Leo Qian
Embodied Hood
Class of: 2024
Major: Fashion Design BFA
Medium: Garment, fabric, digital editorial, digital website
Faculty: Studio: Stacy Seiler / Seminar: Elisha Wagman
Prompt: Design an avant-garde garment that has evolved in both form and function for a future utopian or dystopian society 100 years in the future. Select an adaptation theme of focus to merge with your inspiration theme to create a garment that helps the wearer to successfully adapt to the society of your future city.
This project simulates my vision of the future of fashion and my home city of Vancouver in 100 years, which I envisioned as a utopian society of emotional culture and shared feelings communicated through color. Fashion will function as a coping mechanism adapting us to the psychosocial dynamic of the future. My inspiration theme was blobjects, from which I extended the healing and emotionally engaging qualities of form and color to the human body through clothing. Embodied Hood is designed specifically for anyone with social anxiety integrating emotional technology and empathic design focusing on the adaptation themes of mental health and healing with communication. Details are featured in my written fashion forecast editorial.
Creating this garment in Studio helped me define my obsession of fluid silhouettes, restorative colors, and experience curation through fashion. My design iteration process realized my passion for inclusive and mental health informed design. Extending and bridging upon my insights from Studio, I built my brand and website in Seminar in addition to developing my artistic voice that was manifested in the writing of my fashion forecast.
