Jennifer Jiang
When I was at the V&A Scotland Fashion Now graduate showcase last night I took photos of things that stood out to me.
In the Edinburgh College of Art showcase, I noticed the white strips hanging off this dress and was impressed at how much they made me wonder what they were. Why are they there? What do they feel like? How heavy are they?
In amongst the rafia, with all the movement while walking, they had a feeling of significance.
However, it was one of those personal meanings I couldn't interpret from looking alone, and I wanted to be in on the secret.
I get oddly emotional about these things, but I thought to myself that the true beauty of this was that it made me want to know more.
Does anyone else get that little gaspy sob thing that brings a tear to your eye sometimes? Just me? 👀
Even if I never found out what they were, the way it made me feel a pang of desire was an artform in itself. I felt like the artist had reached through the clothing and prodded my curiousity on purpose, then dangled the answer just out of my reach. Beautiful.
When there was a break between the different universities, both my daughter and friend commented on Jennifer's dresses in particular as standing out. We all wondered about the mysterious white tabs and wished we could know what they represented.
At the networking event afterwards, it was quite hard to recognise the different students as we'd only seen them briefly at the end.
I went to approach Susu Wang, a other talented graduate, and embarrassed myself a little by not recognising Jennifer next to her.
However, she was lovely and we were ECSTATIC to find out it was her who did these unusual tabs.
She told us that they were inspired by Chinese gardens which I've now found out are the traditional Suzhou gardens, and specifically the windows in the Humble Administrator's Garden.
There's a study of the windows and shadows on her project page HERE
What's more is that she told us they are FUCKING SCENTED SOY WAX. So it was made with all the wearer's senses in mind, including the sound of the tabs as they move.
I think she said they are lemon scented and maybe tea tree too. I was at the end of a long day & two drinks in at this point.
These scented soy tabs stood out to me as something beautifully innovative in a way that will be so underappreciated in just watching her work go by on a catwalk. But, then, it works so well because I want to reach out and explore them. Or be so privileged to wear her work and smell them for myself as they bounce and jingle with each step.
We discussed her weaving process and she said it took over 70 hours just to weave the fabric for one of her items 😱 There was so much dedication in her work, including her amazing cork fabric which she made her business cards out of too.
Jennifer Jiang was one of the sweetest people I met last night and she was so encouraging to my daughter, taking an interest in her views and sharing her creative process.
I wish I could have picked her brain and learned about her work for hours!