Pronounce, the brand founded in 2016 by designers Yushan Li and Jun Zhou, who are based between Milan and Shanghai, used its Milan Fashion Week debut to present its fall 2024 collection. The inspiration for this new season came from Zhuangzi’s butterfly: one day the Taoist thinker Zhuangzi fell asleep and dreamed of being a butterfly, but when he woke he wasn’t sure anymore if he was a man who had dreamed that he was an insect or vice versa. This dreamlike atmosphere was translated by the designers, blending insect flight traces into the garments in the form of tridimensional velvet ropes and fabric appliqués that created concentric spirals. During a chat with them backstage, they said that “this butterfly is not a romantic symbol but rather it embodies the fascination of the mechanical traces it leaves flying.” The butterfly was also physically present in a metallic version—a sort of small plate—studded on a large, dark coat, as on a tailored suit.
The collection was created by Li and Zhou using scrap fabrics from their previous collections—mainly Spring 2022—as well as unused materials they could find in their studio. Thus, they reinvented classical pieces of the Chinese wardrobe, such as the Mao suit proposed in purple and in dark blue with reworked silhouettes and inserts and decorations. Sometimes those elements were perfectly harmonized with the garments on which they were applied, but often the designers opted for contrasting tones, as on coats and separates. A standout piece was an accessory—the Gourd Húlu bag, which recalls the shape of a calabash, a symbol of health.
