Fabric Porn, the Chinese fashion label showing ‘the real China’ to the West that’s turning heads

Zhao Chenxi wants to get people talking about the real China. The 25-year-old fashion designer, an avid hip-hop fan with a passion for cultural icons like Marcel Duchamp and Jean-Michel Basquiat, is the man behind Fabric Porn, a new unisex label that has been turning heads since its debut last year for bringing Chinese cultural symbols into the spotlight.

“I‘m trying to make Chinese people more confident in their culture,” he says. “We’re always learning things from different cultures, but I feel like a lot of people lost interest or purpose in their own culture.”

Fabric Porn, which was recently given a special mention at Lane Crawford’s Global Creative Call Out award, draws influence from Zhao’s six years living and studying in the US. The most stand-out garment: a red baseball cap that reads “Make China Lit Again”, a tongue-in-cheek nod to US President Donald Trump’s trademark campaign hats.

“Donald Trump has a lot of energy, so I just wanted to respond with energy,” Zhao says. “Most people find it funny. One or two people didn’t really appreciate it.”

The hat has caught the attention of people as far away as Italy, France and Mexico. “They are willing to pay US$50 for shipping to Mexico,” Zhao says. “I was really happy.”

Other pieces in his collections are more subtle, from structured silk coats featuring traditional Chinese button knots to collared work shirts displaying the Chinese characters ban zheng and a phone number – a play on adverts offering services for fake certificates, a common sight on public walls in residential neighbourhoods.

In a recent photo shoot with fashion store Labelhood for a pop-up event, Zhao showed off a T-shirt featuring an iconic Wahaha milk ad from his childhood.

Zhao didn’t fall into fashion the conventional way. His parents sent him to high school in Florida when he was 16. After graduating from high school, he continued to pursue a college degree in Florida, but soon changed course.

“In China, I didn’t really study much, and I think that’s part of the reason why my parents sent me to the US. Also, I have been going abroad since I was young and I really like Western culture,” he says.

“I got bored of Florida after six months and drove myself to California, and went to a city college in San Francisco. There I took an art history class and it really changed my life. I didn’t know people expressed themselves in such ways.”

He went on to study business at the University of California, Davis and after graduating he interned at a designer’s studio, eventually returning to China in 2018 to start his own brand in Shanghai.

“I felt like I wasn’t very good at carrying out other people’s ideas – I had my own ideas,” he says.

Zhao met Labelhood founder Tasha Liu when he entered the Lane Crawford Creative Callout, and that’s when things really took off. Before the pandemic, Zhao showcased his work at the Pitti Uomo trade show in Florence, Italy, and went on to do a virtual presentation at Shanghai Fashion Week for Tmall that ended up going viral.

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He approaches his work with a Confucian philosophy – his hometown in Shandong Province is close to the famous Temple of Confucius in Qufu. One particular pillar he always goes by is “Zhongyong”, which “basically means don’t be too extreme; always try to find balance,” he says.

“I want my clothes to be both wearable and expressive, but sometimes too much expression doesn’t result in wearable garments. Or if it’s too wearable, or common, it won’t be exciting any more. So I try to find the balance between the business value and the artistic value.”

In his campaign shoots, Zhao communicates that his brand is for everyone – in one, he features his photographer’s grandfather. “I want to make the brand inclusive,” he says. “I feel like most other brands in fashion are about exclusivity, but I want to make my brand to be accepted by as many people as possible.”

His spring/summer 2021 collection – which just dropped – is centred around the idea of “a shared future for humankind” and is layered with Eastern and Western social commentary inspired by the events of this year.

There are references to Kobe Bryant, George Floyd, and South Korea’s ongoing “my life is not your porn” movement fighting hidden-camera sex crimes.

One accessory is branded with the Chinese characters for “cry”, which Zhao says is because “there’s been so much happening in 2020, that all we can do is cry”.

From an aesthetic point of view, brand fans will find sweater vests and silks, and even tie dye – an art that is returning in popularity in US fashion circles and which, according to The World of Chinese magazine, has roots dating back to China’s Northern and Southern dynasties (AD420-AD589).

The Bai ethnic group from the city of Dali in Yunnan, in southwest China, is known for a particularly popular technique using indigo dye on cotton or hemp fabrics.

Zhao hopes shoppers outside China can also appreciate his work – they can follow his journey on his Instagram at @fabric_qorn (he changed the name to one the platform would accept).

“I can’t speak for all people on this, but for me, I feel like there’s something good in Chinese culture that, through Chinese philosophy or ways of doing things, can contribute positively to this whole world,” he says.

“The portrait of China painted by the Western media is not the real China – I want to introduce the part of China that Western people don’t know about, and really help the world to grow into a better place.”