscar Ouyang: I would say fifty percent of the samples are made in the studio and then the other half we do the samples and the tech packs, then the woven stuff is done in the factory.
Are there any other knitwear techniques you haven’t tried you want to get into?
Oscar Ouyang: Well, when I’m researching I start with both knitwear research and fashion research. Obviously knitwear is the niche, but we don’t to be looked at just as a knitwear brand. There’s a certain tradition to follow as a brand you need to have a scarf, you need to have this and that, but also as a brand we want to have way more than that.
Being inspired by movies like Valley of The Wind and other Studio Ghibli films. Do you feel like when you’re world-building for your brand there’s a certain type of character you are trying to create?
Oscar Ouyang: Yeah it’s basically always those fighter character’s in the film, when you’re sketching or doing the lineup, you can say, “ Oh, what would these character be wearing when they’re not in their costumes.”. Obviously those influences come to a certain extent, the rest still has to be fashion. There’s a border line between being costume-y and fashion. You don’t want to push it too far, you still want to keep it chic. Just trying to keep a good balance of everything.
Was that balance hard to find at first?
Oscar Ouyang: It definitely is hard, but then when we do styling I tell myself to take off elements from each [look]; because more is more it’s always easy to accumulate loads of elements onto each look. It will probably look instagram-ly quite nice, but it’s not a real look. You don’t go out dressing up like that.
What was you first experience of being in the industry? How was that experience?
Oscar Ouyang: My very first, God, I think I was sixteen. I was doing an internship at Harpar’s Bazaar China, I didn’t think I’d be interested in designing at the beginning. I was just assisting the editor. Then I realized I kind of wanted more then just, helping with the looks. It was definitely good, for me it was just ticking the box, being a gay fashion boy, like, “oh yeah I’ve done that already”. It was a good beginning point and I knew I wanted more than that.
Then getting to the UK, I know you said the street style has inspired you a lot, how did that experience change you?
Oscar Ouyang: I’ve been here for about eight or nine years now, but I had never been here before university. The moment I got off the plane it was just straight to student hall. It was a big culture shock. But yeah, I was observing what people are wearing. I like it because what I make is quite like everyday clothing, so I do take a lot of notes from people around me or people I hang out with. It’s quite a different fashion scene here, compared to Beijing. People here really do put a lot into what they wear, how they dress and what the message they’re trying to put out is. Even when I first started the brand I working with Garth, who is the creative director of 10 Magazine, everyone is just professional and doesn’t expect anything from me, they’re just happy to work with me because they think I have interesting work, I don’t think you get a lot of that in other fashion cities.
How would you define creativity?
Oscar Ouyang: It’s quite a tough one, it really depends on how you look at it. You can look at without and social-construct and its just purely self expression. But you also want the creativity to do the communication so that people can engage with the conversation or message you’re trying to make.
