Julia Fox, RuPaul’s drag queens wear this Chinese fashion student designer: Eileen Sun on moving from art to fashion and making her name with major stars
Eileen Sun felt like her ‘inner spirits and energy were withering’ when she worked in Hong Kong’s art industry – so she decided to study fashionHer work is already paying off – the second year fashion student’s creations have already been worn by ‘It’ girls such as actress Julia FoxFashionAshlyn ChakPublished: 4:15am, 3 Oct, 2023Why you can trust SCMP
Even though she is still only a second year fashion school student, Chinese designer Eileen Sun Yange has already created pieces worn by “It” girls such as actress Julia Fox, rapper Ashnikko and drag queens Bimini Bon-Boulash and Black Peppa.
Sun, however, is a little different to most undergraduate students – she is also an art history graduate who worked as a curator in Hong Kong before she quit to pursue fashion design, which was something she had always wanted to do.
Born and raised in Qingdao, in eastern China’s Shandong province, Sun moved to Hong Kong in 2014 and graduated from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) in 2018 with a major in art history and a minor in comparative literature and French. From there, she worked in Hong Kong’s art industry, consulting and curating exhibitions for galleries.
“I gradually started to feel disillusioned. I had great aspirations, yet there was very little autonomy, creative freedom or intellectual stimulation in the day-to-day operation of a commercial gallery, even though you’re dealing with art all the time,” Sun says.
“I didn’t quite feel fulfilled at work, and felt that my inner spirits and energy were withering.