Gen-Zheng

Zheng already has a strong sense of her own fashion mission and hopes to launch her own brand shortly after. While she acknowledges Japanese designers like Miyake and Yamamoto, she wants to go beyond that influence. "Deconstruction does not follow the ruels of dressmaking – for example, the silhouette can be created however the designer chooses. My works will be different from these designers because it will be based on our country's culture and traditional craft, which combines deconstruction and modern surface design technology."

A colleague on the same design course, Rue Li, who admired Zheng's combination of "unique fabrics with poetic silhouettes" and is now working as a brand ambassador to help broker cult sneaker brand Andrew Kayla's entry into China, thought the prize marked as much a significant cultural as an individual moment. "I think the winning prize is significant for both Jessica and all designers in China," she says. "It showed the public what a designer does isn't just about following the current trends, but also about keeping an eye on exploring the symbolic relationship between human beings and our society."