Xander Zhou Pro Spring/Summer 2025 at Shanghai Fashion Week

Xander Zhou Pro Spring/Summer 2025 / SS25 at Shanghai Fashion Week entitled 异时志异 ANACHRONOTALE

“Music and Dancing not only give great pleasure but have the honor of depending on Mathematics, for they consist in number and in measure. And to this must be added Painting and Perspective and the use of very elaborate Machines, all of which are necessary for the ornament of Theaters at Ballets and at Comedies. Therefore, whatever the old doctors may say, to employ oneself in all this is to be a Philosopher and a Mathematician.” Charles Sorel, Sieur de Souvigny (1602 – 1674)

Oscillating between the elegant and the grotesque, XANDER ZHOU PRO SS25 High-Tech Couture Collection “ANACHRONOTALE” stages a time-defying carnival. It resurrects and reassembles iconic archetypes from ballet and comedy traditions, recasting them into the future.

As foundational forms of ballet and comedy, ballet de cour and commedia dell’arte were integral elements of European pre-Lent carnivals. During courtly carnavals, meticulously staged ballet performances — a display of the monarchy’s power and refinement — took place in royal venues, where nobles embodied deities, heroes, and ideals. Meanwhile, in the public carnevale, professional actors brought improvisational comedy to the streets, portraying stock characters such as the greedy, the hypocritical, or the cunning, blending entertainment with social satire. It could be argued that ballet de cour and commedia dell’arte closely mirror the Apollonian-Dionysian dichotomy.

Whether through role reversal or en travesti, both ballet de cour and commedia dell’arte employed masks and costumes to facilitate the transformation of identities. Vessels of aesthetic ideals, masks in ballet de cour were crafted to enhance visual harmony and convey refined beauty. In commedia dell’arte, masks were designed to represent distinct stock characters, using exaggerated forms to highlight the absurdity of the roles. When nobles portrayed comedic figures, it was to demonstrate their ability to contain and resolve chaos. When comedians portrayed the powerful and the well-respected, however, it was to deconstruct societal norms and expose their inherent contradictions. While the metamorphoses enabled by costumes and styling may appear superficial, they lead to a deeper redefinition of identities.

The new emerges through dialogue with the old, while style takes shape in the interplay of past and future; as order and chaos rise and fall, the tale spins perpetually. XANDER ZHOU PRO SS25 or Spring/Summer 2025 High- Tech Couture Collection “ANACHRONOTALE” is about to unfold as four suits of cards.