This mood board is derived from my interest in the Chinese myth “Nian” a half dragon half lion beast that descends down from the mountain every new year to hunt for food eating everything from agriculture, farm animals to villagers. One year, a wise man suggested that the villagers covers the town with red and light up firecrackers to scare the beast away. From this, the night on New Year’s Eve, the town was covered in red lanterns and banner like words painted in gold to scare the beast away. (These words are to bring them good luck as well as act as a spiritual layer of defence.

To pull this inspiration into the project, I have looked at the myth under the defence perspective, bringing red colour, Chinese banners, lanterns, and lucky charms into the garment. However I was also looking at the New York side of defence to see how the two cultures could link. One of the ideas I came up with was the NYPD whom protects the entire New York population including Chinese immigrants.