Student redesigning fashion
Fashion student from Winchester School of Arts,
Qi Zhuang
In a bid to support the fashion design talent of tomorrow, SATCoL partner with colleges and universities for projects to promote second-hand textiles. The most recent collaboration with Winchester School of Arts, titled The Sustainable Conversation, formed part of their ongoing Redesigning Fashion joint venture which requires students to let their imagination run wild, as they upcycle discarded textiles from The Salvation Army into fashion-forward clothing in the style of a high fashion designer .
Qi Zhuang, is a third year fashion design student at the Winchester School of Arts who selected Romeo Gigli as her design muse for the project, which preceded her creation of a tailored coat made from an old curtain. We caught up with the design student to learn more about her design inspiration.
Tell us a bit about yourself…..
I’m a student from China who’s currently living in the UK. While studying fashion design here, I've been learning the process and techniques of making various costumes, and it's been a lot of fun. Not only that, but the research process of developing ideas has introduced me to so many different designers I wasn’t familiar with before, such as Maison Margiela. I love the feeling of breaking with tradition.
What inspires your work? What are the references that inspire you when designing/conceiving collections?
I selected the designer Romeo Gigli as the inspiration of my project, so I spent a lot of time in the library and on the internet researching his references. I learned that he was known as the ‘Master of Classical Baroque’ and that his style was heavily inspired by Eastern European churches, which was super interesting. I then did some more research into churches in Eastern Europe and learned that the design of them was derived largely from Byzantine and Renaissance Venice.
What’s the process usually like in terms of sourcing material for your collections?
I usually flip through fabric books and, if there is no suitable one, I will visit the fabric store. My tutors are also great at recommending fabric websites to us, and we usually screen out fabric types in advance to select our favourite fabrics. It’s all a process.
How did the donations from SATCoL change this?
Our mentor for the scheme, Sophia, recommended a fabric for my creation that was originally a thick and heavy large curtain. In addition to the print of the fabric itself, I also designed a decoration on the waist to show the waist, so that the wearer shines. I selected a button that matched the print pattern, which I thought would enhance the sophistication of the garment, and obviously, the purpose was achieved. I wanted the silhouette of the coat to be slender and smooth with the added element of a black collar to add some structure.
Was using second-hand textiles material something you wanted to do before you received the donations from SATCoL?
Using second-hand textiles is something I think about a lot and always have done. The curtain that Sophia offered to me at the end for my coat was perfect and was exactly the kind of thing I wanted, as well as fitting perfectly into the structure of the Byzantine style.
How important is being conscious of waste when producing your designs?
Clothing waste is one of the biggest problems the planet is facing, which isn’t helped by overproduction and overconsumption. The pollution that comes from the fashion industry is becoming increasingly more difficult to ignore.
Creating a more sustainable fashion industry is what everybody’s hoping for - what are your personal hopes for the future of fashion?
Sustainability has to become something that everybody thinks about. I think that, with the development of the internet, a desire for mass consumption has arisen, which has made way for fast fashion brands. I hope that designers can refocus their efforts on wasting less and creating high-quality clothes that can be worn for a long time.