Uma Wang teamed up with Hong Kong artisanal eyewear brand RIGARDS for another capsule of glasses for her Autumn Winter 2021 collection. Let's take a look at the two material-led labels before talking about the collaboration.

Uma Wang, whose birth name is Wang Zhi, is one of the first Chinese designers to gain recognition on the international fashion stage. Trained first in textile and fashion design in Shanghai at China Textile University (now Donghua University) and later at Central Saint Martins in London, Wang’s practice has always been rooted in fabric and materiality. Before establishing her label in 2005, she spent years working within the Chinese fashion industry, refining her grasp of knitwear, texture, construction, and material.

Wang was recommended by Vogue China to appear on the Vogue Talent stage in Italy in 2009. Her designs bring together ancient and modern Chinese styles with a contemporary cosmopolitan approach. Rather than relying on obvious motifs, Wang often uses fabric, traditional techniques, and silhouette as the main language of her work. The best way to describe her design language is East meets West, but not in a literal way. She does not simply attach Chinese motifs onto European silhouettes.

Instead, her clothes move through atmosphere, texture, palette, irregular surfaces, and historical references. Across her collections, Wang has pulled inspiration from film, painting, ruins, travel, and memories and filtered it through her own textile experimentation.

There is no better collaborator than RIGARDS. Coming from the world of eyewear, the brand shares a similar belief in material, craft, and time. Founded in Hong Kong by Ti Kwa and Jean-Marc Virard, its name plays on the French word regard, which translates to 'look' or 'gaze.'

RIGARDS works primarily with materials such as natural horn, wood, copper, sterling silver, and oxidized metal. These materials give each pair unique irregularities, patinas, and subtle variations. Most importantly, they allow room for the glasses to grow and age gracefully with their owner.

For Autumn/Winter 2021, Uma Wang offered a glimpse into her Subconscious Museum. "This collection is all about a dream. It is full of elements that reflect the story of this dream, a bit blurred, settled in an undistinguished place, with references that look to the past and the present." Wang pulled fragments from her subconscious into an ensemble of mottled and weathered oversized knits and outerwear, crafted from silk, wool, and hemp, and rendered in a dusky, fall-appropriate palette.Instead, her clothes move through atmosphere, texture, palette, irregular surfaces, and historical references. Across her collections, Wang has pulled inspiration from film, painting, ruins, travel, and memory, filtering these references through her own textile experimentation.

For the accessories, Uma Wang and RIGARDS tapped into a popular 19th-century eyewear silhouette: the pince-nez. Traditionally designed without temples, the pince-nez is held in place by a C-shaped bridge that clips the lenses onto the wearer’s nose. In their reinterpretation, RIGARDS reworks the antique form in untreated stainless steel, featuring rimless oval lenses, curved nose pads, slender temples, and an exaggerated bridge.

(LENSES ARE PRESCRIBED. PLEASE PURCHASE WITH CAUTION, YOU MAY REPLACE IT AT YOUR OPTOMETRIST)