2018: Jewellery, Footwear + Fashion Accessories

Jewellery, Footwear & Fashion Accessories

Miwa Aiko Dazed

I have used a mask to express the impact of the sense of being lost in a mysterious world. My mask design uses aluminium, silver, and latex, to create an intense feeling and confusion about being lost. I have combined these materials to show the beautiful and the disturbing sides of this world. I am interested in the way the sense of being lost uncovers people’s instincts. I believe that the opposing concepts of seductive and repulsive behaviours can be combined together to create beauty.

The contrast between these two ideas are very thought-provoking and intense, which I was inspired by.

Yuriko Akasaka Woman in the Dunes

This is a wearable object made for the legs and the arms. I was inspired by the Japanese novel Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe. This object provides the user comfort, yet gently restricts body movement at the same time. This is a performative work which questions abandonment and acceptance of daily routine. They can create obstacles when achieving your ambitions and progressions in your life. Corduroy cushions are linked together to represent the dune’s ups and downs. Cushions are a metaphor of our daily lives and the feeling of being too relaxed.

Aleyna Badat Second Skin

‘Second Skin’ began with the thought of the effect of historic imperialism on the Indo-Pak subcontinent. My work explores the question of what it means to be the modern Pakistani.

Essentially, it is about identity; the amalgamation of two vastly different cultures resulting in the development of a hybrid human; one that contains elements of both worlds through events in history along with inevitable modern day globalisation. This hybrid being is represented through the idea of a second layer of skin.

The patterns on the ‘skin’ hint at biological, cultural and technological symbolism.

Yuqi Bai Multidimensional Space

Multidimensional space has always been the theory of human imagination, but I have developed a strong interest in four-dimensional space. A four-dimensional creature that has a dimension higher than ours can travel through time. I wanted to make a device to represent the four dimensions of my imagination.

I used wool, fine lines and geometry to express the sense of time and space. However, people in threedimensional space cannot see the four dimensional space, so I made it a device on the head, like the moon in the mirror and the flowers in the water.

Holly Beighton Dystopia

Some women live in their own dystopia due to the societal pressures to be compliant and complacent.

I looked at the physical and psychological oppression of women and how it has been normalised, so that women often don’t recognise the abuse. I reference this normalisation through the ‘forced smile’ featured in these three creepy, medieval-like contraptions. I used spot-welding for the metal component. The design was influenced by traditional torture or public humiliation methods for women, such as the Scold’s Bridle. I looked at The Handmaid’s Tale, which led me onto looking at religious habits and traditional, religious head-wear.

However, some women outside of the church live this kind of life without

wanting to. They are living with an abuser who forces a life of solitude, loneliness and isolation through psychological abuse. It is estimated that in the UK, 1.9 million people aged 16 to 59 experienced some form of abuse with 63% of them women.

My piece is a statement that women are forced into accepting abuse and just living with it.

Damla Cabi Wearable Safety

I wanted to combine the knowledge I have for product/fashion design, and science. We are in an age when artificial intelligence is rapidly improving, and is making peoples’ lives easier. Since it is now impossible to stay away from all the technological developments, at least one of them is being the solution for our problem. My main focus in this project is how wearable technology can help the user in a situation of defence. I designed a prototype, which could incorporate concerns of protection, safety, health and prevention of injury. This will enhance and support the body, physically and psychologically, making the user feel safe and independent. The garment has durable fabrics and an evil eye to ward off mystic malevolent forces.

Sam Cainer Parallel Journeys

Whilst researching this project I questioned the statistics of male juvenile delinquency. What most interested me was the idea of duality and the several factors which determine a young man’s destiny.

Deconstructed trainers and school uniform shirts comprise the materials used for my garment, representing how the level of education which a person receives often determines the path which they walk. The class system is a recurring theme in what dictates the likelihood of young men being labelled “prison-fodder”.

The culture of middle-class youths appropriating stereotypical, workingclass street wear is influential to my design. This theme of appropriation is prominent throughout history;

in particular, I referenced Marie Antoinette’s Chemise a la Reine. I see this garment as a metaphor for the huge change needed in society’s attitude towards young, workingclass males, whilst subconsciously mocking the upper-class’ ease of achievement due to privilege.

Mary Chi Ching Chan Strange Beauty: Hybrids and Mutations

My collection of work explores the strangeness within beauty by creating a creature that is simultaneously seductive and repellent. The chains restraining the neck, and the mask visualising the restriction of voice, illustrates the control of normalised beauty standards against the unfamiliar. In a world full of fear and uncertainty, this piece unleashes the curiosity and mystery of the unknown.

It reveals the self-protected creature within ourselves that is ready to challenge, adapt and fight against change and oppression. It allows the audience to discover the attraction and power within the silenced oddity in a menacing futuristic edge.

Jui-en Chen Who Are You Suckers?

For this project, I wish to mock the people who purchase items that look nonsensical, but catch others’ attention and make themselves feel better. My inspiration is Vetement’s DHL T-shirt.

