Chinese top model FeiFei Sun graces four covers of Vogue China’s [IG] May 2025 issue in a fashion story called ‘Roaming in Spring’, styled by Liu Xiao. / Makeup by Valentina Li; hair by Zhou Xue Ming
Master photographer Zhong Lin [IG] captures the highly-popular and globally-respected fashion model in the studio and also natural settings.
Chinese supermodel Lina Zhang delivers a powerhouse, bold mix, opulent fashion editorial lensed by fellow superwoman talent Zhong Lin.
Austin Feng styles the fashion shoot that reminds us yet again: Chinese fashion media swings from the high bar of excellence. It’s just a fact./ Hair by Minghu Zhang; makeup by Yooyo Keong Minh
At the dawn of the Year of the Snake, actor Anne Hathaway is incarnated as the Muse of Snake by W Magazine China’s [IG] 2025 Vol.1 The Art Issue, lensed by Zhong Lin [IG]. Contemporary artist Xu Bing contributes calligraphy messages to the project.
A person who believes in the ancient power of being born in the year of the snake, is imbued with energy, power, and wisdom. The Bulgari ambassador wears seductive pieces from its legendary Serpenti Collection and fashion pieces from Maison Alaia, Versace styled by Audrey Hu. /Makeup by Jillian Dempsey; hair by Orlando Pita
W Magazine China’s [IG] end of year ‘The Great Performance Issue’ reports that American actor and producer Jessica Chastain is affectionately known as ‘Lady Model Worker’ by her Chinese audience. Widely-respected for her dedication to advancing projects with feminist themes, Chastain is surely touched by her Chinese moniker.
Chastain’s Oscar for ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’
W China honors Chastain’s 20 years in the spotlight and over 70 film, TV and stage credits. She took home a Best Actress 94th Oscar [2022] for ‘‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’. Listening to her acceptance speech takes us into the mind, heart and values of Jessica Chastain, who is very comfortable speaking to her own challenging roots in America, as well as the women in her family who have been her rock.
Master actor Tilda Swinton covers the December 2024 issue of Vogue Taiwan [IG] December 2024, styled in the all-Chanel fashion story by Jerry Stafford in images by Zhong Lin [AOC].
Chanel in Japan for Chanel and Cinema Tokyo Lights Photocall
Chanel ambassador Tilda Swinton, represented the luxury brand in a new event: the Chanel and Cinema — Tokyo Lights Photocall.
Chanel launched the new program to enhance its support for emerging cinema talent by partnering up with acclaimed Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda. The luxury brand will sponsor three films, selected from the Tokyo Lights project, showcasing them in Tokyo and Paris.
Chanel’s Hangzhou 2024/25 Métiers d’art Show on December 3, 2024
Tilda Swinton also touched down in China, in advance of Chanel’s Hangzhou 2024/25 Métiers d’art show “on the mythical West Lake” on December 3.
German filmmaker and author ‘Wim’ Wenders, a major figure in New German Cinema, joined the project and Chanel ambassador Tilda Swinton in a short film where Wenders follows Swinton as she explores Coco Chanel’s office on Rue Cambon,, before the creative team journeys to the iconic lake in China. See the 4 minute film.
The November 2024 issue of W Magazine China makes a vivid fashion impression with the fashion story ‘One Step Forward’. Five models are featured in the fashion production: América González, Chloe Oh, Mila van Eeten, Rejoice Chuol and Vika Evseeva. Austin Feng is in charge of styling, with Zhong Lin [AOC Archives] behind the lens.
Chinese supermodel Chu Wong joins W Magazine China Vol. 9 in toasting American designer Marc Jacobs and his 40-years in fashion. Photographer Zhong Lin [IG] captures the fashion story styled by Austin Feng, as a vision looming large to AOC Americans as a scene created for ‘The Stepford Wives’. / Hair by John Zhang; makeup by Clive Xiong
Top Chinese supermodel Lina Zhang makes a stylish, blockbuster impression in ‘Phantasm’, a sophisticated, modern-riches fashion story styled by Austin Feng. Photographer Zhong Lin [IG] is behind the lens for W Magazine China [IG] Vol. 9.
Supermodel Liu Wen is styled by Austin Feng in ‘Look At Me’, a gorgeous presentation of fall elegance from Marie Claire China [IG]. The fabulous, tightly-edited fashion story is lensed by Zhong Lin [IG] and we put it on the fashion board of excellence produced by Asian fashion media, much of it coming out of China.
W Magazine China 03, 2024, through seasonal fashion and images lensed by photographer Zhong Lin [IG], revives the romance immortalized by Chinese cultural icons across millennia.
W Magazine China’s [IG] June 2024 icon issue shares a fantastic fashion story featuring the ‘Margiela Artisanal’ 2024 couture collection starring model He Cong lensed by Zhong Lin. W also makes high-impact points in their commentary about creativity.
