Mother knows best! Well, when it comes to dressing, Chet Lo’s certainly does. That much was clear from the designer’s heartfelt homage to his own, Mai-Wah Cheung, a formidable pioneer in New York City’s computer sciences industry. “In the 1990s, she was actually one of the first women in the city to study in the field,” Lo said proudly while backstage at a preview. “She then took the world by storm, going on to become the CIO of multiple companies,” including mass-media titan Univision.
Climbing that sort of a career ladder takes composure, conviction, and grit—qualities, Lo noted, he’s glad to have inherited from her—not to mention a wardrobe that communicates at first glance. Meeting Ms. Cheung today, however, that isn’t the impression you’d necessarily glean: “She’s now done a complete 180 and really discovered her delicate side,” said her son. “She works as a schoolteacher and a painter—it’s such an inspiring change.”
Accordingly, Lo’s collection contemplated this transition, articulating the delicate nuances of her character in cloth. Obvious 9-to-5 codes figured, but more compelling were the interpretations of her go-to cobalt plaids on gauzy shift dresses and a strapless column silhouette that translated the check in the designer’s signature durian knit. There was also clear evidence of Lo pushing the technique into more mature territory, most notably with a slick charcoal boatneck gown and as subtle panels running along the sleeves of a fitted wool shirt.
Mai-Wah Cheung’s turn from corporate life was sweetly acknowledged by a pair of tank dresses that gently jingled with glass beads in the shapes of the fruit bowl medleys that inspire her painting practice. And the show’s opening look—a gossamer white gown bisected into sections in crisp gauze and an origami pleated rendition of Lo’s puckering—connoted the vulnerability that she’s come to perceive as a strength.
Though Lo’s celebration of his mother’s emotional transition was born of homage, it also, in a sense, mirrored a transformation of the designer’s own. “I’m really tired of just creating these punky, crazy, club-kid clothes,” he said, “so this was me trying to elevate the brand and say something that’s really elegant—demure, even.” Granted, fans of the clubbier gear Lo has made a name with will find their appetites satiated by the body-cladding cropped polos and teensy bandeau skirts in glitched-out graphics—not delivering on this front would be a silly move, commercially speaking. Signs of refinement were most apparent in notable developments with the wovens. Though there’s still room for refinement, a grey minidress with a jaunty cowl hood gestured toward territory that it would be great to see Lo pursue further. Its source of inspiration was, naturally, an image of the designer’s mother, a pinnacle of chic swaddled in a scarf.
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