Cross for God is a high-end fashion line from Taipei City, Taiwan. Brand creator and designer Chuan Kao spent twenty years styling celebrities and models before becoming inspired to create her own line. Cross for God came from her own powerful spiritual experience, in which she felt the hand of God impact her life and lives of her family members. The colors and details of each design were thoughtfully chosen by Kao to communicate Biblical concepts.

Cross for God has been worn by celebrities and featured in magazine editorials worldwide (including Flaunt, US Weekly, and Icon). The line continues to grow and is coming soon to New York Fashion week. Learn more about Chuan Kao and the story behind Cross for God in the Q&A below:

What inspired you to create Cross for God? 

The Bible is the best book for all designers. I’m inspired by all the bible verses and cosmic inventory, because my inspiration is from God.

Why did you choose to call your high fashion line Cross for God?

Because it is a deal between me and God, I hope everything of this brand is from God. It is not only about the design combined with religion, but also to promote the grace and miracle to everywhere. We use a different way to transfer the gospel [through fashion].

What celebrities have worn your designs?

Matthew Espinosa, Jade Novah, Justin DeShaun, Sandra Vidal, AsMarie, Ricky Rebel, Tai Beauchamp, Meghan James, Kalin White, Don Benjamin, Otani Mondo, Wei Chung Wang, Johnny, and Karen Hu.

The designs use the colors red, black and white and a camouflage pattern exclusively. What do they represent?

[Red] Blood and Atonement

Red represents the blood of Jesus, who sacrificed for us. My hope is to make his salvation memorized in the design.

[Black] Crime and Death

Black is the basic color for the universe, which always seems to be cold, mysterious, dark and powerful. We always use black with bible verses, because we hope to take the power of darkness back and blend in the blessing of God.

[White] Purity and Holy

White represents the brightness, the other side of darkness, which was the message from the God. It’s about innocent faith and kindness.

[Camouflage] Fight, Reborn

We need to stand out and become a warrior for our faith, to fight for any difficult task in our life. We should try as hard as we can to transfer the gospel, to be a free person with strong faith.

Why do you use ribbons and tassels in your designs?

The inspiration for the design of the tassel was inspired by a painting of Jesus from the Middle Ages. On a trip to Japan when [I] saw the blood bleeding from the cross in the painting, and felt shocked and touched because it was the sacrifice from God. Therefore, [I] designed the collection about tassels to express the idea of the bleeding blood from God.

We hope to remind everyone that God loves all of us and always marks our names in his heart, just like the ribbon with [our] logo.

And using the weaving fabric with black ribbons was inspired by the meaning of the Cross. I hope to make a closer relationship between humans and God. With this kind of fabric, which is a difficult technology, we researched for half a year. This inspiration is from God, and he hopes that I can make it. We tried our best to accomplish it.

The graphic designs are really striking. Can you tell me more about them?

We create these graphic designs through the Bible verses and use them on the clothing prints for transferring the gospel.

In your bio on the Cross for God website you state that you received a miraculous healing from God.  What was that experience like?

Ostensibly, my life seemed perfect before. I had the best job and a perfect husband. However, under this amazing appearance, after I had my first daughter, everything started to collapse. My marriage failed due to long-term domestic violence. I was so depressed and stuck in pain. I tried my best to pretend everything is fine, nobody knew the hurt underneath in my heart. In the end, I insisted on divorce and had to give up all my property, the place I live and the custody of my daughter. Then, I could be free. With the hate and hurt in my mind, I escaped to Japan. However, I saw a painting which showed the crucifixion of Jesus in the Tokyo Mori Art Museum. It was the first time that I felt God. It made me decide that I was going to accept baptism in Taiwan. Before the baptism, there was a pastor with the gift of prophecy who told me that I was going to build a brand for God. I did not take his words seriously in that time. After realizing more things about God, he started to turn over my life. Someday, I found out that my parents had cancer and they were both in danger. One was expected to pass away anytime, the other one only had two years left. I used all of my soul and heart, prayed to God to save my parent’s lives. And it did happen, a miracle in Taiwanese medical history. It was the beginning that I decided to build a brand for God and devoted all my ability to him.

During the process, I kept feeling his almighty presence and miracles. In order to bring a new trend and make the younger generation know him through this brand, he started everything for this brand and reminded me that I could combine fashion and religion. We try to prove that Christians can also be cool, we are a different type of missionaries. Now, I have a close relationship with God. I can receive his messages clearly. He is not only my boss, but a father who truly loves me. I got the custody of daughter back and God made me believe in love again. He gave me an amazing husband and two sons. I have experienced his leading and blessing the whole way through it. I still have so many things to learn in my life, and the only thing I want to do is transfer the gospel.

During the period of building this brand for four years, he lead me to create many impossible things – including my designs, the textiles, the abroad exhibitions and all of the works we have. Everything has his blessing, that is why we can go so far.

I don’t have any degrees in fashion design. Because of God, we have designed a lot of collections. We created a new fabric, in order to let our brand show up in Hollywood and Japan in a very short time. I thank God for giving me the special insight, which became my career, and bringing infinite possibility.

What is coming next from Cross for God?

We want to present a crossover collection with people from different professions, which includes photographers, tattooists, singers, song writers, hosts, illustrators and so on. Because everyone has a gift from God, Cross For God hopes to use this as a marketing strategy and make everyone notice their talent and do not forget their dreams.

We were invited by New York Fashion Week. For now, we are considering that which host organizations we want to work with. And we pretty sure that we will participate in 2019 S/S New York Fashion Week.

So far, we receive many collaboration invitations from different countries’ designers, like crossover collections. We are still considering about it.

We hope that we can expand our business internationally, because it’s also a way to transfer the gospel.