Renli Su is a London based brand which has a sentimentality for the past - which is expressed through her designs. Creating conceptual yet practical garments each piece will transform you to a certain time and/or memory allowing you to enter a dream world of beauty.
How did you become a fashion designer?
I am a very visual person, I always knew I wanted to do something creative so I tried photography and animation. However, after trying this I realised I wanted to do something more tactile. For me, I prefer the term clothing rather than fashion, as I think that the term fashion can be misleading.
When I started to make clothes it was unlike the other creative subjects I had tried, I enjoyed working with my hands and the craft of making clothing. Working in this industry allows me to be able to make something physical as well as visualise a direction and a story for each season.
I absolutely love the stories behind your collections, how do you get inspired?
I’m always searching for new stories and themes for my work, whether it be in a book, an old photograph, through costume, a poem that I can abstractly interpret or through a friend telling me an old mythical tale of a town they have visited. For details, I often find them through pieces of clothing themselves, whether it be sourcing them in an antique market or viewing them in a museum. For me, the Victorian-style clothing conveys the romantic aesthetic that I want for my customer.
Spring Summer 2020 unfolds a journey of a dream in search of the Blue Bird of Happiness. This collection is based on the Play ’The Blue Bird’ by Belgian playwrighter and poet Maurice Maeterlick in 1908. The story is about the two children of a carpenter, Mytyl and Tyltyl, and their journey to find the blue bird of happiness to help their neighbour’s daughter. They were accompanied by Berylune and spirits of the household elements; fire, water, light, brad, sugar and milk, as well as their pet cat and dog. In their dreams they search through the Palace of Night, The Land of Memories, Palace of Happiness and the Kingdom of Future and eventually awoke and found the blue bird is right inside the cage next to where they sleep.
Lace trims, delicate prints, layering and bows – your latest collection is beautiful. How would you describe it, and would you say your clothes are similar to your own personal style?
My personal style is slightly more neutral, but for the collections, we like to tell the stories through the clothes, so they can be more dramatic, and have more character…we also want to present them to girls who have different styles, maybe more feminine or romantic. We do have some neutral styles, we call it 'Little Prince' style. I wear them more in my daily life.
My collections are usually characterised by their dreamy sense of nostalgia, intellectual details and contemporary edge. Within each collection I usually have a balance of different styles so that there is something for everyone. My personal style is more towards the natural slightly more mature section of the collection. Experimentation with new textiles techniques is important to me. I think my favourite style for this season is our blue and yellow quilted jackets which are created by dying the jackets and then cooking the dye at very hot temperatures. This creates a saturated bleed of colour, enhancing the embroidery and different textures and surfaces with in the jackets. To me these pieces are created using very artisanal techniques and are very special. Something to be kept for a life-time of wear.
Could you tell me a little bit more about your design process and where the pieces are manufactured?
We have a small team of 3 in our London studio, each of us works on the design and other creative aspects of the brand. We all research possible story themes and share ideas, thinking about what has worked well for us in the past and what direction we feel will be suitable and aspirational for the season ahead. Once we have fallen in love with a particular story we will think about the different aspects of the story we can design from and the different types of customer that we can cater to with this story.
We produce all of our garments in Shenzhen China, we travel there each season to help with production and oversee the toiles, fittings and final designs. All of our prints are designed in our London studio as well as the jacquards and embroideries. Each season we work to expand our textiles selection to bring our customers something unique and special that you won’t be able to find anywhere else.
What is your biggest achievement?
For me, our biggest achievements is our stockists because we started very small and have quite a niche style. However, now we have many stockists all over the world including including some of the most famous like Dover Street Markets, Selfridges, Beams…We are continually growing our stockists each season, I am amazed that I can now see Renli Su in so many city’s all over the world. It is a dream come true to see people from different cultures and backgrounds understand and appreciate our work.
Another one of our other biggest achievements was seeing our dresses on Margret Atwood shot by Tim Walker for the Sunday Times style. It was a complete surprise and an incredible combination.
What are you looking forward to in the future and what does it look like for Renli Su?
At the moment I think that we are just grateful for what we have and want to be able to continue creating and pushing our design style, sourcing exciting new fabrications and textiles for our clients and building our image as Renli Su.
We currently have our own online ecommerce and studio shop, however the dream would be to have our own beautifully curated Renli Su stand-alone stores in London and China. Let’s see what the future brings!