Helen Zhu
After eight years in the web industry, it wasn’t long before Helen Zhu decided to branch out on her own. A Berkeley Graduate with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Helen partnered with then roommate Corinne Chan to launch Chictopia in April of 2008. Seeking to spearhead a project that would keep their interest, the three settled on fashion; an industry that, in Helen’s words, “lacked innovation.”
Helen now enjoys doing what she loves in San Francisco, a city she calls home. While she may have gotten a perfect math score on her SATs, Helen isn’t just brains. She also has quite a knack for Salsa and Swing dancing, even belonging to a Swing dance group with husband Ricky. When she isn’t dancing, doing math, or building the Chictopia brand, you can find her watching Gossip Girl and scouring the web for more style photos of Blair Waldorf.
On October 3, 2015 we gathered at FIT to make stories about Future Fashion – what it is, where it’s going, and how our lives will evolve as we express ourselves through wearable art and technology.
A creative, progressive, and fun group of projects emerged from the day’s activities, and then we had a robust discussion on fashion, media, and the definitions of style in the wearable media, online shopping and fast fashion age.
Special thanks to Bonnie Sandy, Lawrence Pizzi and Heartland Model Agency International for bringing such great clothing and beautiful people!
Also many thanks to Charles Beckwith for volunteering to be on-hand to help pinch-hit solutions for our teams’ last minute media problems!