METROPOLITAN VILLAGERS
Xinyan Chen
Xinyan Chen’s personal collection explores how identity is shaped through collective history, intergenerational memory, labour, and inherited silence. Drawing from rural origins and urban transformation, the work translates emotional tension into sartorial form.
Through the research process, Xinyan reconnected with family histories once held at a distance — ancestors shaped by upheaval and displacement, and parents marked by silence, survival, and unspoken longing. The countryside is reimagined, forgotten memories resurface, and a path home is reconstructed within the noise of modernity.
Each garment embodies a tension between rurality and modernity, repression and desire, discipline and tenderness. These opposing forces emerge materially through contrasts of structure and fragility, restraint and intimacy.
Xinyan/Yifan Chen is a London-based fashion designer and 2024 UKFT MADE IT Award winner, graduating from the University of Westminster. Skilled in draping, pattern cutting, and garment construction across knit and woven, her practice balances rigorous technical craft with deeply researched concept. Her graduate collection Metropolitan Villagers explores cultural displacement and urban identity. She has trained at Kiko Kostadinov, Huishan Zhang, and Hanqing Ding during Shanghai Fashion Week, developing a sharp awareness of creativity within commercial production. She is currently seeking design assistant opportunities in London and internationally.
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