Fashion Design Portfolio
Xiaotong (Alissa) Zhu
Technical Drawing & Individual Projects
Fashion Design Portfolio
Technical Drawing & Individual Projects
Designer Statement
Alissa Zhu is a fashion designer and MFA candidate at FIT in New York.
She designs contemporary womenswear that uses historical research, advanced textile techniques, and precise construction to explore how clothing carries and transforms identity. Her work draws on women's social history and material culture, creating collections where craftsmanship becomes a form of emotional expression.
01 — Couture Collection
Ongoing project: In development
A couture womenswear collection that asks how a body of work, informed by Victorian fashion and society, can express the concept of reborn femininity in an original way. Beginning from the constraint of traditional corsetry and the muted, choking weight of veils, the collection traces a process of "unlacing": ten looks that loosen from structure into a fluid, female narrative flow. Developed through draping, subtraction cutting, and hand-built textiles, drawn from a moodboard of Victorian spirit photography and a colorboard of historical undergarments.
02 — Studio Practice
A study in fluidity and silhouette. Fluid float panels, draped sashes, and sculptural sleeves are explored across hand illustration, front-and-back flats, and CLO 3D garment simulation: A self-authored narrative built around flow.
03 — Conceptual Collection
Inspired by the witch hunts driven by a fear of strong women, the all-female night bomber regiment of WWII the German army called the "Night Witches." These aviators had no uniforms of their own, wearing ill-fitting menswear into battle. The collection investigates the gap between men's uniforms and women's bodies through pattern study, rust-dyeing, aging techniques, and reassembled silhouettes.
04 — Conceptual Collection
Behind Hong Kong's bustling prosperity lie hidden, invisible narrow spaces. Driven by curiosity about the city's housing, my research revealed a stark disparity between rich and poor. Subdivided apartments where residents live in crowded, confined rooms. She simulated those compressed conditions through body experiments, iron-mesh sculpture, woven textiles, and negative-cutting draping.