Creative Directors Examined
For the second time this week, my own brain has been interrupted externally with the reinforcement of thoughts already playing out here on AOC.
In preparing this W Magazine China fashion story over the course of two months, six sets of haute couture fashion traveled across the seas. The magazine “exclusively” documented this fashion moment, along with its fascinating behind-the-scenes story.
Top model He Cong graces the pages of Marie Claire China’s [IG] June 2024 issue. The Hunan-region beauty is styled by Austin Feng in red-inspired, fashion elegance lensed by Zhong Lin [IG].
China’s Monitoring of Flaunting Money on Social Media
This month [May 2024], China’s new ‘Clear and Bright’ campaign swung into action on social media. The campaign vows to crack down on influencers who create "ostentatious personas to cater to vulgar needs, and deliberately display extravagant lifestyles filled with money".
Jing Daily weighed in this morning, writing that across Chinese social media platforms like Weibo, Tencent, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu all reflect suspended accounts this week.
China Tackles Its Growing Income Gap Culture
The drive to reduce ostentatious displays of wealth [or internet cleanup, as Jing Daily calls it] “is part of a larger effort by Chinese authorities to curate and control social cultures to tackle China’s widening income disparity and wealth inequality.”
American-Korean, Texas-born model, actor, singer and designer Kiko Mizuhara covers the April 2024 issue of Vogue Taiwan .
Today, Mizuhara manages her own pure beauty brand Kiiks and a fashion brand Office Kiko and her 8 million IG followers.
Prominent photographer Zhong Lin [IG] captures ‘By Her Rules’, with a familiar ‘popsicle’ image cluing AOC to search for the environmental connection in the editorial, styled by Chen Yu.
Staying with Vogue Taiwan’s April 2024 issue and Kiko Mizuhara’s environmental commitments, the talent explains the evolution of her own environmental passions.
Japanese actor, singer and model Hikari Mitsushima is lensed by Zhong Lin [IG] in ‘Let It Shine’. Vogue Taiwan’s January 2024 cover story is styled by Chen Yu.
The prodigious inner vision of Zhong Lin [IG] often leaves me very, very quiet, and this is one of those moments. Discovering her beauty story ‘Dysmorphie’ for Revue Magazine [IG] just now became a game of cat and mouse.
If the fabulosity of creative director Camille Miceli’s [IG] current Pucci revival is lost to you in typical fashion photography shots, the FW 2023 issue of Perfect Magazine [IG] offers you Pucci the way we want it.
Fab-squad photographer Zhong Lin [IG] delivers vibrant Pucci images featuring model América González styled by Perfect Magazine founder and EIC Katie Grand [IG].
Etro reveals its Fall Winter 2023 Men and Women’s Advertising Campaign shot 1700 miles north of Italy in Inverness, Scotland. Etro’s Creative Director Marco De Vincenzo creates a dreamlike vision that is softly romantic and soothing — but also environmentally-aware in a humanist sense.
Featuring Argentina-Belgium model Nathaniël Ortiz and Israeli Sun Mizrahi, they are at one with nature and specifically water. The mood is one of great serenity and we can hear the soft ripples of the water — but there is also a disruptive undercurrent in both the images and the film.
Stellar photographer Zhong Lin [IG] is known for creating images that are both dreamy and simultaneously unsettling. Her January 2022 fashion story for Vogue Taiwan called ‘Heat Wave’ remains one of AOC’s most read and shared stories.
For the Fall 2023 collection Marco De Vincenzo worked diligently to mine and better understand the irreplaceable Etro archives. He is digging deep until he’s satisfied that he understands the very roots of the Etro vision.
In today’s world, such a search becomes a Radical Vision and the Fall Campaign is called ‘Radical Etro’.
Etro unveils ‘Eden of Etropia’, the first campaign for new creative director Marco De Vincenzo celebrating the spring 2023 collection.
Not only is the campaign beautiful on a visceral level. It drives a dagger [literally in the video] into the apple and a search for the truth of women’s identity.
Inspired by the paintings and portraits of the Pre-Raphaelites, Marco De Vincenzo communicates his poetic vision, creating a new paradise centered around the apple, the iconic fruit of the collection and a potent symbol of love, seduction and eternity.
That’s great copy. But the truth is also that the word ‘malus’ besides being Latin for ‘apple’ is also a very negative word associated with bad, evil and wicked. From a religious perspective the apple reference with Eve didn’t even appear in versions of the New Testament until 500 AD.
I wrote about this discovery after watching a PBS show ‘Mysteries of the Garden of Eden’, first released in 2007. The documentary will be purchased before sundown at whatever price.
Model Xie Chaoyu brings true beauty to the pages of Vogue China January 2023 with ‘Every Now and Then’. Zhong Lin [IG] delivers another fine photography performance with makeup artist Valentina Li and hair stylist Pierre Saint Sever.