For Toronto designer Wanze Song, elevating the basics is key

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Twice a year, designer Wanze Song invites a small group of friends and customers to her studio, located near the University of Toronto and above one of the city’s perennially favourite Italian restaurants. They’re there to look at the next season’s collection and for a chance to preorder their favourite pieces. Photos are taken of willing shoppers in full looks and, over the next couple of weeks and months, the images are posted on social media, shared and reshared.

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This isn’t the traditional way a fashion business operates. But when it came to launching her WANZE brand’s luxuriously minimalist workwear in 2022, Song didn’t really intend on following in anyone’s footsteps. Instead, she spent years observing, cherry picking from her experience (stints sharpening her patternmaking skills at the labels Kiko Kostadinov and ASAI in London; assisting with sales alongside designer Xiao Li in Shanghai) to create something special on her own terms. “I wanted people to have the experience of trying it, seeing it, touching it, understanding it. I didn’t know what I was doing per se, but things just started to grow,” she says. “People started seeing real people wearing my pieces around the city and that really sold the brand,” Song says.

There was also the Dumpling Bag. The crescent shaped style made of ultra fine nylon that’s been padded and pleated was introduced a year earlier, in 2021, and became an instant hit. “The Dumpling was, I think, a chance of luck. To this day I’m shocked by how well it did.” Song says. “It just existed as something I made for myself. And then friends here and there would ask, ‘where can I buy this,’ and it took off from there.” It’s now available in four sizes (mini to large) and a range of neutral hues and bolder colours.

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To create her clothing collection for women and men (available directly online and through boutiques Neighbours in Vancouver as well as Lost and Found, Grays and River Crossing in Toronto) Song’s inspirations often start with the best materials she can find, usually something familiar such as nylon or cotton twill. From there, she sets out to create something that often feels a bit foreign to her customers.

This coming fall, it was a quilted nylon that caught her eye, a technical fabric often used to make puffer jackets. Instead, Song has used it to craft a puffy gathered skirt. Equally inspirational was a crinkled metallic cotton in “Kelp” green or black that elevates an often-straightforward chore jacket and a coordinating pair of pants.

For Song, building a collection boils down to these types of basics. “I’m observing what people wear day to day and for men’s wear, guys just want a shirt and a pant,” she says. “At the end of the day, I just want to make wearable things that feel modern, refined and smart so that people feel good and can stand a little taller.”

For more information, visit wanzesong.com.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Toronto boutique Grays as "Grace." This version has been corrected.