The Arts of Fashion Competition is a fashion competition held by the Arts of Fashion Foundation each year. The competition is open to students enrolled in any university across the globe. For each submission, students must design a 3-piece capsule collection of either womenswear, menswear, or both. The theme for 2020 was Invisibility.
Being invisible means to exist but not be seen. As we go about our business everyday, the idea that we live in a partial state of invisibility seems absurd. Yet, what is truly invisible is at the core of what makes us human beings and what unites humanity as a single breed–our bodies. In this collection, I want to flip the narrative and make visible the features hidden under layer upon layer of society’s perceptions. To fully understand and appreciate one another as humans, we must look past the obvious and that which is merely visible.
Given the theme for 2020 was invisibility, I knew that the design could go in infinite directions. My initial reaction was to build from the bottom, starting with the textbook definition of invisibility. From there, I pondered on how the concept of invisibility applies to my own life and interactions with the people around me, landing on the idea of reflecting human beings in their most organic state and depicting different anatomical structures with each look.
The process for developing the collection involved much back and forth from ideas to sketches. Each look encompassed numerous fabric manipulation techniques to generate the image of the human body. I wanted to play with the contrast in material from soft to hard, and the movement of elements coming off the body. Like our anatomy, the pieces were intentionally asymmetrical and unbalanced, creating a more organic figure.
