Huishan Zhang remains methodical in his approach to designing collections—even for the in-betweens like resort and pre-fall. He collects various references spanning art, architecture, and film, and picks a muse; this time it’s Marella Agnelli. The results of this approach are rarely direct; he likes to create a mood and set a scene that’s indicative of how he’s feeling the moment he designs.

The life of Marella Agnelli, a “swan” of the 1960s directed him toward the idea of “transformation.” This meant a focus on layering with, for example, cardigans made from a super-soft cashmere wrapped over dresses or worn with embellished pencil skirts. “This is what I imagine she’d wear now,” he said of Agnelli. “I wish I could’ve met her.”

The usual players—floral brocade, appliqué, and embroidery—were scaled up: expressive and more three-dimensional. Richard Avedon’s portraits of Agnelli informed the longline upper-half silhouettes––a top with a cascading neck tie and tailored trousers felt decidedly new here. The closing dresses, which were made from a lightweight crepe jersey and were therefore much more body-skimming than Zhang’s angular and full-bodied signatures, were fresh propositions in the dress category.