Zhitong Liu

As a designer, Zhitong always believe “you should be your own customer.” What she designed all has a strong personal style and showed her personal preference in the work. When she was in kindergarten, her aunt took her to watched a music play called “Alice in Wonderland,” which Alice also become her English name. Since that, the dreamy girly fairytale become one of her design enlightenment inspiration. Zhitong’s works showcase a distinct and cohesive visual style that blends elements of romanticism, avant-garde, and surrealism. The use of soft, pastel colors, paired with luxurious textures such as satin, lace, and ruffles, suggests an emphasis on femininity and delicacy. This is further accentuated by the floral motifs, soft draping, and sculptural forms evident in her designs.

For the 2025 thesis collection, her inspiration comes from the famous Chinese fantasy novel – Dragon Clan. Zhitong like fantasy novels very much, and the description of myths in them allows her to explore another possibility of the world. The Dragon Clan is a fantasy novel she read since elementary school, she read multiple times and fascinated with this story. It references the dragon stories of Norse mythology and ancient Greek mythology and revolves around the theme of twins. The Black King and the White King, as twins, together constitute the world order. The main character is a mix blood of human and dragon, so he always feels lonely and confused in his puberty. Zhitong relates to that feeling a lot and she wants to continue that story in her own way. Then she created a character who under this setting; she is a dragon-human mix-blood. Her mother is a dragon hunter, and her father may be a dragon. However, she never met her dragon father and only heard about him from her mother. The mother was once a powerful dragon hunter, but lost her track during a hunter movement. Her doll could be some kind of ancient dragon relic, or a relic left to her by her mother, with protective powers.