Behind PH5’s First #NYFW Collection [Interview]

On September 8, part one of the NYFW extravaganza, we got to talk to the designers behind PH5: Wei Lin and Mijia Zhang.

PH5 is a brand new knitwear brand focusing on colorful and playful designs while fusing the latest technologies in knit to create unique, breathable, affordable creations.

The Knockturnal: Is this your first fashion week presentation?

Wei Lin: This is our first fashion week presentation! I want to cry. This is beyond amazing. 

TK: What inspired you to create this brand?

Wei Lin: A little story behind the brand: I am the daughter of a knit wear factory owner. So my parents—who are here somewhere—have owned and operated a knit wear factory for the past 30 years. Me, who came from a consulting background, met the designer for this collection, Mijia, back in 2012 when we were roommates in New York. I was a consultant working downtown and she was a student at Parsons. I moved back to China to help with the family business, started a line while she finished her degree. She won the Kering, Empowering Imagination Award with some of the pieces that my factory helped… and so I brought her in…and we’ve been doing novelty knitwear, trying to be more colorful, and trying to be more innovative—something that nobody has ever done.

TK: What’s the story behind the name? PH5?

Wei Lin: So you know the chemistry value? The PH values? 1 through 14? So you know that PH 7 is neutral—so we are gender neutral, slightly feminine. We have the sneaker cool—we have the hat, we have the sneakers, ‘cause she comes from Nike, and I come from a very sporty, athletic background and we want things that people can run, wear, walk, carry something and still feel very comfortable. 

TK: What inspired you for this specific collection?

Mijia Zhang: First, I looked at the Quistrebert Brothers, they’re very young artists. The idea is layering different material on top of each other, that’s where I came up with this transparent idea. There are a lot of transparents in this collection, so when you style it you can just lay it on top. Then I looked at Katharina Grosse’s work. She did the Rockaway Project here, and I liked how she spray painted the whole space to create a 3D work. Then I moved to Carlos Cruz Diez’s work. He has a color theory called chromo-saturation, which is a optical illusion with straps, so you can see a lot of strappy things in this collection.