FANCY INSIDE

金絮其内

2023

In Asian culture, restraint is a central theme. I began my collection from my curiosity about my grandmother’s generation and the social-cultural constructs of her era. Despite external suppression of individualism during that era, internal expression and freedom persisted.

My collection, “Fancy Inside”, seeks to represent the friction of internal and external worlds by playing with the juxtaposition of fluidity and rigidity in form and textile and mixing traditional Eastern crafts with modern materials.

Fancy Inside Yet Not Appearance.

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Quiet Power
Restraint

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Hybridization

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Flexibility
Rigidity

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Internal
External

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When my grandma was young, everyone in China dressed in the same uniforms. You even couldn’t tell who was a man or a woman. They didn’t have the opportunity to express their identities through fashion because of the limited conditions. Meanwhile, people are actually going through a huge social-historical change. Western culture and innovative, open-minded new ideas came into China. Although people still look all the same in their appearance, they are actually fancy inside.

From another perspective, in Robert Rauschenberg’s artworks, I found that he used a lot of elements from umbrellas. Which in my impression have solid structures, but became flexible and vivid under his creations. It reminds me of my grandma’s generation. Their appearances were restrained, just like traditional Asian crafts, which need to be followed with strict instructions. However, their insides were filled with the curiosity of different cultures and the desire for a brighter future.

I want to use my fashion language to express this spirit. By combining traditional Asian crafts with modern materials, change the traditional forms to show a new version

PART 2.0 ORIGAMI

The second part of my research mainly focuses on the origami. I was inspired by the game we all played when we were children —— The paper fortune teller.

I chose to use metal eyelets and loose-leaf book rings as the connection method of the whole piece. Every textile piece can be individually separated. It can be expanded and closed, movable and adjustable. The skirt and the dress can be switched to each other easily.

Using the sonic bonding machine to clean the edges and snaps or rings to close the darts, there are no stitches or threats on the garments.