For me personally, I don’t understand why anybody would buy this shirt for 585 dollars instead of the real DHL shirt which costs around 30 dollars. Bailed on research, I made a Bian Dan, which is high utility daily object in China, that can carry heavy things on each side of the stick in order to achieve physical balance.

It often appears in Asian counties especially China and Vietnam. The cost of a Bian Dan is very cheap which is around 3 pounds. My idea is to make it look cool and expensive but have no meaning at all. I take this project as a fashion communication exercise and design accordingly.

Imogen Colla Defence Mechanisms

Within contemporary fashion and society, full suits of armour have somewhat diminished and we are now left with the visual references to these medieval protection devices.

Without this physical portrayal of armour, people are left defenceless; therefore, I believe they have evolved to psychologically defend themselves against feelings of fear and anxiety in social situations.

However, when dealing with confrontational situations, danger can often occur, in which case, many subsequently develop anxiety rapidly. This development has been diagnosed as a psychological anxiety disorder called Agoraphobia. It is characterized by symptoms of anxiety in situations where the person

perceives the environment to be unsafe with no easy way to get away.

My aim within this project has been to produce a final outcome that assists an individual in protecting themselves against modern day threats, whilst specifically drawing inspiration from animalistic defence mechanisms and medieval references.

Sarah Dowle Discombobulation

In light of the recent centenary of the right for women to vote in the UK, I was inspired to explore the continuing fight for equality in the gender roles within our society. This research developed my awareness of the lack of progression, not only for true equality, but moreover our society’s ongoing need to classify and group gender. Arguably resulting in society imprinting onto each new generation stereotypical expectations of what it means to be a boy or a girl. The subtleties in the different ways we treat children depending on their gender, such as girls being dressed in pink, boys in blue may appear as innocuous, normal parts of growing up; but such subtleties can ultimately impact the beliefs that a young person grows up to form about themselves and others.

I began to explore aspects of this psychological programming of gender classification in childhood through the exploration of toys. From a young age, toys have the potential to reinforce hidden messages which can impact the way a child develops. I became fascinated by studying dolls and how they act as a way for children to perceive themselves as well as how they can create an unrealistic expectation of

gender appearance.

My piece consists of four interchangeable sections, like a jigsaw puzzle, which can be reconfigured depending on how the wearer wants to present their own body shape. Providing the opportunity to redefine the stereotypical gender shape, in a doll-like format, to invite the viewers to reappraise the concept of gender classification based on shape, as well as representing to the next generation how gender could be viewed.

The pieces’ contrasting textures metaphorically represent the struggle to break down stereotypes as the hard surfaces restrict the body, whilst the cushioning allows free form, showing a potential progression of our understanding of gender.

The combined effect of this deliberately creates a clumsy doll-like stiffness allowing people the opportunity to question how we restrict definitions of gender. Manipulating shapes creates immediate uncertainty in classification between boy or girl causing a sense of discombobulation.

However, it also offers the opportunity to challenge how we perceive gender to work towards greater understanding and equality.

Jiaxin Duan Gustation

Gustation is a project about my taste.

I use facial features to express the feelings that the food brings to me, which is pleasurable and stimulating.

I found that when eating normally, I cannot enjoy all the food. However, when eating some sour foods, my taste buds are stimulated. When doing this work about sourness, I let it have a lot of spikes and a corroded aesthetic to express a feeling of stimulating deformation and contrast sharply with the sweet works.

The sweets can bring me the feeling of pleasure to enjoy. When touching this taste, I have a good mode, and it gives me a relatively clean and flying figure.

Toni Evans The Radical Notion That Women Are People

Media has become much more than just a trend within society but the way our values are shaped. The portrayal of women dating back has undoubtedly set a stereotype that depicts women as objects and men as acceptable sexual predators. Advertising targets our insecurities, demonstrating sexually abusive relationships and men as the dominant gender. This familiarity within media is merely a social construct, an illusion of what we can be. This series campaigns against normality. Handmade pieces in steel and plastic are made so the shells can be replaceable.

The Dangerous Diamond set explores how diamonds can only cut diamonds signifying only women can betray women.

The GRAB BACK set explores how normalised media has patronised women and how we shouldn’t take it. It’s time to grab back; take ownership of ourselves, our bodies, our communities.

Phuong Linh Hoang Coming of Age

My intention is to express what one may wear whilst taking a leap into becoming an adult, and to showcase the idea of jumping into the unknown, where the future events up ahead are unpredictable and full of uncertainties. In response to this concept, I constructed a large-scaled interactive piece that acts as a shield of protection. My aim is to make the wearer feel a sense of security, selfreliance and independence. The claw like arm and shoulder pieces are held by the hand producing an opening and closing mechanism which reflects on the future and the stages of adulthood.

Qiuhui Hou Ripple Effect

Ripple effect is the continuing and spreading results of an event or action. Among the discoveries of seeking ripple effects, I chose ‘bad mood’ to develop. A bad mood can easily affect the moods of others and spread in the crowd.

