Bad Binch Tongtong Spring 2027 Ready-to-Wear Collection
It’s been two years since Bad Binch TongTong last showed on the runway, and if there were any nerves leading up to his grand return, designer Terrence Zhou wasn’t going to let anyone see him sweat. He’s instilled with a mystical confidence that comes, in part, from the daily meditation that he practices as well as the psychics he frequents while walking the New York City streets. One fortune teller in Chelsea “saw my past life as some sort of witch doctor that heals people with my hands,” said Zhou, a designer who shapes wholly unconventional sculptures as garments.
The show took place in the Balloon Museum in the Seaport, where guests wandered through each exhibit, pausing for their own photo ops in digitally flooded rooms or grassy fields whirling with paper snow (this thankfully didn’t cause major delay), while catching glimpses of some of the avant-garde dresses to come. Once seated in a circular room, a more formal runway experience took shape.
Zhou’s design philosophy is pretty simple. In his words, everything begins with aura, whether that be a hand bell-shaped dress made from neon neoprene and shredded packaging foam or a levitating pleated orb. “Our work provokes emotions. And for me, emotion is energy and motion,” he said. No other piece could encapsulate this more than the ginormous finale dress that hovered off special guest star Saweetie’s body.
Dispersed throughout the bulbous and angular sculptures was also a more digestible offering than expected. A red ruffled top and teal ruched bodycon skirt, featuring a signature hooped hem, gave a nice mix of both nostalgia and futurism. The same could be said for a sporty blue velvet top with a highlighter green skirt, thanks to the ’80s color palette that brightened the black box room. Sculpture or not, it’s great to see that color has never been more back.
