Origin

Defisa’s design was based on the Chinese myth of a beast known as Nian ‘年’. Every year on New Year’s Eve, the beast would descend down its inhabitant to the villages to feast on the livestocks in the village. One year a wise men suggested that they cover the town with red, stick talisman on doors and create loud noises to scare away the beast. From that day on, the tradition carried on to celebrate the villager’s victory.

From this myth, I have developed a garment from the theme of ‘defence’ under the heading of ‘Urban Adaptation’. To meet the criteria I have used many symbolistic objects to illustrate the story. The main use of the colour red as well talisman acts as a defensive layer from the beast. A history of Chinese immigrants into the States are illustrated through the choice of modern fabric and use of fringe. The colour palette from this section of the garment also represents how the American architecture has been covered with Chinese signs over time.

The name ‘Defisa’ (meaning defence) itself came from the geographical location of Chinatown itself, as it is located near Little Italy, combining everything together.

From this photoshoot trip to Chinatown, I feel like this is one of the most important aspect of the whole project as it tie everything together. I was lucky enough to have Annie to model for my dress as she fits the garment really well and was able to create exaggerated poses to show off the garment. I was also lucky to have Chloe (my roommate) help me with the make up on both the face and body to make Annie look fierce, like a dragon. Combining all this with these aspects (along with extra accessories such as the bracelet and sleeve) together the photoshoot pretty much wraps up the whole project very well. I am very pleased with the result, successfully translating the theme of ‘defence’ in ‘urban adaptation’ into a design piece.

I am planning etch the dragon’s face and the description onto leather as they create a sense of  ‘old’ making it seem like the garment has an ancient history. However I want to etch the map onto clear acrylic and intensify the lines with black china graph pencil as the modern material reflects modern day world, together creates a combination of now and the past.

The name ‘Defisa’ came from defence (the main given theme) in Italian. The reason behind this is that Chinatown is located near Little Italy, so I’ve considered the geography of the actual area. This design is my attempt of combining the material alphabet theme ‘sharp’ with the Chinese culture. To do this I have sketched a silhouette of a kung fu pose (with a brush-like stroke) with pen and vectorise it in illustrator, combining it with the rest of the letters in the word defisa.

I’m planning on using the kung fu illustration to be the logotype of my garment as I think that it help make the consumers recognise the product easier in a marketing point of view.

These images are arranged i order to show the different stages during fabrication. I tried to drape the red and gold Chinese letters in different ways to experiment with the way it turns out on the body. This specific material is used to give a symbolic story to the garment as it was used to protect houses from the beast. To blend the two cultures together (American and Chinese) I chose to use a textured scarf and spray paint it with gold and red to imitate the architectures in China town. The red was used to give a brick-like feeling of the architecture and the gold was used as it is one of the most popular colour used in Chinese culture. This is to symbolise how the American architecture was worn away by the Chinese immigrants who took over the area. The fringe here impersonates the Chinese lucky charms that was used was hung on bags and plants to bring luck.

At this stage I find that the composition feels unfitted as there are too many different textures fighting for attention. Therefore I will have to make the bottom more structured and give it more control.

This photomontage was done by experimenting with the ‘magic wand’ tool in photoshop to create interesting shapes from inspirational images and objects relating to chinatown and the myth of the beast ‘Nian’. The long and dramatic design on the first figure was driven from fire and Chinese patterns, using red as the main component of most of the designs as it is believed to scare away evil spirits.

The second design was a combination of the Chinese ribbon and words written on papers that was stuck on doors to protect houses, fitting perfectly into the theme of defence.

The third design came from Chinese paper lantern and the “Lantern” flower which is believed to bring good luck and light the way. There is also red fringe from the Chinese ribbon like decoration which inspires the bottom part of my garment.

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.

I found that timed fast sketches are more effective at getting the main gestures, movement and weights of the model than carefully drawing them. From previously having to carefully sketch structures, I felt like I have drastically improved my figure drawing skills without needing to structure the 9 heads. I have also developed a lot more understanding of concentrating on the structures, main components, minimal lines in order to result in better sketches. I also enjoy working with charcoal pencil, and have found that it allows more flexibility in fast sketching with darker lines. Although I find watercolour more challenging to work with as it is more loose and flexible so I was not really able to capture components of the model.

This typeface is derived from the word ‘sharp’, created by with the use of nails and safety pins which are both ‘sharp’ objects. There are aspects of the letters that was specially exaggerated to emphasise the sharpness of the typeface.