Chloé’s Natacha Ramsay-Levi talks resort 2020 in Shanghai

Chloé’s creative director Natacha Ramsay-Levi is sitting behind an improvised desk in a cavernous industrial room in Shanghai’s waterside Long Museum. On the concrete bund below, freight ships pass by a handful of skateboarders practising tricks in the shadow of the ruins of the city’s coal stores, out of the midday sun. The space, like Ramsay-Levi herself, is calm. It has been her centre of operations since Saturday, when she arrived from Paris ahead of the brand’s resort 2020 show on June 5. The occasion marks the first time the house has staged a runway show outside of France and Chloé’s arrival on the global pre-collection circuit.

If the pressure is on, it doesn’t show. Neither the impending collection reveal, or the relentless 31-degree heat are altering the designer’s characteristically unphased demeanour. There’s no thrum of mood-rousing music from the temporary backstage dressing area, no trace of late night coffee orders, or iPhone din. She isn’t jet-lagged – gently shrugging off the notion with a smile, “I’m pretty easy with that” – and like the local Shanghainese, her covered-up dress code – black kick-flares, a soft-line navy blazer and silk shirt – is notably intact. As is her signature kohl-rimmed eye makeup.

At 39 years old, Natacha Ramsay-Levi oversees 82 Chloé boutiques worldwide and four collections annually. The house has evolved in the two years since she joined from Louis Vuitton (where she was Nicolas Ghesquière’s creative director of womenswear), adopting a harder edged bohemianism, with an awareness that the Chloé girl is “not always the blonde. Let’s move out from there,” she says.

There’s also a new sense of robust practicality to match the house’s peripatetic spirit. Motherhood and work are concurrent modes, which the designer shifts between – something she credits for “giving balance” in her life. “I talk a lot with my studio team about how you feel in the clothes and maternity gives you much more awareness in that sense – even something as simple as ‘Do I have enough pockets?’” she jokes.  

Her own approach at Chloé has also evolved. “In the beginning, I had a vision of Chloé that was very broad, but I think now people want something very precise from Chloé – the In explanation, she steps towards a large board displaying the running order of the final show looks. “Here, I have tried to do something new for me. You still have the very boyish attitude and tailoring, but I think there is much more delicate femininity in this collection.”

The pieces themselves are rich in nuanced references to Chinese culture, from the opening look – a quilted jacket that pays homage to the padded motorcycle covers Shanghainese women use during winter – to silk pyjama silhouettes. The collection also sees the return of two Art Deco Chloé logos, resurrected from the house archive, that nod to the city’s skyline: one was discovered on a 1970s suitcase and the other created by Stella McCartney for the invitation to her debut Chloé show. Today, it’s rendered in jacquard on a pair of tailored trousers. “I’ve had my eye on it for a while, but it never felt quite right to bring back, until now,” Ramsay-Levi says, her Parisian accent strong.

The unexpected entry? Acid brights. “Voila! You know, last winter I did a collection that was all about blue, white and red, very simple. For this show, I wanted fun colours.” The C bag likewise appears in juicier new shades, championing the energy of China’s modern street style heroes, whose “super gothic style” and signature chokers offer a fresh, inspirational kind of “toughness”.

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“Coming to Shanghai, I found a very modern city, but still you have all the layers from history – the Belle Epoque, Art Deco, and Communist era. The collection reflects this,” explains Ramsay-Levi.

Formerly a history student, the designer has a long-time obsession with Chinese cinema (specifically, the work of director Jia Zhangke) –  as she talks animatedly, a 12 ft moodboard of Chinese film references on the opposite wall sets a fitting backdrop. It’s this interest that has informed the research visits to Shanghai’s fabric markets and outlying villages, which play an integral role in her designs, both past and present, and prompted her decision to show in Shanghai.

In January, she returned to Shanghai once again, to “listen to the mood”. She spent time observing the full scale of the city, from the super-chic to the everyday, ultimately deciding to show at the Long Museum because “the river is always present in Jia Zhangke’s films”.

The art house references are something Ramsay-Levi has a skill for shaping into work that’s resolutely democratic with pop culture momentum, as her predecessors at Chloé did too. “You don’t need to know a lot about fashion to understand a Chloé show,” she says, extending another enormous smile as we walk back across the gallery to the outdoor terraces, where a production crew are busy installing the runway. The light streams through the Art Deco logos that decorate the floor-to-ceiling windows, casting soft-focus ‘C’ shadows.

“Gaby [Aghion] was an intellectual, but she was super edgy,” she says of the industrious Chloé founder. “With Karl [Lagerfeld], the house was very outrageous – super sexy and very funny. The thing with Chloé is that it’s always about something that’s very positive.”