By: Matthew Kayser

Chicago-based designer Shuoyi Chen, who operates under the brand name Anastasia Elektra, is redefining menswear by turning a delicate material, paper, into high-concept “armor.” Inspired by her experiences at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a desire to expand the definition of masculine strength, Chen created what she calls the “Armor of Honesty.” In 2025, her Chicago Architecture collection made a splashy debut at Chicago Fashion Week, signaling the arrival of an architect-turned-designer ready to challenge menswear conventions. Along the way, she earned admission to Central Saint Martins, one of the world’s selective fashion programs, underscoring her blend of technical rigor and conceptual vision.

Chen’s brand took shape from both personal experience and academia. While working as a model, she observed that menswear often enforced rigid, emotionless archetypes, a “uniform of emotional restriction,” as she later described it. She saw even her own father confined by a suit and stoic reserve, which led her to pose a crucial question: “How do you design a garment that gives a man permission to cry?” This simple yet profound question became the seed of her philosophy. In response, Chen coined her label’s core mission the Armor of Honesty. She decided to reject the traditional “armor” of wool and steel and instead create a structural shield from materials considered delicate and honest, namely, paper. “I don’t sew structure into the cloth, I fold it out,” Chen says, a guiding mantra for her work.

Her inspiration was also deeply academic. At SAIC, Chen merged fashion with the principles of architecture and material science. She collaborated with chemists and engineers to develop proprietary high-performance paper substrates that could be chemically treated and permanently folded. The idea was that instead of draping or sewing fabric, every garment would be constructed like a miniature building with mathematically precise origami folds. Indeed, Business Insider noted that in her Chicago Architecture line, she translated the city’s skyline into menswear “through chemically treated paper substrates and origami-inspired folding techniques”. Chen’s studio at SAIC even housed both test tubes and sewing machines, reflecting the way she combines a lab’s engineering mindset with couture craftsmanship. During this period, she also won acceptance to Central Saint Martins in London, a testament to the strength of her interdisciplinary approach.

At the heart of Anastasia Elektra’s edge is material innovation. Chen tackled the obvious technical challenge: paper is fragile. Through intensive R&D, she and her collaborators engineered a special polymer and chemical finish that makes the treated paper water-resistant and surprisingly durable. Business Insider reported that each garment in the Chicago collection required proprietary treatments to render the high-performance paper “both water-resistant and flexible” while retaining its rigid form. This hidden science allows a coat to withstand rain and movement without collapsing. Chen also embeds thin wire and custom 3D-printed hinges at critical joints (elbows, shoulders, waists) so the wearer can move naturally. The result is functional rigidity, a hard, sculptural surface that nevertheless yields with the body.

Perhaps the most striking innovation is the construction method itself. Instead of cutting and sewing, Chen’s patterns are folded out of single sheets, yielding a zero-waste process. The garments behave less like traditional clothing and more like kinetic architecture. In her own words, “I don’t sew structure into the cloth, I fold it out”. Each piece becomes a wearable sculpture where every crease and angle is deliberate. As she puts it, each garment behaves “less like fabric and more like architecture.” This anti-fabric methodology sets Anastasia Elektra apart: the clothes are essentially three-dimensional geometric structures that echo building blueprints. The brand positions these designs as material-engineering, high-concept objects at the intersection of fashion, science, and sustainability.

Photo Courtesy: Anastasia Elektra

Anastasia Elektra’s Chicago Architecture collection made its formal runway debut at Chicago Fashion Week 2025. The collection stunned audiences with audacious designs that literally translated Chicago’s skyline into menswear: coats mimicking the Willis Tower’s vertical thrust, trousers echoing Marina City’s setback curves, and jackets capturing the Tribune Tower’s geometric elegance. Each piece was engineered to be wearable. Business Insider noted that every high-performance paper substrate was chemically treated to improve flexibility and water resistance, enabling the garments to withstand normal movement and weather. On the runway, models moved like kinetic sculptures, each stride revealing the precision of Chen’s origami-inspired architecture. As Business Insider observed, the models “moved across the stage in pieces that functioned as kinetic sculptures, their movements revealing the mathematical precision embedded in each fold and angle”. The overall effect was both avant-garde and intellectual: here was menswear designed as a fusion of structural art and engineering.

