ONCOMMON
- Milan Tanedjikov
- Nov 6
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 8
Wen has been part of LIGNES DE FUITE almost since the beginning, first as a designer in residence at A257, and now as our sourcing partner. We have watched his work evolve from inches away: steady, precise, uninterested in spectacle. This month he presents his latest collection under ONCOMMON at Fashion Art Toronto (FAT) on Friday, November 14th, 2025, at 7 PM.
His corner of the studio has hardly changed. One side is order: tools, sketches, and patterns. The other is a quiet mess of second-hand garments and offcuts. The space explains its owner better than words can. It is structured, but never sterile.
He calls the new collection “Lego.” Not nostalgia, but logic. Wen breaks garments into geometric fragments and rebuilds them using found materials. Each piece begins as an experiment and ends as a clean proposition. The process looks simple, but it is discipline disguised as ease.
Material scarcity does not frustrate him. It sharpens his method. “You can usually find enough for one or two pieces,” he says, “but not for more.” What could be an obstacle becomes part of the structure. He works within limits until they start to feel like form.
That mindset defines ONCOMMON. The label is not about purity or minimalism; it is about connection—between maker and material, between attention and care. Wen’s approach feels closer to engineering than to sentiment: a study in how small choices accumulate into meaning.
He mentions a theory called Promenadologie, the study of walking as a way of thinking. It fits him. His clothes seem to move at that pace: measured, aware, slightly detached from the rush around them. Designing, for Wen, is a kind of walking—advancing by observation rather than speed.
As his presentation at FAT approaches, he remains composed. “I am curious to see how people will react,” he says. He is not trying to convince anyone. He simply wants to know whether the audience can sense what he has been tracing: motion, continuity, intention.
What he protects is not an image but a practice. Fashion, he believes, can still be an act of choosing carefully rather than performing loudly. Care, for him, is procedural, something designed into the workflow, not declared in a caption.
When asked what he hopes people take from the show, he answers without hesitation. “To wonder how things are made and why,” he says. It is a modest wish, but an honest one. Wonder slows the eye; it opens a small space for reflection in a culture that rewards speed.
“Fashion is the only place where I can remind myself that there is never just one place to be yourself,” he adds. “It is about how you use the space to speak your voice.” The line lands gently, but it carries the weight of experience.
When we leave the studio, the light has shifted from grey to the warm dim of evening. His table is still scattered, his racks still half empty. Nothing resolved, everything continuing. That may be the essence of ONCOMMON: not a finished language, but a system that keeps rewriting itself as it moves.
Credits:
Images ONCOMMON Words Milan Tanedjikov
RISING is a feature series by LIGNES DE FUITE, spotlighting designers in the midst of their ascent — when ideas are still raw and everything feels at stake.Each piece captures the moment a practice becomes visible: part encounter, part record, part news. More than coverage, RISING is an acknowledgment — that something vital is taking shape, that a voice is forming, and that becoming is worth remembering.
Comments