Huishan Zhang Review: What You Get for the Money, and Who Should Not Buy It

This is a review of Huishan Zhang written by a stockist, which means you should read it with the appropriate suspicion. We have tried to earn it by being specific about what the brand does badly as well as what it does well, and by comparing it against named competitors with real numbers rather than adjectives.

The verdict in one paragraph

Huishan Zhang is the best value in couture-method occasion dressing at this price level, and it is the wrong purchase for almost everything else. The construction is genuinely couture-trained, the fabrics are woven rather than printed, and the median gown costs about a third of what the comparable gala houses charge. In exchange you accept long lead times, garments that are memorable enough to limit repeat wear, and a house that does not publish where its clothes are made.

What you are actually buying

Construction

The founder trained at Central Saint Martins, took an MA in Pattern Cutting specifically, and then worked inside the Dior Haute Couture atelier in Paris. All three show. These garments have internal structure: boned bodices, underlayers, hand-finished seams, and shoulders that hold their line without help. At this price point a great many competitors have quietly stopped building any of that, because nobody photographs the inside of a dress.

Fabric

Jacquard, fil coupe, duchesse satin, faille, sable and embroidered tulle. All woven, none printed. A woven pattern costs several times a printed one and behaves completely differently in light, which is the single biggest reason these pieces look better in a room than on a screen.

Price against the field

Those are live figures from the stock Luxury Handbags holds today, not list prices from a lookbook. The most expensive Huishan Zhang gown in the collection costs less than the cheapest Elie Saab gown we hold. That is the commercial argument for the brand and it is a strong one.

The four real criticisms

1. Lead times

A number of pieces are produced to order rather than pulled from a warehouse. If your event is in three weeks, this is the wrong brand. Six to eight weeks is comfortable, and more if you expect alterations.

2. Memorability

The heavily embellished pieces are recognisable, which is the point and also the limit. A $9,430 embellished tulle gown will be photographed and identified. Realistically you will wear it three to five times in the same circles. The plain crepe columns have the opposite problem and the opposite virtue.

3. Structure restricts movement

A boned duchesse bodice does not give. That is what makes the silhouette hold and it is also why you should sit down and raise both arms in the fitting room before committing. Crepe and jersey do not have this problem at all.

4. No published origin

The house does not state a country of manufacture, and it publishes no supplier list. That is common at this level and it still means you cannot verify origin for duty, for ethical sourcing, for resale provenance. We have written about that separately rather than glossing it.

Who should buy it

• Anyone with a real calendar of occasions, weddings, galas, awards evenings, diplomatic functions, rather than one event.
• Anyone who needs covered occasion dressing, sleeves and a higher neckline, cut for it rather than adapted into it.
• Anyone who can tell the difference between a woven pattern and a printed one, and cares.
• Anyone buying separates. The skirts and tops are the best value in the collection by a distance.

Who should not

• Anyone building an everyday wardrobe. This is not that brand.
• Anyone who needs it inside two weeks.
• Anyone buying one dress for one wedding and never wearing it again. Needle & Thread, at a median of about $1,200, gets you the look for a quarter of the money and is honest about being a different proposition.
• Anyone for whom published country of origin is a condition of purchase.

Scores, with reasons

Frequently asked questions

Is Huishan Zhang worth the money?

For occasion dressing, yes, and the case is specific. You are buying woven decoration rather than printed, hand embellishment rather than applied trim, and couture-trained construction, at a median gown price of about $4,400 against $11,471 at Elie Saab and $15,842 at Oscar de la Renta measured on current stock. If you want a plain, unstructured dress, you are paying for construction you will not use.

Does Huishan Zhang fit true to size?

Yes. The house states it on its own product pages and publishes no sizing correction on any style we carry. Order your usual UK size. The one caveat is a boned bodice, and duchesse behaves the same way, because neither has any give, so between sizes take the larger.

What is the quality of Huishan Zhang like?

The construction is the strongest part. Internal structure, boning, underlayers and hand-finished seams are present at prices where competitors have stopped bothering. The fabrics are woven rather than printed, which is where the money goes and what makes the pieces look expensive in person rather than only in photographs.

What are the downsides of Huishan Zhang?

Four, honestly. Lead times are long, because several pieces are produced to order. Heavily embellished pieces are memorable, which limits how often you can wear them. Structured bodices restrict movement in a way crepe does not. And the house publishes no country of manufacture, so if origin matters to you, you cannot verify it.

Who should not buy Huishan Zhang?

Anyone who wants an everyday wardrobe, anyone who needs something inside two weeks, and anyone buying one dress for one wedding who will not wear it again. For a single event, Needle & Thread at a median of about $1,200 gets you the look for a quarter of the money.

Is Huishan Zhang good for petite and tall women?

The brand photography is shot on a 178 cm fit model in a UK 8, so hems sit lower on most people than the images suggest. Every product page at Luxury Handbags carries the per-size garment measurements in centimetres, which is the only reliable way to judge length. Budget for a hem alteration if you are under about 165 cm.

Keep reading

• What Huishan Zhang costs, category by category
• Brands like Huishan Zhang
• Where is Huishan Zhang made?
• Huishan Zhang sizing and conversions
• Shop the full Huishan Zhang collection at Luxury Shoes