Exhibitions

Commision





Thing in Itself


In his Chinese tunic suit —
solemn, composed — 
wearing caring masculinity, 
my great-grandfather, 
gentle yet resilient.

Through every gaze,
hegemony reveals itself — 
strength enshrined as decree, 
tenderness cast aside as femininity. 
Yet somewhere, quietly, 
an orchid blooms against the weight of expectation.


I begin to reenact bodily memory, 
sewing echoes into fabric — 
softness and strength entwined, 
identity loosening at its seams, 
layer by layer, 
function shifting, reweaving, 
until only the true self remains — 
fluid, diverse, hybrid — 
a knit of softness and might. 

Now, garments embody — 
genderless, equal, free, 
a revolutionary, wearable form.


Collection Overview


The collection explores how clothing can become a site where memory, identity, and cultural values are embodied rather than simply represented. Rooted in personal memories of my great-grandfather and reflections on traditional Chinese family structures, the project reconsiders masculinity through the everyday gestures of care that are often overlooked or culturally coded as feminine.

Beginning with autobiographical research, I translated repeated bodily experiences—carrying, embracing, kneeling, dressing, and domestic labour—into garment construction through a process of embodied experimentation. Rather than treating the body as a form to be dressed, the garments emerge from movement itself, allowing physical actions and lived experience to shape pattern cutting, silhouette, and construction.

The collection combines traditional tailoring with modular and transformable structures. Reversible garments, detachable components, integrated carrying systems, and adaptable silhouettes question fixed ideas of function, gender, and identity. Details inspired by Chinese dress history are reinterpreted within contemporary tailoring, creating a dialogue between cultural heritage and present-day experience.

Materiality plays an equally important role. Tailoring fabrics are paired with translucent textiles, while knitted structures and digitally printed family photographs preserve traces of memory within the garments. Each piece serves as both clothing and an archive, carrying both physical and emotional histories.

Rather than proposing a new ideal of masculinity, Thing in Itself invites viewers to reconsider the relationship between the body, clothing, and care. It suggests that garments can record lived experience, reveal hidden forms of intimacy, and become spaces where personal memory and cultural narratives continue to evolve.


Careback
Careback: Unfolding
Trace
Blooming
Interwoven
Thredshold
Echo
Veil