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Couture x Concert at London Fashion Week: Alumna Weiyin Chen’s Debut

Last September, London Fashion Week (LFW) Spring 2024 featured new runway collections by notable designers like Burberry, ERDEM, and JW Anderson. This installment continues LFW’s legacy since its conception in 1984, the last city to make up the “Big Four'' in Fashion Weeks alongside New York, Milan, and Paris.

A large cohort of Asian designers showed in London, including The New School’s Continuing and Professional Education (CPE) alumna Taiwanese-American Weiyin Chen. Chen, who enrolled in the Parsons Fashion Design certificate in 2019, designed a collection of couture orchestra gowns for her LFW debut, drawing inspiration from the classical piano pieces she mastered as a pianist.

Chen performed six classical piano compositions live while showcasing the corresponding gowns she designed, each reflecting a specific musical piece. The combination of music and couture powerfully express Chen’s spirit and passion.

Chen originally picked up fashion design 20 years after beginning her journey in music. According to her, she was feeling a wave of loneliness on tour, and decided to pick up a pencil and draw. Fast forward to Fall 2019: Chen enrolled in the CPE Fashion Design Certificate and began to design concert gowns.

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Weiyin Chen at Couture x Concert at London Fashion Week.

Learning to design clothing for herself has allowed Chen the self-expression to evolve distinctly and explore the intersectionality of music and fashion. With her Parsons education, Chen was able to bring to life ideas and concepts so unique to her background as a professional pianist.

“I see designing as a form of visual and musical composition. Construction, colors, textures, and shapes orchestrate into one unified expressivity, conveyed with style,” says Chen about her process.

“How I conceive designs is very similar to how I conceptualize scores—design is experienced visually, music is 'felt' viscerally. I think this extra dimension of time and rhythm that we can relate to the pulse of our heartbeat is what I find especially powerful in music. It can communicate with our innermost heartstrings that we cannot explain in words.”

Learning to design clothing for herself has allowed Chen the self-expression to evolve distinctly and explore the intersectionality of music and fashion.

Chen approaches being an artist with a wholesome philosophy—celebrating life, indulging passions, and striving to strike a balance between mastering her craft and living a rich life that in turn enriches her art. In Chen’s case, her music and her designs.

Ready to transform your own career and dive into the world of fashion? View CPE’s Fashion Design Certificate.

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