“My work is a dialogue between the garment, the body, and the personality,” says Izzy Du, the Chinese-Canadian designer revolutionizing outerwear in London. “[It’s] a discourse containing points of agreement, areas of conflict, and moments of harmony.”

Playing with the human silhouette—manipulating its curves; crafting something organic, yet never traditional—is no easy design feat. But it’s one that Du accomplishes with each new line: puffers inspired by the “dirt and sky,” jutting out in some places, flush against the body in others; technical trousers and button-downs—functional on one hand, understatedly cool on the other. Everything is seamlessly constructed, and rationally progressive.

Du’s one-of-a-kind approach results in garments both futuristic and natural—the former typically defined by the “hard and cold,” while the latter is warmer and more comfortable. Her eponymous label seeks to bridge these two aesthetic languages, leaping between the poles of the avant-garde and the everyday: “a world of peace and softness, within the unfamiliar.”

Document caught up with the budding designer, on the heels of the launch of her ready-to-wear collection IZZY DU /LIFELINE. Here, she speaks on wearable energy, Pierre Cardin, and the “business of dressing people.”

Left: Elvina wears top and trousers by Izzy Du. Right: Top and trousers by Izzy Du.

Morgan Becker: How did you come to fashion in the first place?

Izzy Du: I wore uniforms for the majority of my life, either for schools or for teams, until I was 17. It freed me from making everyday [wardrobe] decisions. Being without choice over my own dress, I was instead afforded the mental capacity and liberty to dream, as well as the ability to value clothing from the opposing perspectives of function and luxury. Fashion, to me, is as much a business of dressing people as it is a form of artistic expression. We might have personal preferences, but the bottom line is everyone in the world wears some form of clothing. I wanted to be in an industry that relates to all of us, and to one day be able to reach across the world and bring people together through clothing of both function and aesthetic.

Morgan: Can you speak to your influences?

Izzy: My greatest forever influence is nature, whether it be organic or inorganic. And I love music as an emotional undertone to my work—for example, [the band] Massive Attack.

As I put great emphasis on cuts and silhouette, I greatly respect and admire traditional garment-making and craftsmanship: the classics, like Madeleine Vionnet, Madame Grès, and Pierre Cardin; performance designers like Manfred Thierry Mugler and Eiko Ishioka; the old house of Dior and Balenciaga. Art in every medium is a creative key for me—like El Lissitzky and David Lynch, as well as sculptors like Brânçusi and Richard Serra.

Morgan: The shapes that characterize your garments are quite distinctive. Where do you derive them from?

Izzy: Dirt and sky are my main inspirations. I imagine divergent landscapes coming together and us, as humans, being able to expand and exist in multiples. Cohesion is very important to me; I create paradoxical shapes and curvatures that together constitute a visual balance. I love constructing natural phenomena that ignite when compounding the man-made with the organic.

“To make outerwear that’s traditionally built for cold climates accessible to warm climates is to combine aesthetics and imbue them with adjusted, new functions. My work is to juxtapose the two worlds, and then bring them together.”

Morgan: How do you create in accordance with the natural shape of the human body? Or would you say that you work against it, creating a silhouette of your own?

Izzy: My work is a dialogue between the garment, the body, and the personality—a discourse containing points of agreement, areas of conflict, and moments of harmony. Contrasts coming together to form a beautiful, cohesive entanglement.

Morgan: What attracts you to the puffer coat, and outerwear in general?

Izzy: I began creating puffers and working with tech fabrics in 2018 when I was experimenting with various mediums for constructing shape- and gravity-defying forms. I combined feather down with materials such as boning, wadding, and foam to create understructures, before boiling that essence down to pure ready-to-wear puffers. The puffer game really excites me, as there is so much room in this genre to explore and grow—which I intend to do. Functional outerwear can be repurposed in many ways, and there are still so many virgin boundaries to push.

Morgan: In some contexts, it’s a garment that you’d wear every day—perhaps for years on end. Do you see that same utility in your work, or a potential for the puffer to become a sort of seasonal uniform?

Izzy: I personally have a uniform I’ve pieced together over the years that evolves five times slower than the normal fashion cycle—and that, to me, is timelessness undated. I don’t dress for the seasons; I adapt to them through layering. That translates to my ready-to-wear garments being versatile and seasonless, as well. To make outerwear that’s traditionally built for cold climates accessible to warm climates is to combine aesthetics and imbue them with adjusted, new functions. My work is to juxtapose the two worlds, and then bring them together.

Left: Shorts by Izzy Du. Right: Top and trousers by Izzy Du.

Morgan: Sustainability is an important part of your ethos. In a material sense, how does it impact your design process?

Izzy: Sustainability is an accumulation of changes at every production stage to form a seamlessly-linked, modular process of improvement. We make conscious adjustments in every step, from the dying process, to fabric selection and usage, to packaging and shipping materials.

Morgan: You’ve talked about this idea of ‘wearable energy,’ which you’re hoping to foster in your work. Can you elaborate on what, exactly, that term means, and how your journey toward it is progressing?

Izzy: Wearable energy is a smart garment with dynamic functionality that can be activated when needed, and is imperceptible otherwise—operating through woven solar cells embedded in fiber. I believe smart garments and embedded wearable technology will change the game of sustainability, eliminating the built-in obsolescence of clothing and increasing the lifespan of a garment. This is a slow and steady project; we are working towards materializing it. And as the brand grows larger, this dream will come to fruition.

Morgan: Futurism and the natural world are both themes you grapple with in your work—but often, they can be perceived as opposites, or at least ideas at odds with each other. How do you characterize the relationship between the two?

Izzy: Futurism is often aesthetically defined by the hard and cold, whereas the past, the countryside, is [homey] and comfortable. I envision a future with both: a world of peace and softness, within the unfamiliar and revolutionary. For example, when it comes to materials, my work is a combination of organics and innovative tech fabrics. I imagine organics as a luxury in the future—and it already is incrementally more so today. By piecing the two contrasting textures together, I hope to bring a feeling of comfort yet excitement to the wearer.

Model Elvina Patrick at Wilhelmina. Set Design Tors Beedles. Casting Abi Corbett.