London-based womenswear label ApuJan, founded by designer Apu Jan’s theme for this season draws inspiration from science fiction, telling stories in the blurred zone that exists between the virtual and the real. Apu Jan often uses books as the mood board for his designs, and this season’s titles include Flowers in the Mirror, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, Fahrenheit 451, Speaker for the Dead, A Scanner Darkly, World Without Love, and The Fall of the House of Usher. The theme “Gaze into the Flowers in the Mirror” echoes the Chinese idiom “Flower seen in the mirror, the moon reflected on the water’s surface” to evoke the concept of virtual images, which can be seen but not touched; echoing the log-in account and the mimicry of the account; the virtual reality glasses; the projected music performance and the fashion show in the mirror. This season, Apu Jan tells a story in the world of science fiction, where we gradually lose the ability to distinguish between virtual and reality.
