Shiatzy Chen Ready To Wear Spring Collection 2020

“Bamboo is very lively and they have stronger roots,” Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia said after the spring Shiatzy Chen show. “They’re always young like I want my brand to be.” Youthful is a direction she’s been going for recently — this time was no different.

She kept her spring collection breezy and easy, with a kick. The palette felt graphic, with whites, tan, green, red, and a surprising predominance of black. Most of her looks left the legs bare, with shorts but also with transparencies or high-cut slits. Adding to the youthfulness of the lineup were souvenir-style blousons, luxe Teva-like flat sandals and a branded T-shirt designed to look like a rock band T-shirt.

As is her won’t, she blended elements of Chinese culture into her work, with a light hand. That meshed particularly well when playing with the underwear-as-outerwear trope: There were lacy brassieres but also halterneck tops cut in the shape of a dude, a piece of traditional underwear. Elsewhere, it was more subtle than not, as a tone-on-tone embroidery climbing up a shirt, in the shape of trousers nipped at the waist or the occasional qipao neckline.