Designer Chet Lo on BFC’s NEWGEN & LFW’s New Sustainability Requirements

Courtesy of British Fashion Council's NEWGEN sponsor Pull&Bear

It’s hard to picture designer Chet Lo anywhere other than London. Born in New York to a Hong Kongese family, Lo relocated to the British capital in 2015 to study at the prestigious Central Saint Martins and never looked back.

“I see London as the epicenter of rebellion,” the designer recently said in a statement. “Here, young designers aren’t afraid to express themselves authentically without caring about what anyone thinks. The fashion industry can feel restrictive at times, but in London, there’s a real sense of freedom.”

After interning at Proenza Schouler and Maison Margiela, Lo graduated from CSM in 2020 with a BA in Knitwear in the middle of COVID-19 lockdowns and, out of necessity, had to set up his own company. First part of the talent incubator Fashion East, Lo moved into London Fashion Week’s main calendar during the spring 2022 season through the British Fashion Council NEWGEN initiative. The program is now at the start of a multi-year partnership with Pull&Bear, which has vowed to provide financial support as well as resources and mentoring for the emerging talent in the NEWGEN roster — though not without mixed reactions.

Featuring his trademark merino wool spikes, Lo’s designs have already been worn by the likes of Chloe Bailey, Raye, Zendaya, Bridgerton’s Simone Ashley, XG, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Heartstopper’s Will Gao, and SZA — among others — but the designer wants to keep pushing the limits of yarn, playing more and more with deconstruction and pleating, both in his own collections and his collaborations, which already span the likes of Rankin, Charles & Keith, Tinder, Hello Kitty, Nordstrom, Pull&Bear, and soon, Converse.

Just days before the unveiling of his fall-winter 2025 collection, Modern Antiquity, at London Fashion Week, Teen Vogue caught up with Chet Lo at Pull&Bear’s Canvas for Creativity pop-up at Selfridges to talk about his trajectory at LFW, materials, and BFC's newly announced sustainability requirements for NEWGEN.

Teen Vogue: Since September 2022, you’ve been a BFC NEWGEN recipient, which is now sponsored by Pull&Bear. What type of resources and support do you get being a part of NEWGEN now?

Chet Lo: I think NEWGEN is amazing because it allows us to continue having the same show opportunities that we've had in the past, but what's new is that, as well that, with the proper funding they have a lot more capabilities with the show venue and the show curation. So, we [designers] have a lot more. Our possibilities for the show and how it's created are much bigger. It's just given us more freedom.

TV: I understand you also get training from NEWGEN and P&B and you get to pick what area you want to tap into more. What area are you most interested in at the moment?

CL: For us, I think it's factories, because that's always what is the most difficult thing for us to source and to work with, and to have done properly. That takes a lot of connections, and luckily P&B have the best connections.

I think the thing for me is that, obviously, as a younger brand you don't have the same resources that P&B does so being able to just let your imagination run free [with the small capsule we did] was [eye-opening]. I went to the offices with a massive book of just sh*t I couldn't do in the past, because we didn't have the funds to produce it. And we're like, "Can you just make this a reality?" And they were like, "Yeah, easy." A lot of the techniques [in the capsule] are just ideas that we haven't been able to do before. The possibilities are endless. So, that, for me, was the best part — just the simplification of the design process. Whereas, for us, in our own studio, it's kind of like you design something and you're like, “Can I actually make this work?”

For example, the pleated blue and black technique looks deceivingly simple, but you have to pleat the fabric, print the fabric, and then stitch it in a way to create those patterns. It's really, really time-consuming. It’s multiple techniques layered into one. For me, that was always something I was really interested in. I've always had that picture saved in my archives but never been able to do it.

TV: A lot of the clothes for your namesake brand have a made in Italy tag. How do you source your materials?

CL: Basically, [my team and I] will go to a yarn convention every six months and source the yarns there. And then, a lot of the materials we make ourselves, because it's a knitwear brand. A lot of the time, we just turn yarns into fabric. And then with fabrics, we'll just honestly go to some random little local store [here in London] and just be like, ‘I like this fabric,’ and just buy 10 meters of it and just make some trousers. [We usually stick to] some local businesses and then some Italian mills. There's a mix of high-low really.

TV: I know you said the base of your entire brand is knitwear, but it’s knitwear with a twist.

CL: Yeah, exactly.

TV: It's not just a simple sweater.

CL: Exactly.

TV: I noticed that you use a lot of blends of synthetic and organic materials in your pieces, like polyamide and wool. Is that to achieve the signatures spikes? What's the innovation in using those?

CL: Basically, a lot of the times we'll mix the synthetics with the natural fibers just because it allows us to give the pieces structure. We love to use natural fibers in general because they actually are a lot more comfortable and a lot more wearable for the consumer. But then, as well, I love just the manipulation of fabrics. For us, with knitwear, the possibilities are limitless because you can do a lot in terms of texture and feel. And so, we just go a bit nuts every season and do a million ideas and then have to limit down to what's actually possible.

TV: What's the biggest lesson that you feel you have learned in the few years that you've been part of the NEWGEN?

CL: I think the biggest lesson that I've learned so far is just not taking everything very seriously, and just learning that you just have to be... It's just fashion, and it's just like... It's all fun.

TV: It was just recently announced that January 2026 designers under the BF NEWGEN umbrella are going to implement the sustainability requirements first adopted by Copenhagen Fashion Week in 2019. What are your plans to integrate those into the company?

CL: I think the initiative is really important, but I think that the emphasis should not be on smaller brands, but on larger companies. Smaller companies, we're just trying to sustain ourselves. If you look at it as a whole, actually, the issue of sustainability doesn't really relate to smaller companies because they're producing such smaller amounts. The pieces are definitely made to be bought and then kept within generations. Whereas, with many larger companies, the pieces become very disposable. And so, you get this idea of trash literally the second that you buy it.

A lot of my friends who have [brands], I love their pieces because they are so innovative and different and I would never imagine if I even got a hole in one of them that I would throw them away. You know what I mean? I think the initiative is definitely very important, and I think definitely every single brand should work towards [sustainability], but I think [most] smaller brands are [already] okay.

TV: In terms of production for your own company, how many pieces do you usually create?

CL: We produce only the right amount that was needed for buyers. For example, we'll only produce the amount needed for a certain retailer, and then we don't overproduce. A lot of the time we'll make things in-house, so that way we'll just have yarn. So then if someone buys something, we'll just make it in-house for them.

TV: So aside from the retailer amount, everything is made to order?

CL: It's made to order – it allows us to just make bespoke sizing as well for people.

^{This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.}

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue

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