Within: BFA Thesis Project
Fall 2019
Thesis Statement/作品声明
This is a senior thesis project for BFA in Apparel Design at Rhode Island School of Design. Students are required to design and produce a collection of a minimum of 5 full looks during two semesters of their senior year — at least 3 looks in the fall and 2 in the spring.
This collection “Within” is an exploration of emotional states and inner struggles. Each piece represents a different state of mind: angry, weighed-down, wounded, sinking, numb, and finally, emerging. As each look progresses to the next one, the collection aims to take the audience through the various emotional and mental challenges, and end on a hopeful note that the protagonist has begun to overcome them. The garments are not designed for daily functions and therefore do not take comfort and utilities into considerations. They are rather interactive sculptures that live on human bodies. A central theme interwoven throughout the collection is the sense of being confined and disabled. This is shown by the constraining nature of the garments, that the wearers are quite literally “sealed in” the fabrics. They are, however, not completely paralyzed by these garments, and when the wearers try to move or walk in them, their actions are analogies of the active battles with emotions: even when she carries them with her, she still tries to navigate her life. These actions also foreshadow the final piece which depicts the emergence from the confinement of the inner world.
A very special thank you goes to illustrator + animator and my roommate during quarantine time, Yihan Wang (http://yihan-wang.com), who has tremendously helped me in this project as a model, photographer, videographer, and so much more. Without her, the completion of this project would have been impossible in a time when we lost access to school studios and facilities due to COVID-19.
Look 1, 2, 3 photo documentation credits to Bao Nguyen.
本系列“于内”是对情绪状态和内在挣扎的探索。每一套服装都代表了不同的心理状态：沉重、伤口、愤怒、下沉、麻木、以及最终，浮现。当每一套服装引向下一套之时，这个系列的目标是带着观众体验不同的情绪和心理的挑战，最终以充满希望的方式终结，隐喻着体验者最终开始战胜它们。这些服装不是为了日常穿着而设计，因此没有将舒适性和实用性考虑在内。反之，他们更像是穿在人体上的可互动雕塑。其中，一个贯穿全系列的非常重要的主题是一种被困住、被控制和丧失能力的感受。这通过这些服装束缚穿戴者的本质体现了出来：穿戴者无法在这些衣服里有过多的活动，甚至像是被封印在面料之中。但是，她们也并非完全丧失行动能力，而当她们尝试穿着这些衣服行走的时候，她们的动作比喻了人和情绪的搏斗：即使体验者携带着这些情绪，她也在尽力认真生活。穿戴者挣扎的行为也预示了最终的一套作品：从内心世界的束缚中挣脱出来。
特别鸣谢 插画师+动画师/我在居家隔离期间的室友，王翊涵 (http://yihan-wang.com) ， 她在这个项目中，兼为模特、摄影师、摄像师等等，为我提供了至关重要的帮助。 如果没有她，我无法在新冠疫情之中，在无法利用学校的工作室和设备的情况下，完成这个项目。
Concept + Sketches （Carousel)
Line-up
Side Project: Scrap Book
Even though sustainability is not a key focus of this apparel project, as part of the recycling effort and an experiment to think about sustainability in fashion outside of fashion, the fabric scraps of the first half of this thesis project “WIthin” is used to produce hand-made paper (combined with kozo fibers) in traditional Japanese paper-making method.
Scrap book is an anthology of poems written by Violet Zhou. Many of these poems express the author’s own emotional experiences and echo the inspirations of “Within”. Two versions of Scrap Book was made, the textual contents of each are identitical
Scrap Book #1
Scrap Book #2
