From mythical digital fantasies to monstrous inflatables, these MA designers are rewriting the rules of fashion for future, post-human, utopias
Fashion students at the Royal College of Art are working lightyears into the future. Where most fashion schools begin and end with womenswear, menswear, textiles – IRL fashion, anyway – students at the RCA can also enroll themselves into humanwear, no-wear, and digital mysticism courses. Disciplines which not only transcend gender, but physical bodies altogether. As a result, many students are designing for post-human, social utopias, in which the very tenets of time and space have collapsed in on each other – producing collections, which, although wildly creative and transporting, do just hurt your brain a little to think about.
The same originality, and resilience, that arose from the final collections of Central Saint Martins’ and Westminster’s graduating cohorts, are just as palpable over at the Royal College, too. And it would be remiss not to mention that these “collections” – many don’t include clothes, per se – were put together during that same year of lockdown rigmarole and intense loneliness. Perhaps, though, this actually ended up being a bulwark to innovation. From Bea Brücker and Aurélie Fontan, who have reimagined the fashion system with algae and mycelium leather, to Sam Chester’s exploration of their trans+ identity through cyber-pagan video games, and Zongbo Jiang’s berserk digital worldbuilding, these projects are a testament to colouring far outside of the lines.
Among all the crazy scribbling, however, there was the occasional red-thread – Jiangyue He, Yunpei Li, Jungna Nana Park, and Daisy Suhwoo Park, all used their work to hack away at society’s paradigm of the ideal woman, distorting and exaggerating the female figure through trompe l'oeil slips, blow-up attachments, and prosthetic bellies; following in the footsteps of RCA alumnus and bodycrafter Sinead O’Dwyer. Below, we shine a spotlight on five of these graduating designers, though, really, all deserve their dues.
GISELE ZIXUAN HE
Gisele grew up in what she describes as “a patriarchal Asian family,” helmed by a grandfather, who, despite being retired, would rarely be seen without a suit. It “represents male chauvinism,” she says, and as such, the designer is on a mission to soften the edges of manhood by reforming the traditional codes of menswear. Within her final project, deep, aubergine lycra is draped and ruched in panels across bodyform sports tops, careening with elegance around exposed pecs, while unfurling into a scarf-dress below. Shirts are made playful with exaggerated, candy-coloured collars and sturdy suit trousers have been slashed, with rogue layers wrapping around in skirt-like waves. As the collection’s title can attest, it’s about inverting masculinity – from the Tough to Tender.
JUNGNA NANA PARK
Jungna’s sinuous knitwear exorcises the designer’s relationship with her self-image, confronting prescribed notions of beauty through unexpected cut-outs and chaotically organised layers of sheer knits, which compress the flesh and distort the silhouette. “The collection intends to reflect my experience and embrace imperfections,” she says, with ruffled fabric spilling out of intentional gaps in her bodysuits. These creations sit somewhere between lingerie and ready to wear, though any delicate straps have been replaced by hefty ropes, which are lassoed around the figure like poison ivy. It’s intentionally confusing to look at, plastered with all the twisted, venemous expectations assigned to women’s bodies.
LINXI ZHU & PANNY YU
Though technically two graduates, Linxi Zhu and Panny Yu collaborated on their thesis project – a virtual fashion house, Formless. As part of the RCA showcase, the digital laboratory presented a series of creations, dubbed Paradise Materials, free from the constraints of physics and earthly matter. Show-stopping dresses had been constructed with a new, bristly, breathing fur, while luminescent dots encircled the body like deep sea plankton. Together, Linxi and Panny hope to push digital fashion’s materiality, though they understand that this cannot be at the expense of emotion and feeling. As part of their graduate collection, the designers made tinsel-like headpieces instantly available on Instagram filters. It’s all about creating new “wearable” materials which can be presented through unbridled, virtual fantasy-scapes.
FEY FEY
Yufei Liu has one mission: to take up space. And her graduate collection does just that – and quite literally, too – considering all her pieces inflate to monstrous proportions. A headscarf explodes into gargantuan, cubic dice, while a colossal hello kitty balloons from beneath a trench coat (taking up the best part of tube carriage in Liu’s accompanying lookbook). “I am tired of being pushed back,” the designer says, reflecting on the way in which women are made to feel small by assimilating into the patriarchy. “The bigger the clothes inflate, the larger the space I occupy”. And although these creations may seem like the pinnacle of whacky graduate fashion, Liu insists that every piece is “functional and comfortable when worn.”
JIE HU
Many people over the past year, namely self-professed introverts, have relished the solitude of lockdown. No plans, no obligations, no small talk. Being cooped up at home has, perhaps, been a “comfortable trap”. And it’s these contradictory feelings of security and crisis, which Jie Hu sought to explore in her graduate collection. Unusual dresses and two piece knits are inspired by the swamping silhouettes of a Venus Flytrap. Soft, cosy yarns are woven around detachable, cyclical structures which both restrict and protect the wearer, while plaited vines hang from opposite corners, poised to provide support or asphyxiation, alike. “We sometimes feel unprotected, even when we’re enjoying something,” the designer says. “This is a story about finding a comfortable trap and gradually accepting its disappearance”.