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your ocean 

thesis collection

This thesis collection is inspired by my mother's upbringing during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960's and her journey as she left Communist China to a tropical paradise in the 1990's. 

Each look in this collection is representative of the different phases as she came closer to freedom. I chose to include and reference menswear as well because clothing was mostly unisex at the time. As a designer, I like to look into the traditional ways of garment construction, and my designs are always driven by textiles exploration. For my thesis, I chose to experiment with wheat-pasting fabrics: this was a technique that my mother used when she was growing up in China, where fabrics were scarce and when iron-on fusible was not available. The creative process was rather personal and I hope that this collection will touch those who have experienced similar challenges in their lives.

This collection made its 2017 NYFW debut at RISD’s Second Annual NYFW Show on September 13th at Skylight Clarkson Square, hosted by Robert Geller, Sally LaPointe, Rachel Mansur, Nicole Miller, Mike Eckhaus + Zoe Latta, Sponsored by Tommy Hilfiger.

photography: Matt Francis

inspiration

photographs of my mother 

process

documentation of the wheat-pasting process

process 3
process 2
process 4
process 1
process 5
process 6
process 11
process 7
process 8
process 10
process 13
process 14
process 9
process 12

runway

runway images from COLLECTION 2017

Providence, RI

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