When you’re of Chinese and Japanese descent; grow up in Singapore; study in London and Milan; and work and live in Paris, you tend to develop a global perspective quickly.
Such is the case of Andrew Gn, a Mary Jane Denzer favorite, who creates elegantly eclectic fashions for the worldly woman.
“The Andrew Gn woman is radiant, confident and cosmopolitan,” his website notes. “When it comes to fashion, she wants the best and more. We endeavor to design for her clothing which embodies that beauty and perfection, with an undeniable modern edge.”
You can see that rarefied edge in the Fall Winter Collection – black and white patterns of every kind; red leopard print and bright green snakeskin print; coat dresses with cowl necks, festooned with bows down the front; asymmetrical necklines and hemlines; one-shoulder columnar styles; outfits that look like separates – the top, fitted and high-neck, with a cutout décolletage, the bottom a swing skirt.
Gn continues to complement the demure with the daring in his Spring Summer 2020 Collection – mini dresses with slits but also loose turtle necks and gigot (leg of mutton) sleeves; tailored jackets over bell-shaped midis hemmed in lace; layered, fringed caftans; see-through bodices and skirts. These provide the canvases for a profusion of florals and paisleys that suggest everything from African art to chinoiserie to Modernism and pop culture, drawing stars like Amy Adams, Tina Fey, Mandy Moore, Anna Netrebko and Olivia Wilde.
Recently, Gn – who studied at Central Saint Martins in London and Domus Academy Milano before coming to Paris to work as Emmanuel Ungaro’s assistant – established a new salon in Le Marais, a hip district in Paris’ 4th arrondissement that’s home to boutiques, galleries and the Musée Victor Hugo. The salon’s inspirations range from ancient Egypt (armchairs) to Venice (chandeliers from the palazzo of the Doria Pamphili family), from James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s Peacock Room (now in Washington D.C.’s Freer Gallery of Art) to the Iranian artist Roshanak Varasteh’s mural of a paradisiacal pomegranate tree, a symbol of power in ancient Persia.
It’s a reminder that Gn is an eternal collector – as well as a designer who inspires women to collect his creations.
“My motto has always been absolute beauty,” he told the Houston Chronicle in May. “And what I make are beautiful things, things that people don’t wear once and throw away. They pass them down.”