Long before becoming a trend, an aesthetic is usually born on the margins. In a concert hall, a club, or an art gallery. Usually, among a group of young people who decide to dress a certain way without waiting for anyone to tell them what to wear. That spontaneous and pure form of expression is what designer Oscar Ouyang claims with his new collection, seeking a territory where clothing still functions as identity, code, and form of belonging.
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The designer, one of the emerging voices of the British Fashion Council’s BFC NEWGEN program, has built his new proposal in collaboration with Pull&Bear, within the Canvas for Creativity program, in which the brand supports emerging designers and new ways of understanding and expressing fashion. Ouyang, born in Beijing and trained at Central Saint Martins, incorporates in his work a predominantly London tradition that seeks risk, creativity, and disruption as a form of expression. The same line that led Vivienne Westwood to create the punk identity, Alexander McQueen to bring darkness and theatricality to haute couture, or Hedi Slimane to give new life to the rock aesthetic.
In Ouyang’s case, to that subcultural vision he adds a cross of references. “I am a third culture kid who has grown up between cultures,” explains the designer. “Moving from Beijing to London transformed my way of understanding fashion: a place where East and West dialogue through a hybrid aesthetic. I see clothing as a way to tell stories about identity, belonging, and transformation.” In that creative vision converge art, cinema, humor, and interior design, always with the door open to imperfection as an aesthetic discovery.
Elegance that arises from chaos
The collection created by Ouyang for Pull&Bear moves in that very British territory where tailoring, punk, workwear, and club culture can share a wardrobe. There are coats with traditional lines, jackets with utilitarian inspiration, flowing shirts, draped dresses, and pants of different volumes, but the relaxed proportions and certain details introduce a sense of spontaneity.
Knitwear, one of Ouyang’s specialties, adds texture and graphics. Denim appears in dark and treated finishes, while accessories, from narrow scarves to bags and boots, complete an urban silhouette with vintage echoes.
The references do not present themselves as costumes of a specific subculture, but as overlapping layers. There is something of the British punk tradition in the will to alter recognizable garments, as well as the dark minimalism associated with certain London music scenes, and that mix between masculine and feminine that seeks to blur boundaries. There is also a sensitivity close to vintage: familiar garments that change proportion, fabrics that seem to have lived before, and elements that introduce deliberate imperfection. The result draws from the past but avoids nostalgia: the references are the material to build something more ambiguous and contemporary.
The color palette reinforces that feeling of a wardrobe found somewhere between day and night. Black, anthracite, navy blue, and dark denim form the base, sprinkled with creams, camel, and browns that soften the ensemble. Natural materials and knitwear work add a more tactile dimension, while draping and different volumes give the garments movement.
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“We work with natural materials and recognizable garments, softening, transforming, and reinterpreting them as if they remained suspended between dressing up to go out and letting yourself be carried away by the moment,” says Ouyang. He also defines the result as “elegance with a touch of chaos,” and perhaps that is the best way to read his collection: a wardrobe that does not seek to look perfectly finished, but to leave space for the unpredictable.
Supporting new visions
At a time when fashion seems capable of turning any aesthetic into a label almost as fast as it appears, Ouyang’s perspective recovers something more interesting: the possibility that clothing does not have to immediately belong to a trend. With the mission of supporting those visions that arise from the margins, BFC NEWGEN was born, the British Fashion Council program of which Pull&Bear has been Principal Partner since 2024.
“BFC NEWGEN is part of London fashion history. It is a program that supported designers like Alexander McQueen or Jonathan Anderson at decisive moments in their careers,” recalls Ouyang. “Being part of that legacy is an honor, but also a responsibility. It drives us to keep evolving and to build a brand capable of enduring over time,” he adds.
For Ouyang, this program also has to do with expanding his work. “I felt it was an opportunity to share our visual language with a much wider audience without losing faithfulness to the brand’s identity,” he states. Against an industry marked by speed, he also claims craftsmanship, construction, and the ability of garments to innovate and tell stories.
Below, a selection of the Oscar Ouyang collection for Pull&Bear now available on the Pull&Bear website.
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100% leather jacket, by Oscar Ouyang for Pull&Bear
Wool polo with fringes, by Oscar Ouyang for Pull&Bear
Jeans with rhinestones, by Oscar Ouyang for Pull&Bear
T-shirt with applique, by Oscar Ouyang for Pull&Bear
Beaded necktie, by Oscar Ouyang for Pull&Bear
