Research Theme

My research theme is Formal Issues (Organic). I'm interested in the application of organic shapes, structures and textures on garment, because those of animals and plants are so unique and amazing. Exploring the nature is like an adventure, which is full of unknown so becomes attractive.

(From Brooklyn Museum)

(From American Museum of Natural History)

(Online Research)

The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk

Walking around the exhibition, I can see JPG played variable cultures in his collections. His definition of culture could be the national culture in different countries, such as Traditional Japanese culture and Russian style. It also could be the interest shared by a group of people, like punk and SM; Or it could be the legend of mermaid which is not really existing. His collections/shows are more like a celebration or parties of a particular culture. Culture make his designs more colorful, since culture itself is rich.

While, in his interview, he told us a story in his childhood. He was asked to draw all restrooms in the school, in order understand "shame". However, he didn't feel shame as supposed, instead, he enjoy the process. He does not afraid of other people's judgements, so he can express everything he wants to. SM collection is one of good examples. Almost everyone like to make sex and like to play some sexual games, but most are afraid to show their hobbies in sex. Different from normals, JPG has fun to experience and express. His "have fun" attitude is his biggest success.

When the unlimited resources and the ability to absorb (or exchange) unlimited resources make every possibilities come true.

FASHION BLOG

STYLE. COM is a great fashion website with rich resources.

Fabric Manipulation

collection of nature

The baby lion is cute and innocent. It likes to play and discover. So I first came up with the toy with soft structure. I showed "soft" in both material and edges of shape. But after I finished the cotton parts, it looks more like a cat instead of a lion, so I added a ring of fluffy texture. However, I didn't like that two texture shows in one piece, but I was struggle to choose which one.

( lion / sketches )

( lion / process )

( lion / 1st look)

After the critics, I decided to use fluffy texture, and change the shape to be more abstract for coherence of the entire collection.

( lion / revising process )

( lion / final look )

I love Inori's voice, especially when she is singing. While, my design is inspired of a decorate flower on one of her cloth. I don't know why. I just feel this flower matches her voice. They have the same tone and rythm.

( Inori / skteches )

( Inori / process )

( Inori / final look)

Snake is beautiful at its movement and skin. When it move on the ground, its movement is still as gracefully as in water. So I made on curvy line in a peaceful background. While, when I thought about its skin, considering its original shape and sense of tough feeling, so I made those rhombus pieces. After I swing the little pieces on the background fabric, it is shrunken, so I put it on hard paper. I found it is a good way to present work, so I added hard papers on each work.

( snake / sketches )

( snake / process )

( snake / final look )

Two ghost girls are dark to other people, but they support and protect each other. I want to show their lives are twisted together by interwoven lines. The lines a curvy, which look like their hair.

( ghosts / sketches )

( ghosts / process)

( ghosts / final look )

I tried to think myself is that woman in cold winter and what I would do. I would lost feeling of my hands, feet, ears, lips. I would curl up. But I would have no place to get warm. The only place that my body get warm is from inside -- my heart. The heart transfers the warmness through blood vessels to important parts of the body. I thought that woman would want to shrink the whole body to the heart, too.

( sculpture / sketches )

( sculpture / process )

It is difficult to make natural folds. I tried a lot, but only took photo of one.

( sculpture / final look )

Firstly, I planed to just show the beautiful shape of the sakura (cherry blossom). Then I changed my mind, its shape is similar to peach blossom and pear blossom. The beauty that only belongs to sakura, is the process of its sacrifice and the legend about sacrifice. So I decided to show it when it is dying/falling.

( sakura / sketches )

( sakura / process )

I spent some time to figure out the method to shape the petals. The left two pictures shows one way. The up-right is another way. The last one is the successful method.

( sakura / final look )

Practices With Paper

Transfer from paper to fabric SUCCESSFULLY!!!

This is made of only one piece of paper. It looks beautiful, but the process made me crazy. Even though I folded the grids first, it is still hard to organize the peaks and valleys.

I like those interesting units. They can repeat and form lines, surfaces and volumes.

RESEARCH of Fabric Manipulation & Fabric Origami

When I searched online about Fabric Manipulation & Fabric Origami, I was amazed by this technique. It is both systematic and dramatic. Many times, I wanted to design some things that are dramatic and fantasy, but they were usually end in messy, so the final effects were not as good as I thought. However, when I considered feasibility and function, the works were systematic but lack of creativeness. It is difficult to handle between these two factors, but the technique of manipulation and origami inspires me to explore a new way.

Followings are the examples of garments that are using fabric manipulation and origami.

And the videos which teaching the techniques. (go to see video by click on "videos")
After I watched those videos, I also searched the technique of paper manipulation and origami, because many fabric examples are transformed from paper examples.

Tessellation vedio one

Tessellation vedio two

Tessellation web

Container of Beauty

I was inspired by dry plants.

(sketches)

Considering of portability, finally I chose to use threads and papers as the materials.

(process)

(final work)

Artifact Catalogue

Golden rattlesnake who can make deathful attack

Mark Laita shot the picture of this rattlesnake when it is shrinking into a curvy shape. The position makes skin at different parts compress and extend, which causes an insistent rhythm of movement even though it is static. On the black background, the golden pattern on the skin pumps out. It is composed by a series of gradient yellow. The color is so vivid that let me associate to the radiance of the sun. What I want to show actually is the snake in general. It was born in a colorful cloth. However, the enviable appearance is not the only gift from God. At the same time, God gave them deadly venom，powerful muscle and big capacity. They can be stronger and faster than many other animals and they can hunt the animals bigger than themselves.

