ZHIWEN DENG
Bio
ZHIWEN DENG (Bruce) is a fashion designer and system thinker who reimagines clothing as a site of visibility rather than concealment. Raised in Guangzhou’s manufacturing landscape and trained at Parsons School of Design, his work confronts the hidden labor structures behind fast fashion.
Through fluorescent traces, color-coded construction, and embedded transparency, he transforms garments into records of touch, time, and human presence. His practice challenges the idea of clothing as anonymous products, proposing instead that garments can reveal the systems—and people—behind them.
Thesis Statement
This project confronts the invisibility of garment workers within fast fashion, where low prices are sustained by hidden labor and systemic erasure. It proposes a new design approach in which clothing becomes a visible record of its own making—through traces that reveal touch, coded stitching that maps production, and structures that extend garment life.
By combining transparency with timeless, adjustable, and simplified design, the project shifts fashion from passive consumption to active awareness, positioning garments as carriers of accountability, memory, and human value.
