How Ffixxed Mixes Asian Influences With Global Ideas

Learn about the innovative designers behind Ffixxed Studios—currently based in Shenzhen, China. Ffixxed makes a point of creating clothing out of natural fibers

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Complex Original

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When you think of Shenzhen, China, the city’s edgy fashion probably doesn’t come to mind first, if at all. After all, Shenzhen is where tons of global corporations center their manufacturing, and the city is a heaving mass of factories and production houses, building everything from hoverboards and iPhones, to robotics components and 3-D printers. Since opening itself to the West in the late ’70s , the South China city has seen a glut of international investment from companies that want cheap, but well-produced products; Shenzhen’s dystopian Blade Runner-esque web of factories delivers on that. But if you’re familiar with Ffixxed Studios, then you know it’s also emerging as a design center, too.

Designers Kain Picken and Fiona Lau

The brainchild of Australian artists and designers Kain Picken and Fiona Lau, Ffixxed Studios isn’t so much a straight fashion label as it is a collective of creative endeavors. Yes, of course, there’s the ready-to-wear men’s and women’s collections sold at tastemaking stores in the U.S. like Assembly New York and Anthom. But there’s also art shows and curatorial projects—evidence of the very measured and deliberate aesthetic Picken and Lau have cultivated while working together. And the very construct of Ffixxed is something of a project itself; see their website’s Projects page for a glimpse of the art collabs that have been born from the Ffixxed team and their creative network.

Ffixxed Studios Shenzhen Live/Work Space

The pair’s collaboration began in Berlin in 2008, and then moved to Hong Kong, New York, and Melbourne, before finally landing in Shenzhen in 2010. The couple’s Shenzhen live/work space boasts in-house production tailored to Ffixxed’s specific notions of how a factory should function, a luxury that wasn’t available to them in their other temporary homes. The opportunity to build their own factory in Shenzhen sounded very attractive to Picken and Lau, and it was a major part of why they moved halfway around the world—though it hasn’t been without its tribulations.

“We had these ideals about how we imagined these personal working relationships,” said Picken in a 2013 interview with What Do I Owe You?, a global responsibility project from Georgetown University. Lau and Picken had hoped to create something of a worker’s collective, where their production staff was equally as invested in the company as its creatives. “We realized really quickly that we would have to reevaluate that, because the ideas about working in China and the ideas we had about working were really different,” he said.

South China's Morning Instagram Post

“We had this slightly utopian idea about working here,” he continued. “We had to realize that it was not possible...to enforce our ideas.” For one, Shenzhen’s workforce is largely migratory—often only one member of a family will move to the city and send money back to relatives at home. They also found that workers were suspicious of their motives. “They were uncomfortable that we were so close, because they saw us as the boss,” Picken said.

And what the bosses wanted was to figure out a way to manufacture clothes ethically and sustainably. “It was important for us right from the beginning to have our own manufacturing facilities so that we control how our products were made, ethically and environmentally,” said Lau in a 2015 interview with the South China Morning Post, after winning the Yoox.com Asian Sustainable Fashion Award. “It never made sense to us that the philosophies that drive our brand should not also apply to the manufacturing side of things.”

Fixxed Studios  Yoox.com Asian Sustainable Fashion Award

And what about the clothes? Garments from recent collections hewed to soft, feminine forms. Traditional men’s jackets close with a sash rather than buttons. Loose strips of fabric hung from the hems of women’s skirts, to evoke a casual, unfinished feel. Ffixxed makes a point of creating clothing out of natural fibers and designing pieces that can often be worn multiple ways. A dress can be folded down into a skirt, it’s straps worn across the body or laying flat on the sides. A men’s shawl collar coat comes with a scarf attachment that can be worn around the neck or flowing loosely from the jacket’s interior. The label often uses remnant fabrics and manufactures its own digital weaves in order to minimize waste.

Ffixxed knows its customer isn’t necessarily thinking sustainability first, but still believes it’s smart to make it a core element of the label’s philosophy. And that feels like the futureIn her interview with South China Morning Post, Lau said, “We find that our customers tend to appreciate fashion as part of a cultural dialogue, and they’re usually in tune with other creative fields outside of fashion.” And part of that definitely informs how they shop. The Ffixxed fan may or may not care about sustainability, but ultimately, Lau says, they’re “looking for something unique, dressing first and foremost for themselves.”

Pick up a limited edition item designed by Ffixxed at the Tiger Trading Co., a pop-up shop showcasing the innovation and creativity coming out of Asia. June 8 at 343 Canal St. NYC, 6 p.m.–9 p.m.

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