Critics and editors quickly noted that Chen’s show was more than an aesthetic experiment; it was cultural commentary. In her own words, “Traditional menswear demands conformity; my work offers men permission to inhabit form differently, to express complexity rather than suppress it,” she explained. That message resonated deeply. Within days, organizers from Miami and Los Angeles fashion weeks had extended invitations to Chen, recognizing her material-engineering approach as a fresh voice in menswear. Collectors also took notice: early adopters began snapping up the sculptural coats and jackets as investment-grade art pieces. Meanwhile, Chen’s parallel Architectural T-Shirt collection (engineered basics with subtle folding) provided an accessible entry point for the brand’s concept-driven audience. This tiered strategy validated her vision: high-end clients invest in the sculptural main line, while a broader public can still engage with the brand’s themes.

Launching a label built on novel materials naturally posed hurdles. Early prototypes of the folded paper garments were notably stiff, limiting the wearer’s range of motion. Some skeptics doubted that a “paper” coat could last beyond a single season. Chen met these challenges head-on. In the studio, she refined the polymer treatments and folding techniques until the paper could bend without creasing or ripping, and she added discreet reinforcements at stress points. The result is clothing that looks hard-edged but can flex in use. In parallel, she worked diligently to reframe the brand’s narrative: instead of selling “paper clothes,” she pitched Anastasia Elektra as wearable architecture and material innovation. By emphasizing the cost and complexity of her R&D, she justified the luxury price point. This shift attracted a niche of design-minded buyers and press (including business-focused outlets) who appreciated the garments as engineering feats rather than mere novelties.

Manufacturing these designs also required a new model. Traditional garment factories were not equipped to fold paper patterns with architectural precision. To maintain quality, Chen kept operations small and controlled. All initial research and prototyping happens in-house at her Chicago studio. Production is done in minimal runs, often in specialized artisan ateliers familiar with experimental materials. This keeps the line exclusive and ensures each piece meets her exacting standards. The downside is slower scaling, but the upside is the preservation of avant-garde rigor: every Anastasia Elektra jacket remains as much a prototype as a product.

Chen’s ambitions for the brand are expansive. Having confirmed interest from U.S. fashion weeks, she is already plotting an international growth strategy. Within a few years, she hopes to secure official placements in the Paris or Milan menswear shows, putting Anastasia Elektra alongside global avant-garde houses. She plans future collections inspired by other cities’ architecture, for example, translating the stark, brutalist geometry of Berlin and the sustainable modernism of Copenhagen into new garments.

On the business side, Chen continues to expand her accessible lines (like the Architectural T-Shirts) to fund the research-intensive main collection. She is establishing an in-house innovation lab to push the boundaries further, exploring fully biodegradable paper substrates and advanced 3D-printed components for hardware. The goal is to reinforce her mandate for zero-waste, high-tech solutions. Ultimately, Chen wants Armor of Honesty to become a cultural reference in its own right. She envisions a future in which choosing to wear Anastasia Elektra signals a conscious embrace of vulnerability as strength, redefining traditional masculinity.

Already, the industry is listening. Her acceptance into Central Saint Martins and features in outlets like Business Insider and L’Officiel have raised her profile beyond niche circles. Fashion editors and avant-garde followers are intrigued by the fusion of structural innovation and emotional narrative in her work. In a fashion world often driven by surface trends, Anastasia Elektra stands out for its intellectual depth and craftsmanship. The brand proves that menswear can be both daring art and functional wardrobe, a valid marriage of future technology and design.

For more on this rising star in menswear, visit anastasiaelektra.com and follow the label on Instagram at @anastasia_elektra_. Support Shuoyi Chen’s vision and stay tuned for her following architectural collection.