Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Zehua Wu of Williamsburg New York

Zehua Wu shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Hi Zehua, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What do you think is misunderstood about your business? 
Fashion is often seen as pure creativity, but in reality, only about 10% is design — the other 90% is problem-solving, collaborating with diverse teams, coordinating production, managing budgets, driving sales, shaping marketing strategies and more. The runway glam we admired in school is just the tip of the iceberg.
A typical day for me starts with hundreds of emails, tackling ongoing and upcoming challenges, and carving out evenings for the most precious part — the creative work. Interestingly, many of my peers who run their own fashion labels share a similar rhythm, all working to keep creativity alive while navigating the demands of business. For me, that balance is challenging, but it’s also what makes the work exciting every single day.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m currently the Chief Fashion Designer at ARTWOKE in New York City, where I lead all creative fashion directions. At the same time, I run my eponymous brand, ZEHUA WU, creating couture-like artwear that merges craftsmanship with cultural storytelling.
Ever since I began my creative journey over 10 years ago, I’ve been drawn to transforming fashion into a living, wearable form of art. My work lives at the intersection of disciplines—graphic design, sculpture, illustration, and textiles—which has shaped how I see the world and create within it. I don’t believe art should be confined to galleries; I want it to be worn, felt, and understood, carrying meaning in everyday life.
I founded ZEHUA WU in Brooklyn as a space to merge sculptural silhouettes with semi-couture techniques and reinterpret heritage through a modern lens. Growing up in rural China and later studying at RISD, Parsons, and Central Saint Martins gave me both a deep respect for tradition and the courage to challenge it. My multicultural background inspires me to blend traditional crafts with innovations like 3D printing, creating garments that feel both familiar and futuristic.
My work has been showcased at New York Fashion Week, the CFDA, and Dover Street Market, featured in The New York Times and Marie Claire and more. Whether reviving forgotten crafts or embedding personal memories into my silhouettes, I see fashion as a form of storytelling—and I’m still telling mine, one stitch at a time.

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
Simply an art lover — curious about every medium I could get my hands on. In the creative process, especially in fine arts, I loved observing life, exploring emotions, and studying culture, history, and traditional crafts. I would translate everything I felt into painting, blending colors, textures, and stories. That passion for art has never left me; it still shapes my fashion design today. I draw inspiration from artworks and work in an interdisciplinary way, weaving together different media to create designs that feel alive.

What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
Art and design — both the process and the outcome — have healed wounds I once thought were impossible to overcome.
My Artificial Flower collection was born from the loss of my grandmother. In my hometown of Nanzhao, China, funerals are marked by vibrant artificial flowers and the sound of the suona.I will never forget the image of her surrounded by synthetic blooms — an emblem of love, a family’s wish to safeguard her spirit and grant her an immortal presence. That act of love and tradition became the heart of the collection.
As I wove my memories into each design, I found a way to preserve fleeting moments and release my grief. Using 3D scanning, photo documentation, and a beading technique I developed, I blended Nanzhao’s traditional bamboo weaving with Western beadwork to create textiles that carry the emotions and memories of my family — a meeting of traditional craftsmanship and modern innovation. Each piece took over 100 hours to complete, symbolizing care, preservation, and devotion.
The process moved me as much as the final pieces. It taught me that if you keep creating, the work itself will guide and heal you.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
In my family and local community, we value the craft, the story behind it, and the traditions. Most of all, we honor the ways people create and do things — and we strive to preserve them for as long as we can.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What will you regret not doing? 
I’d say it’s not continuing to explore and push boundaries — mixing disciplines, media, materials, and innovations. Beyond fashion, I ventured into independent filmmaking in the fashion film category, which expanded my ability to express my aesthetics and present my work in a more comprehensive way.
One example is Artificial Flower, a fashion film and accessories collection under my eponymous brand. Inspired by funerary traditions in my hometown, it explored cultural remembrance through textile innovation. I led the entire process—from concept and design to fabrication and presentation—while managing a team of 50 collaborators. The project became an award-winning film at ASVOFF, was screened at various international festivals, and featured at Dover Street Market. It established me as a cultural storyteller who blends heritage with experimental craft. My guiding belief is simple: never stop exploring — to lead, not follow.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
ZEHUA WU

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Highlighter Series
What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?

Coffee? Workouts? Hitting the snooze button 14 times? Everyone has their morning ritual and we

Highlighter Series
What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?

Our deepest wounds often shape us as much as our greatest joys. The pain we

Highlighter Series
Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?

Culture, economic circumstances, family traditions, local customs and more can often influence us more than