For their 10th anniversary, the design duo behind the label Pronounce, Yushan Li and Jun Zhou, chose to mark the milestone with a reflective and poignant collection presented during Shanghai Fashion Week. Titled "Through Her Eyes," the collection serves as both a retrospective of their decade-long journey and a bold step into a new conceptual territory. By drawing on the ancient, philosophical interplay of yin and yang, the designers sought to dismantle and subsequently reconstruct the rigid conventions of masculinity and femininity. Rather than adhering to a traditional binary, Li and Zhou utilized the collection as an exercise in shifting perspectives, specifically challenging themselves to view the construction of gender through a woman’s eyes.
It is a subtle but significant distinction that the designers were keen to clarify: this is not a literal interpretation of the “female gaze” in the cinematic or art-historical sense. Instead, it is a deliberate softening of their creative lens—a way to see how the traditional archetypes of gender can be softened, blurred, and reimagined when filtered through the nuance of lived feminine experience.
The aesthetic realization of this concept manifested in a series of linear silhouettes and soft tailoring that moved away from the more structured, subcultural influences that once defined the brand’s early output. The pieces in the collection are characterized by an unstructured approach, favoring light layering and fabrics that move fluidly with the body. While the silhouettes are pared down almost to the point of abstraction, the collection remains remarkably grounded in the everyday. There is an absence of “conceptual fuss” here; the clothes do not demand that the wearer perform a grand statement about gender fluidity. Instead, they exist in a space where masculine and feminine elements simply bleed into one another, creating a wardrobe that feels both familiar and fundamentally reconfigured.
This reconfiguration is also deeply rooted in a dialogue with Eastern dress codes. Li and Zhou have long been interested in the tension between tradition and modernity, but for this anniversary collection, they chose to loosen those historical constraints. Traditional references—in terms of proportion and construction—were loosened and re-tailored, treated as if they were fabrics that needed more room to breathe. By relaxing the strictures of traditional tailoring, the designers have allowed their garments to take on a more human, lived-in quality. It is a reflection of a brand that has matured; where Pronounce once leaned heavily on the sharpness of subculture, it now favors the quiet power of material, personality, and the tactile relationship between the garment and the skin.
One of the most striking elements of the presentation was the introduction of a generational dimension. Throughout the runway show, young models shared the space with more mature women, a casting choice that underscored the designers’ interest in the characters shaped by life experience. In an industry that often obsesses over the ephemeral nature of youth, Pronounce’s focus on the passage of time felt like a deliberate act of defiance. It emphasized their belief that a garment’s true value is found in how it accompanies the wearer across the decades, adapting to the changing rhythms of a life well-lived.
This theme of longevity and experience culminated in an unexpected and heartwarming finale. As the show reached its conclusion, the last model was joined by an impromptu guest star: Dr. Qin Huilan. A retired Shanghai physician who has garnered a reputation for her impeccable personal style, Dr. Qin has become something of an accidental fashion icon. Her well-documented love for Prada and Miu Miu recently propelled her from her professional life in the doctor’s office to the international stage, including a runway appearance for Miu Miu in Paris for the fall 2024 season.
The moment of her appearance at the Pronounce show was, according to the designers, a last-minute decision that came together only that morning. It was an unrehearsed, authentic gesture that perfectly mirrored the ethos of the entire collection. Dr. Qin, with her poise and genuine presence, embodied the brand’s refusal to overstate its point. The inclusion was not a gimmick, but a continuation of the show’s central exploration: what happens when we remove the artifice and allow personality to take center stage? The ease with which she navigated the runway, alongside models significantly younger, provided a living testament to the collection’s core message that style is not a stagnant trait, but one that evolves and deepens with time.
Ten years into their partnership, Yushan Li and Jun Zhou find themselves at a crossroads that feels less like a departure and more like a maturation. The early years of Pronounce were defined by a rigorous engagement with subcultural aesthetics—a time of experimentation and, perhaps, a need to define themselves against the grain. Today, that energy has been redirected into a more considered focus on the intimacy of clothing. As the designers noted, their audience has grown up alongside the brand. The community that supported Pronounce a decade ago is different now; they are more attentive, more subtle, and more interested in the nuanced appreciation of how clothes feel on the body and how they interact with the identity of the wearer.
For Li and Zhou, the process of growing older as a brand has been a lesson in building upon the past rather than discarding it. They have moved away from the necessity of constant disruption, finding instead that the most radical thing they can do is to refine their craft and listen to the people who wear their clothes. "Through Her Eyes" is not a finale or a peak; it is a point of synthesis. By blending their technical expertise in tailoring with a more sensitive, observational approach to the human form, they have managed to create a collection that feels remarkably relevant.
The show at Shanghai Fashion Week was a testament to the idea that fashion can be both intellectually rigorous and deeply personal. It served as a reminder that the most compelling stories in design are often those that allow for silence—the moments where the construction of a garment is allowed to speak for itself, and where the presence of the wearer is the final, essential element of the design. As Pronounce looks toward its second decade, the lessons learned from this anniversary collection—the value of generational continuity, the beauty of the "unrehearsed" moment, and the importance of looking at the world through a broader, more inclusive set of eyes—will likely continue to inform their work.
In an industry that is often fixated on the "next big thing," Yushan Li and Jun Zhou have chosen to focus on the enduring thing. They have moved past the need to prove their relevance through volume or intensity, finding that there is more power in the quiet evolution of a silhouette or the unexpected presence of a woman like Dr. Qin Huilan. For the designers, the anniversary was a moment to step back and look at the path they have traveled, acknowledging that the most significant growth often happens in the spaces between the seasons, in the subtle shifts of perspective that change how we see the world—and how we dress for it.