Central Saint Martins graduate Anson Lau’s first collection centers on textile and fabric design. For her collection, she took inspiration from three famous artist across a series of works - Marina Abramović, Eliza Bennett and Justin Bartels. The works from these artists revolve around physical sensations through the use and the infliction of textiles and objects. Ambramović’s work looks at the pleasure and pain induced by external objects, Bennett uses her skin as a canvas for embroidery and Bartels photographs the marks left by the uncomfortable pieces of clothing on a woman’s skin. From these three key pieces of work, Anson’s collection centers on the superficial perception of an object. Her collection encourages the wearer to engage in a dialogue with the garments to sense the disparity between what we see and what actually is.

After watching what many netizens dubbed to be one of the best period dramas to date, The Empress of China, Melanie drew inspiration from the character’s costumes. Using a combination of traditional Chinese and Japanese wear with elements of modern European garments, Melanie’s collection focuses on using origami shapes and tailoring techniques to create a gender-neutral collection. Flowers were the motif of the collection. Using different folding techniques, Melanie applied this to her garment to create volume and three-dimensional shapes, focusing all of the drama on the top half of the body. In contrast, clean lines and refined tailoring were used on the bottom half, a happy medium between tradition and modernity, simple and decorative.

Taking an abstract concept into design, Yu Ching’s work explores the different facets of love through colour and textile. Colour is used to map the differences in temperature felt by the nuances of love – red for heat and passion, white for simplicity and serenity, black for sadness and torture - whilst textiles are used to represent the physical environment of love. Using a variation of knitting and weaving techniques, Yu Ching’s garments reveal layer upon layer of hidden detail. Each detail links to a specific aspect of love. Fluffy lightweight and bright coloured yarn is used to express the romantic side of love whilst dark, twisted and uneven textiles are used to express the dark side of love. Weaving these two parts together in a chaotically seamless way, Yu Ching’s collection literally enables you to wear your heart on your sleeve.