Since the project required an animal as an inspiration, I started to brainstorm with my my favorites: cats, hamsters, dog… however, in terms of functional usage, a certain animal suddenly became my original idea – the geckoes, whose tail automatically falls off when meeting other predator, which is regarded as a very intelligent way to protect themselves. Meanwhile, the delicate and complex patterns on geckoes’ skins looked very dangerous but beautiful, so this also fit into the theme of high heel shoe I aimed to connect gecko’s characteristics with.

Initially, considering about maintaining a stable heel, I chose to cut wood into a blended tail shape with machines. As for the platform, I utilized the flexibility of metal sheets, which are more convenient for users to adjust the gradient when taking off the heels. Additionally, mashed wire are used to form the outer shape of the whole shoe surface while some fabrics are ultimately wrapped above it.

In my opinion, the biggest function of this animal- combined shoe it the absence of high heels, which benefits those women who always get tired after working and walking for an entire day with their painful yet beautiful high heels. By making it, I learnt a lot about wood carving machines and also the possibilities of combining various materials together. Although I still had some connection problems on my shoe, the original idea was very interesting for further designing.

Issey Miyake

Coco Chanel

Raf Simon

Vivienne Westwood:

Alexander Mcqueen:

Ting Ting & Xia Wu – Japanese Music Festival Piece

Imagine you are going to a Japanese punk rock music festival. You already have your tickets and you are ready to meet up your friends, but you don’t know what you are going to wear. Designers Ting Ting and Xia Wu have designed a unisex overall dress in a Japanese street style that will fit in perfectly in this particular occasion. The first noticeable element of the entire garment is the neutral and dark color scheme. The top portion, the black t-shirt, embroidered with holes and parallel aligned safety pins presents a rebellious yet orderly behavior, greatly hinting toward the personality of the designers. Small minute details decorate the edge of the sleeves and collars which adds to the overall intricate craftsmanship of the piece. Inspired by the hippie style, the outer skirt portion, decorated with holes, rips, and folds brings the entire atmosphere into the 60’s and 70’s. Despite this outrageous look, the inner layers of the dress is composed of various blue collared shirts, though cut unevenly, still leads to a balanced overall look with the colors and styles.

-safety pins
-hippies
-japanese street style
-unisex
-black, blue, gray, white, silver, stripes
-rock, punk, music

I always cannot Imagine myself wearing my favorite designer Rei Kawakubo’s garments, which have heavy decorations such as tons of lace and bows. However,  I was impressed when my Memory Studio professor told me that her wedding dress came from Comme des  Garcons once we jumped into a discussion about Rei Kawakubo.

The strong feeling of sadness came to my mind while I was watching this show online, I think this show had exceeded the idea of “fashion show” rather an official ceremony, this beauty of silence let me be away from noise and the secular world. “I don’t have a definition of beauty, I’m inspired from the people around me.” Kawakubo presented this collection attributed to Victorian mourning dress. Although these blanket-shape dresses seemed to be too over for a funeral, this holy sense couldn’t be replaced.

In this group project, I worked with two other classmates Sara Hsi and Jinah Jun, our purpose was to deconstruct some used clothes and then construct to a brand- new piece.

Firstly, we generated the idea of creating an strong and elegant look, so three of use gather materials with black and white color. The main original prototype is a pair of  overalls, we revised the pants into skirt with a unsymmetrical and irregular shape. As for the upper part we cut a black silk lining into a topping and added some details on the left shoulder. In terms of the lower part, we added a pleated skirts in order to bring the girly feeling out. Moreover, we cut a big part of and made a v-shape connected with a zipper in the back.

During the whole process, we worked and discussed together successfully, therefore we finished this piece after several meets. For me, I learned how to shorten the zipper and I also got the chance to practice machine sowing.

The one that I feel related to:

When I first saw this red dress with tiny white spots on it, it reminded me of  my favorite designer: Rei Kawakubo who is engage in designing exaggerative heavy decorated and mysterious garments. However, this dress was more likely to be a ready-to-wear, which is simple and neat.

Why I felt like I could see myself in it because my personality is outgoing, childish and passionate. I also found out the model’s pose is meaningful, I suspect it as a young individual being independent from her family, meanwhile, I’m trying to do the same thing, too.

The one that amaze me:

The sun, beach, coconut trees and a adorable girl who is picking seashells in waves – this is the scenario that first came to my mind when I first saw this dress, bag and hat. I noticed that the hat was in seashell shape and the bag as well, the patterns looked very traditional and a bit Asian to me.

The pale blue dress was short with many pockets which were design for the seashell collecting. I can imagine this cute dress would be extremely suitable for those young girls who  love the sea and the nature. Hence, it is very interesting for the designer of this dress to have the idea of “seashell picker” as a career.

In order to create the sense of layering and constructing on fabrics, I used several methods such as burning and I utilized different kinds of stitches connecting them together. The materials included in this project are transparent tape, woolen yarn, band aid, cotton and muslin cloth.

By cutting and combing different material, I’m trying to present an “sedimental” idea, the whole series looked organic and kind of chaotic at the same time. Imagining put these elements (swatches) onto garments must be interesting. All in all, I learnt how to enhance thickness of fabric during the making process but I want to try more practice like working with sowing machine and ironer, etc,.