Montreal-based Ying Gao is definitely not the type of fashion designer you usually meet. She considers fashion design a very important aspect of our social structure and uses technology as a means to show us how garments can be approached in various ways as objects in space and the various ways people relate to their environment. Ying Gao is not another avantgarde creator. She is a fashion theorist who turns theory into reality, always in a romantic way. While the exhibition "Ying Gao: Art, Fashion and Technology" is still running at the Musee national des beaux-arts of Quebec, the designer answered my questions exclusively for the eternal optimist.
You are both a fashion designer and a professor at the UQAM. You seem to be very interested in the social aspects of fashion. Is that correct?
While completing my Master's Degree in Interactive Multimedia in 2002, I worked as a fashion designer and all too often I heard that designing is pointless. I wondered a great deal about the role of a fashion designer and I wanted to do what a designer was supposed to do: create, innovate within our social context. Through my interactive garment projects, I hope to encourage people to consider the importance of innovation in fashion design. The world evoles only when we innovate, otherwise we are just running in circles.
Do you think clothes should be intelligent?
No, I like to think that my garments are not gadgets but rather design objects that have been extensively reflected upon and have a conceptual and esthetical "life", corresponding to their technological mission. The challenge in terms of fashion design is to construct garments with free-flowing dimensions affording the potential for numerous shapes, unlike the fixed measurements of so-called traditional garments. My interactive projects propose an in-dept study on the garment's adjustable structure and the integration of pneumatic and interactive technologies. These garments appear vivid, ephemeral and fluid in shape: one of the dresses vibrantly unfolds when triggered by a ray of light. Another breathes gently as it is touched by a gust of air. The variety of physical shapes emerges from the art of folding paper, giving a poetic aesthetic form to the ethereal and intangible. It forms a creative framework in which media devices (sensors,cameras, microprocessors) become components of garments.
When designing clothes do you use a flat pattern or a stand anf then obtain the pattern?
I prefer flat pattern.
Are you more interested in a cloth to be technically artificial rather than functional?
I am interested in both. I believe that any reflective work that has benefited from in-depth research on both conceptual and execution levels will have a positive influence on our daily life.
Playtime
Describe to us the main theme of your collection "Playtime".
Inspired by director Jacques Tati's film of the same title, Playtime lets the viewer reflect on appearances and the perception of objects in space. Compared to haute couture by French writer Francois Ede, the film presents a world where modern architecture and urban surveillance are overtly present, while using stylistic techniques to fool the viewer such as trompe l'oeil and mirror effects. Taken into the world of fashion, this critical and playful point of view allows Ying Gao to explore the concept of Transformation, like in Walking City and Living Pod. In the context of a fashion show with sounds and lighting, the possibility for the viewer to photograph or shoot the pieces on video is rendered difficult: the dresses will appear blury in the recorded image. The first dress will appear blury and the second dress, for example, will react to the flash of the camera, itself becoming a light source when a photo is taken.
The Walking City series were developed as a tribute to "Archigram".
I always found that infatable garments are among the most complex. When a "lifeless" jacket sleeve is filled with air, the garment is suddently transformed and appears to be inhabited by an invisible body. Air is where color, light and vibrations converge. It's a lightweight, ethereal, changing, lyrical and escapes one's grasp. Using the fascinating medium as inspiration, my inspiration was to give an aesthetic form to the ethereal by creating garments closer to the concept of allurement.
(photos below by Dominique Lafond)
What is the main goal of the exhibition running at the moment at the Musee National des beaux arts of Quebec?
The Museum wanted to create an event so that art, technology and fashion could meet in a specific context.
Your work has also been exhibited in various art spaces and museums. Are there any differences in the approach of the selection of the exhibits in every other city where they are hosted?
Not really.
Do you prefer this method of presentation than fashion shows?
Yes, for the interactive garments, I do.
(photos below by Marcio Lana-Lopez)
Would you consider leaving Montreal for another major capital city to base your brand?
I've been living in Montreal for 17 years, I love it but I might leave it for a year or two for work but I know I'll come back.
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