Meet Songlan Wu | Technical Designer & Textile Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Songlan Wu and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Songlan, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I can’t say I love risk, that’s not true. I would take risk when life comes to no correct answers which has been quite common to my situations as me in the age of early to mid 20s.

Telling myself “having no options equals to having all the options” is my favorite mindset, it drives me taking actions instead of waiting for back-ups, this is my manifestation of taking risks.

Leaving the job I just felt wrong about when I had no savings, it provoked me to hunt and find the job that turned out 100 times better. (I felt lucky for sure, however, the luck was more like the bonus of me taking the risk.)
Having no access to materials for my design project, so I decided to use anything I had at hand to generate things from scratch, which contributed to a bold and original collection that got me in New York Fashion Week last year.
Trying to stick with design from the beginning, then try out for technical design field (totally new area to me when I started working in the fashion industry) which lead me to even better place that I gained strong garment construction knowledge and clearer career development in design.

In short, taking risk has surprised me with its power, it appreciates my effort of overcoming the fear.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I registered my own brand few months ago. The design and textile projects I’ve been working on will continue under the brand image. The challenges so far are handling all type of small detailed things as a founder such as paperwork, researches etc by myself. And working on the balance of being commercial/sellable yet artistic with the brand spirit. Hopefully soon I get to hire passionate people helping with marketing, and I am excited about how this will turn out!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Definitely check out MoMA! The Museum of Modern Art has always been inspiring and to acquire knowledge of art and contemporary history, it provides diversified perspectives of social events and voices from different groups in a poetic way.

Alright, so let’s jump right in! The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there a person, group, organization, book, etc. that you want to dedicate your shoutout to? Who else deserves a little credit and recognition in your story?  
Thank to my family, specifically my mother who has been supporting my study in fashion and art. Many thanks to supervisor P.Z. from my first job in fashion industry 3 yrs ago. She gave me so much care and guidance from her wonderful personalities and extraordinary professions as a friend, a family and a leader.
Last but not least, my dear friend V.V. for his encouragement and support to my art activities and events, and his passion for seeing my talent and ideas which helped me through so many difficulties and downs.

Website: songlanwu99.wixsite.com/mysite

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/song_l_u_/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/songlanwu/

Image Credits
Anne Belan, Anna Kwan, Xiaopeng Zhan, Sean yuan