Today I present you, the accessories of Sous Collection. This is the humorous side of the collection, embossed content purses and embossed strap shopping tote, no need for further explanation :)
I am also taking custom orders for embossed purses, you can choose from the ones shown at MSFW or have your personalised embossing :) email if you are interested :)
Sorry for the super long gap in between posts. I've been quite busy with my honours year at uni and all the other things that comes with it. I recently showcased my graduate collection at Melbourne Spring Fashion Week's RMIT Student Runway, along with my 29 fellow students who are all so talented. It was an amazing experience working with with the MSFW team, the stylist, producer, sound and choreography, etc. Hectic, but so much fun. It just goes to show how much work goes into producing a runway that only lasts 40 minutes. Here are some snaps from the night if you were not able to make it. You can also view other students work on fashionising.com.
Also, my new site is up and running, jump on and have a look at www.karaxliu.com :)
I've got a little project for Fashion Dissemination at uni that requires us to present a series of 10 images or a short 30 second video of our design ethos. My next collection is currently in the process of coming together, and I wanted to keep it a surprise until it is finished. So I looked into my past projects for resources and inspirations. Since most of my past imageries are already up on this blog, I decided to go out of my comfort zone and make a short video (really way out of my comfort zone, I like things still in general...) I found the folder of photos I took for the A Study of Perception (2011) poster. As I hung the cube dress' various cubes and corners up I recorded the different stages of the dresses. It is like a documentation of its transformation from something ordinary into something amazing. It actually captures my design ethos quite well - I don't think things have to be loud at first sight. It is no fun to give away everything at the first time. I much prefer to create things, objects, garments that are beautifully subtle, a little understated at first sight, but as it draws you closer, you then discover its amazing sophistication, character and intelligence in design.
and here are a few images from other artists and designers which also reflects and sums up my design ethos: a simple idea executed with intelligence, sophistication and elegance
Last week I did a wonderful collaboration with the talented photographer Zoe Economedis. She is a magician with her camera. I left everything in her control (which is usually hard for me to do because I tend to micro-manage), but I am super happy with the results. Here are the photos, enjoy :)
The Ex[ie]perimental Collective Exhibition, part of the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival has officially closed today. A big thank you to everyone who has supported and helped us, especially our sponsor AXF Group whose generous support made it all possible. I hope you have enjoyed the exhibition and if you didn't have time to make it down to Von Haus, here are some images :)
Cube dress of A Study of Perception collection and selected garments from the Scrap collection / Kara Liu (me)
A selection of my work will be exhibited in the upcoming EX[IE]PERIMENTAL COLLECTIVE Exhibition, part of the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival Cultural Program. Curated by the wonderfully talented Christina Exie who is also an RMIT graduate, the exhibition will be open to public from 22/03/2010 to 28/03/2010 at Melbourne City's Von Haus. So come by on the opening night, have a drink and enjoy the art and fashion. :)
Program Synopsis written by H. Pappas
Ex[ie]perimental Collective is an exhibition that unites five of Melbourne’s newest conceptual fashion designers and their practices. The focus of this collective is to emphasize the importance of clothing and its potential for innovation through research and process. Emma Boseley, Katia Di Crescenzo, Christina Exie, Kara Liu and Helen Pappas met through their studies at RMIT’s Bachelor of Design in Fashion. Yet all have developed their own dynamic styles as designers, tailors, jewelers and collagist, making this exhibition a dynamic fusion of techniques and construction as well as individual concepts. Each of the works in the Ex[ie]perimental Collective showcases an array of methodologies and textural elements. By exhibiting segments throughout the design process, this exhibition gives an insight into these designers’ initial questions as well as the final artifact. Three-dimensional patternmaking, sculptural leather molding, collage, and jewelry techniques, creates a poetically combined display intriguing the viewer for further curiosity. As a young designer collective, this is their initiation into the Melbourne Design scene, and a contribution to the diversity of Australian and Melbournian talent.
This was an experiment I did at the end of the design development process in 'A Study of Perception'. I changed a few variables, using non-self-supporting fabrication, blowing up the scale of the cubes, and separating the cubes into different seams instead of having them conjoined in the previous garments. Originally I planed to keep the various sized cubes hanging and have the dress as a drape piece in juxtaposition to the previous structured pieces in the project. However out of curiosity I wanted to see if gravity wasn't a factor, what would the dress look like, And it transformed, from something subtle, into something grand; front something opaque, into something translucent, from something flat, into something three-dimensional; from something ordinary, into something magnificent. And all I did was opening it up. :)
'A Study of Perception' is a collection based on the principle that everything is relative. Heaviness and lightness can not exist without the other. In the development process of this collection, I explored many ways of creating heaviness out of lightness and vice versa. The end result is an interesting visual deception that is both light and heavy, complex yet minimal. Big thanks to the talented team that pushed through on a very cold, rainy and windy day.
Designer / Stylist / KARA X LIU
Photographer / Leo Zou
Model / Sam Frew @ Lush International Model Management
A couple of experiments created in the Instinctual Beast studio, turning something as soft and gentle looking as the floral print silk organza into something that looks a little hostile and dangerous. Some of my friends nicknamed the cubed sleeve jacket the 'Calamari Jacket', and the neckpiece the 'Durian Collar'. :)
I designed this experimental corseted garment in the Corsetry studio lead by expert Tania Splawa-Neyman. It was super interesting learning the history about corsets and how such a little body-binding garment somehow reflected the society and norm of the time. I applied the principles and techniques of traditional corsetry into this modern design made of lamb skin and georgette. All the fitting was done properly on a real life fit model, and the garment is hence custom made to measure. :)
This is one of my most exciting projects so far, titled 'Scrap'. I studied under Susan Dimasi of bespoke label MaterialbyProduct / www.materialbyproduct.com /, focusing on creating a unique minimal waste system that produces garments that embodies unique aesthetic qualities. My system 'Cut and Paste' reinvents classic garment types, typically shirts, and elements, typically collars and pockets, by using a pattern-making system I developed based on the subtractive cutting technique. For example, cutting jets from the body panel to make jet pockets, the jet pockets are functional and the jet cut-outs become decorative. In a nutshell, the system is 'to cut what the garment needs from the garment itself'. What I love about this collection is that there is minimal pen to paper design. All the garments come straight from the technique itself, you don't know the result until it is made! :)
Starting off with some previous work from 2010. Mapping Diasporas Studio was lead by Dr. Peter Allan, studying and discovering the rich tailoring traditions that migrated from Europe to Melbourne in the last century. This is the experimental tailored jacket I developed in the Studio, inspired by traditional tailoring in contrast with the conceptual shapes inspired by old maps. At the photo shoot I had the luck to work with the wonderful Boseley sisters: Emma the model and Brooke the make-up artist. Here is the shot! :)
