London-based fashion and textiles designer, with a seven-year background in art and design field in the UK. Xuejiao Qin graduated from MA womenswear in London College of Fashion and BA textiles design in Central Saint Martins. Setting up own brand after graduation. Express modern and romantic aesthetics and explore new technologies through the fabrication process.

‘In the Mood of Breakup’ ----- xuejiaoqin a/w 2020

Breaking up is a sorrowful thing for most people, and going through this period needs an intricate process. The fashion collection is inspired by the French artist Sophie Calle’s ‘Take Care of Yourself” 2007. She shared her breakup letter from an ex-boyfriend to 107 females with different jobs and ages to observe their reaction. In this way, fashion could also be a medium to test out the breakup letter as fashion garments closely connect to our bodies and minds, and they influence each other. The pain of breakup seems abstract as everyone has their version of expressing and imagining emotions, so I created ‘a short survey about your last breakup’ to form main concept. I excavated breakup stories and collected opinions towards love and intimate relationship through it.

Screen printing and hand-painted patterns are used in the collection, and most of them are created directly on the fabric. The patterns on fabric are casual but not random. They are designed according to the story of each breakup to make them appealing. Fashion is always about the present and focuses on the future, not the past. When we have enough factories, materials, and labor to make clothes, people rarely care about the emotional value of clothes but define their value in terms of price. Working on this collection is a process of gathering stories and telling them to the wearers or audiences. An artisanal and emotional sense is perceived in this way.

The essential elements of emotional design would be kept for my future work of the brand, and a variety of techniques and time saving and eco-friendly methods of screen print as fashion textiles would be tested out. The overall style of the brand is a mix of Western romanticism and the beauty of wabi-sabi of the far East.

Considering the customers and market, the materials used are natural and appropriate for each season. We attend showrooms in Paris fashion week and Shanghai fashion week. The sale is carried out online for the time being, but we are considering entering select shops over the world later on.