Clark Zhang
Bio
Chunbo(Clark) Zhang is a New York–based Chinese womenswear designer and a graduate of Parsons School of Design. His work explores the relationship between the body and garment through adaptive modes of wear, integrating functionality and complex pattern-making into an outdoor-informed design language.
Working from a male designer’s limited perspective, he examines alternative possibilities within womenswear. Grounded in observations from everyday life, his practice amplifies subtle functional details into expanded structures and systems, creating garments that maximize capacity and utility within constrained volumes.
About My Thesis
Inspired by insect molting, my thesis collection proposes clothing as a mutable shell that enables shifting states between wearing, carrying, protection, and display.
Drawing from everyday observations and outdoor functional systems, it reimagines garments as adaptive structures that integrate storage, load-bearing, and transformation. Using modular construction, technical materials, and magnetic, zippered, and buckle-based systems, the work responds to lived bodily needs.
My thesis directly challenges the divide between function and form in womenswear, proposing a system that allows for continuous adjustment across changing environments.
Look1:
Low-Neck Open-Back Plunge Dress/
Magnetic High-Neck Collar/
Modular Magnetic Corset/
Modular Magnetic Backpack/
Back-Neck Magnetic Connector
Look2:
Integrated Back Pack Vest with Sewn-In Jacket/
Side-Drawcord Sailor Shorts
Look3:
Padded Vest with Glove Holder Tab/
Base Padded Skirt/
Waist-Attached Skirt Overlay
Look4:
Side-Velcro Top with Drawcord Armholes/
Integrated Side Zipper Cover Pants
Look5:
Side-Adjust Buckle Coat Jumpsuit
