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Symbiosis-Design Research Based on Traditional Materials
1. Expanding Summer Fabric Texture from an Innovative Weaving Perspective: The warp yarn is chosen to continue using hand-woven ramie yarn, which helps retain the strong and crisp feel of summer fabric. The weft yarn incorporates materials like cashmere, alpaca wool, and PET film embroidery threads, resulting in a fabric with varied thickness and enhanced thermal and decorative functions. The design has been submitted for appearance patent application.
2. Designing Large-Scale Garments with Narrow Fabrics: Large-scale structural garments are designed using narrow-width fabrics, with design and cutting tailored to the characteristics of different fabric materials. Due to the limitations of narrow-width fabrics, it is challenging to express the inclusivity of summer fabric in large-scale garments. The author combines the characteristics of thin fabrics, utilizing the natural textures formed by the misalignment of warp yarns after washing. This involves splicing and hiding seams within the texture, with the ramie warp yarns effectively supporting the garment's silhouette, creating a natural and transparent effect. Cashmere-blended summer fabric, after softening treatment, shrinks and expands to fill the gaps created by the warp and weft yarns, resulting in a dense and compact fabric. Cutting along the warp and reassembling enhances the garment's silhouette, making it overall smooth, attractive, and fashionable.
3. Softening and Innovation of Summer Fabric: Even with innovative redesigns, summer fabric remains challenging to use. The author conducted experiments on softening treatments, such as washing at different temperatures and sun exposure, on the innovative summer fabric. Different fabric fibers exhibited various degrees of change under high temperatures and sunlight, resulting in new natural textures. The author believes that the presentation of traditional materials in contemporary design should be multidimensional, and the treatment methods of materials should be diversified. As consumers seek alternatives to machine-produced clothing, they can also engage in handmade material design, allowing women's fashion to showcase a new personal attribute through traditional material applications.
The inspiration comes from Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s film *Shoplifters*. The film tells the story of a utopian family made up of six individuals who are not biologically related, critiquing traditional biological relationships. Behind this fabricated connection lies a fundamental need for coexistence, portraying a beautiful yet unreal ideal.
In this context of coexistence, relationships between people and objects, objects with each other, and people with nature all require this state of mutual support. Coexistence acts as an implicit agreement—a primitive, unembellished, and pure state of being.
Based on the inspiration research and expansion, the keywords extracted for "symbiosis" are:
- Soft yet powerful
- Mutual dependence
- Sense of security and envelopment
- Femininity revealed in resilience
- Amplified maternal glow in the "symbiotic" relationship
- Importance of friendly roles
Life is a continuous and rhythmic progression, involving cycles and renewal. Therefore, I hope the clothing embodies air circulation, with a balance of tension and relaxation, a sense of breathability, unpredictability, and a floating quality. The design should transition from flat to three-dimensional, possessing aesthetic beauty while emphasizing feminine characteristics.
To express the natural state of the primordial relationship of symbiosis, I chose natural textile fabric—summer cloth. It originates from the land and can return to it, representing a form of symbiosis between humans and nature, with zero pollution, zero infringement, and harmonious coexistence.
Additionally, I decided to use the fabric in its natural color without excessive embellishment, allowing the material to breathe. This reflects the primordial relationship I am pursuing.
All things in symbiosis should represent a state of inclusiveness. Ramie fibers were once used in robes and as internal casting materials for Buddhist statues. The characteristics of summer cloth, which return to the primordial, connect with Buddhist thought. Therefore, I decided to use Eastern robe-style garments as the main silhouette for this series of designs, providing more space for the human body.