A little lion with innocent facial expression

The little lion is lying on the ground and looking forward. It raises furry ears to listen to this world，and widen big eyes to discover the new world. One day, it will grow up to a fearsome adult lion, but now it is still a innocent baby just like a little dog. The innocence makes the little lion looks so cute that I want to embrace it. This is a indispensible quality of mammal’s babies.

Inori Yuzuhira in red singing the song from her pure heart

This girl who has pinkish white hair and reddish eyes, and is costumed in a flowery red leotard with red spoilers, is Inori Yuzuhira. Inori is the leading character in “Guilty Crown”. She is the singer in the band EGOIST, so she has beautiful voice. Behind that, she is a replica that was made by GHQ to “Contain Mana’s mind”. She doesn’t know too much about the ethics and rules in human world. She just follows her heart. At the beginning of the story, she is shown to be emotionless and only cares to follow Gai’s orders, because Gai woke her up and gave her a name. Even when she feels cold since her lover Shu get captured, she doesn’t why and needs to ask Gai. She doesn’t know what is love, but she still follow on it. She supports Shu no matter right or wrong, and finally dies for him. To friends, she is very sweet but very quiet; while to enemies, she is able to kill them without much hesitation. I like her, because she is pretty but shrewd, extreme but simple.

Soushi Miketsekami appears fox ears and nine tails in fighting mode

Soushi Miketsukami is the assigned SS Agent to Ririchiyo in “Inu x Boku SS”. He is descended from the evil nine-tailed fox, so when he changes to the fighting mode, his animal ears and nine tails will show up. Those fox’s organs make him looks more handsome; especially they are all white, which is my favorite color. I also like his personality. He has natural ability to attract females and smart head, so he usually plays as a liar and a high-level elf. However, he is absolutely loyal to Ririchiyo, because Ririchiyo helped him to grow into his own person. He take care of every details in her daily life, and protect her at any time. His loyalty and sense of responsibility really moved me.

Two ghost girls in faceless masks by Brooke Shaden

This is a photo shot by Brooke Shaden. The overall tone is so dark and mysterious. The magical image seems to describe the story happened in an unreal world, such as a dream. In this story, the photographer start a beginning, then readers can develop the story by their own understanding. Finally, it can develop to thousands of different dreams, which riches people’s inner world. This process shows the beauty and power of a photo of unreal world. From my sight, two nude girls with long blond hair, wearing white mask, stand in the lake like a pair of ghosts. The picture gives me very cold feeling and strong sadness, but a little bit warm, since a girl is kissing another girl. I think she want to tell another girl that she will always stay with her even though all humans abandon them. Then, the story can develop to…

Bloom of Tokyo Sakura in Shanghai botanical garden

Tokyo Sakura is one of my favorite flowers. It has white soft petals and, pink pistils and stamens. There’s a little notch on each petal. I really like this color and shape, while the most graceful moment of Sakura is when million of petals flows down in gentle breeze. You can see, it is most beautiful when it die. Therefore, I always think Sakura is the flower of sacrifice. In Japanese legend, it is also the flower related to death. People said, more exuberant bloom means more dead bodies under the trees. Hence, I think the cherry tree is fertilized by the nutrition from blood. Each dead person’s blood goes up through trunk and branches, finally open a white flower, which represents his/her pure soul after death.

Snow-capped mountains near Snow village in Harbin

Sun can expel all the darkness; rain can wash off all the dirtiness; snow can purify all the filth. That’s the power of nature, so I like to enjoy in the natural scenery. This is a photo that I took on the way to Snow Village in Harbin. In this village and its surrounding, it is snowy all the years. The sky is blue, and the ground is white, which make a sense of unlimited peaceful and quiet. When I was seeing this scenery, I really feel troubles and worries leave away. I relaxed but never got bored, because the snow figures out all the details in the forest. It is a huge-scale craft made by nature, which is more elegance than man-made lace.

Bronze sculpture: A woman, chilled and desolated, walking alone in a storm

(WINTER / LA FRILEUSE, Jean-Antoine Houdon)

What this bronze sculpture show are only a chilled woman and a short blanket. She is facing down，embracing herself，and shaking. I can imagine she is shaking, because of cold weather, also because of loneliness. She may feel cold in heart, because no one cares about her; no one stays with her; no one supports her. She loses hope for her life. That’s a tragedy of no sympathy, but it causes sympathy on people who look this sculpture.

The milky-color and lace-designed pen refills telling dream and story

In the past, the refills are just pieces of transparent plastic cylinder. However, designers gave them outfits to look more attractive. I like the pretty purple, blue and pink color in this design. And there’s a image related to fairy tale on each bag of refill. The color, pattern and story are all very girly and dreamy. Therefore, it becomes attractive to me.

FUJIFILM’s old-fashioned digital camera

At the first glance, it is easy to be recognized as an old analog camera. However, it’s actually a digital Range Finder Camera. It’s very special for this external look. The mix of silver and black make it looks classic. To make old, FUJIFILM add a texture similar to old one’s on the black part. I really like its vintage look, which bring me back to time by its look. At the same time, it has the function to record now and invite future.