Cui Jiang ’s collection ‘WORKERS’ was influenced by #whommadeyourclothes. When she was extensively researching this campaign, she knew many stories behind the fashion industry. For instance, compared with girls in this industry, those working in clothing factories have distinctly different living environment. Their stories crossed her mind and inspired her. Hence, in this project, Cui focused on investigating the group of female workers in the clothing factory and appealed to everyone to pay more attention to greater transparency, sustainability and ethics in the fashion industry. Cui extracted some typical floral patterns on the garments of female clothing factory workers and organized them. And then she draws the digital printing patterns on the following figures.




In the process of her research, Cui learned that some female workers who make sexy underwear think it is shameful to wear the underclothes which are made by themselves. Cui conducted some interviews out of curiosity and a female worker said ‘ This kind of thing is not decent, and none of my family members knows I am doing this job’. From Cui`s perspective, it shows the ‘sexual repression’ of some female workers, because they are reluctant to face their desires directly. Therefore, Cui added the elements of sexy underwear to the design and put the underwear outside the oversize coat to arouse a distinct feeling of restraint. The element of the suit appears frequently in the ready-to-wear collection. The suit is also the most common outfit worn by the elite class. For this reason, Cui chose the element of the suit as the main silhouette type of the project.



In the interview, Cui realized that the group of women workers who make sexy underwear is unwilling to discuss sex with others. A girl told Cui that no one taught her these ‘dirty things’ before and this topic made her feel afraid and depressive. In summary, most of them have mistaken perceptions of sex, and feel reluctant to discuss it publicly. This feeling of depression is similar to the feeling of suffocation in the water. Cui drew inspiration from this and chose a translucent blue TPU to simulate the feeling of water. Also, she simulated the shape and posture of the fabrics floated in the water by TPU and used them in silhouette design. And also, bubbles in the water represent the only opportunity which these female workers can breathe deeply and this image reminded Cui of beading. For this reason, Cui experimented with the means of beading and designed two accessories.




This is Cui’s final collection line up. The main fabric is printed canvas and TPU. She made three garments in this collection.