Mark Gong is simply the coolest of them all

There are only four collections to date by Mark Gong, a young Chinese designer who made his debut in October 2023 at Shanghai Fashion Week and, in a very short time, has become the most internationally loved designer in Shanghai. Yesterday’s FW25 show, then, came as a sort of “victory lap” after one of Gong’s creations appeared in February on Thai megastar Lisa during the Oscars ceremony. Beyond the impeccable styling and the extraordinary cohesion of his collections, what makes Mark Gong and his shows special is a sense of storytelling and theatricality that seems to derive directly from the “themed shows” that made Galliano and McQueen legendary in the '90s. His first show revolved around the office world and career women, the second imagined a series of elegant women who, after drinking too much, left their lover’s house in the middle of the night; the third, drawing from Sex & The City, envisioned a group of wealthy New York housewives rebelling against domestic duties, while yesterday’s show was dedicated to the early 2000s it-girls like Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Britney Spears. Gong’s talent fully emerged in his ability to channel that imagery without directly referencing it: rather than simply replicating, the designer reinterpreted – making his references clearly evident without reducing them to a flat nostalgic citation.

Alongside a series of very strong looks featuring hourglass jackets with fur-trimmed lapels and skirt ensembles that were both elegant and provocative, there were some elements that might have seemed derivative: the oversized jackets with dropped waists worn over sheer dresses, as well as certain transparent blouses, were somewhat reminiscent of Saint Laurent; the cropped cardigans and sweaters paired with workwear skirts and tailored trousers nodded to Miu Miu; some of the more Y2K-inspired styling choices echoed the playful irreverence of DSQUARED2. Yet, all these echoes (which are not a negative thing, considering that almost every brand today is drawing heavily from Prada and Miu Miu’s collections) remained echoes without becoming mere copies – Gong incorporated these references into his style and made them his own. Particularly striking were the blazer dresses with a '60s feel, refreshed by an ultra-short skirt hem; the daytime looks, with oversized pants and mini cardigans, appeared as idealized versions of a style many aspire to today, blending a mix of ruggedness and charm; the topless looks where the models’ torsos were covered only by a fur stole or a jacket. There was no lack of a self-ironic sense of camp: the “I love Mark Gong, Money & Boys” t-shirt was amusing, as was the Oscar statuette carried by a model, winking at Lisa’s look from this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. A type of Internet-friendly irony that is almost impossible to find today – especially when paired with such a formidable series of mini tube dresses, sky-high heels, and regal fur stoles.

Gong's vision was so vivid because the inspirations and references he made to past it-girls all fit into an aesthetic framework that made the collection, as we mentioned earlier, particularly cohesive: first of all in terms of colors, but even more so in terms of tone and attitude. This is not a minor detail because those references were not entirely new – yet they retained their freshness precisely because they were references and not direct citations. In other words, Gong's vision emerges so clearly and fascinatingly because the designer strives to be original without either borrowing his ideas outright from others or over-designing his looks to the point of making them impractical. The so-called “Gong Girls” are not just sexy – they are also extremely cool. So much so that, following Gong's career progression and seeing him dress one of the world's top pop divas, one might wonder how long it will take before a major European luxury group hands him the keys to one of its maisons. Aside from the many cargo-pocketed pieces that Gong seems to love (and which he incorporated very sparingly in yesterday’s show), his touch would be perfect for several Italian or Parisian brands that are currently a bit creatively lost. Overall, Gong's collections could easily be presented in Paris without fearing comparison with other brands.