The "Straight Line" Life Of British Chinese Designer Zhang Zongxun

He has been engaged in fashion design in 6 countries and regions, and has worked for many fashion brands such as Moschino and Armani. He is currently the global design director of Levi s brand, and is Zhang Zongxun, an English Chinese designer with "straight line" life.

Recently, Zhang was invited by the British cultural and educational office of the British Embassy in China to take part in the "smart classroom". He shared his "fashion classics" with young students at Beijing Institute Of Fashion Technology.

Black T-shirt, jeans, white shoes, and Zhang's first impression is a little bit unique. He told the News Agency reporter that he was born in a small town called Grantham in Central England. His parents emigrated to Hongkong from China to receive traditional education. No one ever thought he would become a fashion designer. "I loved drawing when I was young, and I spent most of my spare time accompanying brushes."

After graduating from high school, Zhang entered the Kingston School of Fashion and received a first class honours degree in fashion design. "I am very lucky that my first job after graduating from university was in Moschino company, which is also the most successful feeling in my design career, and I have strengthened confidence from the very beginning."

Here, Zhang meets with Franco Moschino. "He gave me many opportunities to try different fields of design, and taught me how to behave." He recalls that Moschino is very approachable. He will give everyone a picture of work, then wash it out and sign his name and give it to you. "He fills his short life with love and creativity."

In 1994, Moschino, who was only 44 years old, died of illness, which made Zhang Zongxun deeply touched and began to reexamine his life. Over the next few years, his life has been ups and downs. It has both the flash moment of opening the first cowboy production line of Iceberg brand and the experience of worrying about income.

"I went back to London to get married and had my first child, but it was just this happy time when I lost my job." Zhang Zongxun said with a smile that a friend suggested that he sell a jacket to make ends meet. "I still remember the scene. We dragged two large suitcases full of jackets and walked around the street selling everywhere."

However, this experience surprised him to discover the huge potential of the cowboy clothing market. Then he co organized a company with his friends in China. Because of his design skills and accurate grasp of the European market, the company soon made great progress. But a chance coincidence changed his trajectory.

"I know Giorgio Armani, the top international fashion designer, and I admire him very much for his devotion and pursuit of detail in design." Zhang Zongxun decided to give up entrepreneurship and become the global research director of Armani Jeans, and has been rooted in cowboy fashion since then.

"I like the material of denim very much. When I first walked into the Jeans Museum at Levi's headquarters in Holland, I was impressed by that kind of shock." Zhang Zongxun said he once thought that all his ambition in his design career had been realized, but Levi's let him see more possibilities.

Since 2009, Zhang Zongxun has successively spanformed from a designer to a global sales director and then to a global design director. "Frankly speaking, adapting to these changes quickly is a painful process, but I am very grateful for them."

"Life is actually connecting every turning point in life, so it should not be a straight line itself." Zhang Zongxun said that over the past 20 years, those seemingly dazzling changes made him understand the importance of curiosity and imagination, and realized that designers should follow their inner truth. "We should be brave enough to change and dare to take risks. When we look back, we will not regret for not doing anything."