Marking a significant milestone in their creative journey, designers Yushan Li and Jun Zhou celebrated the tenth anniversary of their brand, Pronounce, with a special and reflective collection presented during the latest edition of Shanghai Fashion Week. Over the past decade, the label has established a distinctive voice in contemporary fashion, bridging Eastern heritage with modern global sensibilities. For this anniversary outing, the design duo chose to look inward and forward simultaneously, drawing deeply upon the ancient, philosophical interplay of yin and yang to rethink and challenge traditional conventions of masculinity and femininity.
Rather than relying on overt theatrics, Li and Zhou approached this complex theme through a uniquely female lens. However, the designers were careful to clarify that the collection was not intended to be a literal or traditional execution of the female gaze. Instead, they framed the presentation as a deliberate and thoughtful exercise in shifting perspective—an exploration of what it means to perceive and interpret gender through a woman’s eyes. This guiding conceptual framework gave the anniversary showcase its title, Through Her Eyes, setting a tone of intimacy, intellectual curiosity, and understated sophistication.
This guiding philosophy translated directly into the garments themselves, which favored linear silhouettes, soft tailoring, and unstructured pieces specifically engineered for light layering. While the clothes were pared down almost to the point of abstraction, they successfully remained entirely free of conceptual fussiness. Crucially, the collection stayed grounded in the practicalities of everyday wear, proving that high concept and everyday utility do not have to be mutually exclusive. Masculine and feminine design elements blurred fluidly into one another, achieving a harmonious synthesis without requiring a loud or heavy-handed statement about gender fluidity. The clothes simply existed in a state of natural equilibrium.
Traditional Eastern dress codes heavily informed the proportions and construction of the garments, yet these historical references were deliberately loosened and reconfigured. It was an approach that suggested even the most deeply rooted traditions could use a little breathing room to evolve and breathe in the modern world. Every seam, drape, and cut reflected a decade of refining their craft, moving away from rigid definitions and toward a more fluid understanding of how clothing interacts with the human form.
In addition to redefining silhouettes, the designers also introduced a compelling generational dimension to the runway. By bringing together a diverse cast that featured young models alongside more mature women, Li and Zhou visually articulated their growing interest in characters who have been richly shaped by lived experience. This thoughtful casting choice added emotional resonance to the presentation, emphasizing that style is not bound by age, but rather deepened by it.
The emotional peak of the show arrived during the finale, marked by an unexpected and delightful guest star: Dr. Qin Huilan, a retired Shanghai physician whose authentic love for Prada and Miu Miu has recently propelled her from the quiet corridors of the doctor’s office straight to the high-fashion runways of Paris, including a memorable turn for Miu Miu during the fall 2024 season. For the Pronounce anniversary show, Dr. Qin stepped out to join the final model of the presentation for an impromptu, joyous walk down the runway.
The designers later explained that the memorable collaboration had come together only that very morning, and Dr. Qin had been more than happy to oblige. This unrehearsed, spontaneous gesture served as a perfect mirror for the collection as a whole, echoing its inherent sense of ease, its quiet confidence, and its steadfast refusal to overstate a point or chase superficial shock value. It was a moment of authentic human connection that resonated deeply with the audience gathered in Shanghai.
Looking back over the past ten years, the evolution of Pronounce has been marked by a deliberate maturation. The brand has gradually moved away from some of the heavier subcultural references that informed and energized its early work. In their place, Li and Zhou have cultivated a much more considered focus on pure personality, material integrity, and the visceral way clothes feel directly on the body.
Reflecting on this decade-long journey, the designers observed that their audience has grown up right alongside the brand. Over the years, their clientele has become notably more attentive and subtle in its appreciation of fashion, mirroring the brand’s own stylistic refinement. For Yushan Li and Jun Zhou, growing older and more established in the industry appears to be far less about leaving the past behind or discarding their early experiments than it is about finding increasingly nuanced, thoughtful ways to build upon everything they have learned so far.