My final work is worked on head because bad moods initiate from our minds and affect our actions. I made the track on the head and the different sizes of marbles will move on the track representing the bad mood.

Additionally, the marbles are moving which represents the spreading of the bad mood. As the marbles fall from the track, the bad mood is released. There is always calm after rippling.

Meiyi Hu Deception: Emotional Contradiction

My intention with this project was to make a piece that visually creates deception, which is similar as contradictory emotions. This situation is actually usual for people because of an identity confusion of something.

Therefore, I made a shoe which will confuse the user – whether to wear it or not.

In the project, I combined metallic elements and transparent plastics together as tools to illustrate an apparent contradiction. Materials themselves already have texture contrast, and the shape of this shoe is painful to wear but it’s still seductive because the desire to wear it. The heel is extended it in the opposite direction and re-formed the spike shape on the heel.

Chan Huo Boundary

The ‘boundary’ has always attracted me as a subtle existence. Boundaries may be a point, a line or a range; can be clear or vague, or be ignored. They vary with personal taste, political awareness or fresh knowledge and perception, at some point, it’s absolutely inviolable.

I wish to explore jewellery as a sculptural form which represents the boundary between the body and its surroundings, also to discuss jewellery as means of defining personal space, inviting a deterring interaction. It can be an intimidating boundary or a means of encouraging empathy and understanding.

Balloons and metal were used in my final outcomes which managed a way to express the flexibility and rigidity

of boundaries. A balloon can expand and shrink, but at a critical point when confronting hard and sharp objects, it will explode. The piece was placed above the shoulder surrounding the head, as that’s a subtle place which gives me the feeling of oscillating between safety and danger.

Lang Jin City Sickness

Cities are a collection of many things: memories, desires and signs of a language. But do you know that almost 89% people are suffering the city sickness, such as pressure, depression and loneliness due to the situation of population expansion, housing constraints and environmental degradation? In this headpiece, I aim to reveal the barrier between the individual and society by including a sense of self-protection and making a visual conflict with different colours and textures of materials. The processes involved in my final piece included welding and gluing.

Jiani Kang Connected

I started by researching wolf packs. I found that there are many similarities between the wolf pack and human society. In a group, everyone is individual, but also connected with each other. The connections and collaborations help the whole group achieve its goals. I have made a jewellery piece that connects several individuals, using their facial and body movements. The jewellery pieces are to be worn by several individuals at the same time.

Asuka Kondo Always With You

Objects worn on the feet and legs that evoke your inner child. Children have dreams, but through the progression into adulthood, people try not to think about it and hide it.

My theme is to remember playful childhood feelings and always keep them with you. They are constructed by three layers made of stitched zips, crocheted yarn, and printed fabric.

Each layer represents adulthood and childhood. By revealing each layer, playful aspects appear from the inside.

Kakan Kudo Do We Live Conscious Really?

The starting points of my project were introversion and minimality and the unconscious.

“Where does a thought go when it’s forgotten?” – Sigmund Freud I sought these themes through fashion, humans and their chain reaction. We need to realise the relationship. Now, don’t look only at the surface of things.

Eva Leer Movement and Contortion

High heels are the corsets of the 21st century. This piece is inspired by the way we contort our bodies in modern day life, focusing on the wearability of high heels. I wanted to design a shoe that pushes wearability to the extreme. Using PVC as well as utilising the components of an umbrella mechanism, I have been able to create a piece with working, moving elements. If I was continue this project I would further develop and explore different ways I can utilise this element in order to exaggerate the movement of the knee and ankle joints.

Yasmina Lees El Akhal Self-Made Man

Self-Made Man examines the social and economic status and role of money in society. It portrays the idea of the working class man pulling himself up by the boot straps to fulfil the American style dream. In addition, it is also inspired by the extravagant attire of London’s self appointed Pearly Kings and Queens who lightly mock the attitude and appearance of the upper echelons of British society.

The concept also explores the tainted value of new-money wealth in a similar way to that of F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby.

Muzi Li Different Love

I saw a film named Call Me By Your Name.

The love shared between two men was really beautiful, but it was secret. Hidden because of social judgement. In China this relationship would be forbidden.

I hope to explore love and relationships which must be clandestine and secret. How these relationships need protection, care and caution. They are delicate and precious and have to be lived in privacy and secrecy.

I hope to make a piece for one person that suggest a closeness to another person without being obvious; a piece that protects a relationship and keeps it precious, safe and secret. In my view, love is love is love .There is no reason hide yourself or suffer from injustice.

Cece Liu Ultra Violet

An investigation into Ultra Violet’s fluidity, originality, and sense of transformation. The upper body piece sits across the torso from shoulder to waist and is constructed using cardboard, plastic, and a papiermâché technique. The physical outcome, which represents a blank canvas and lack of expression, is coupled with various coloured animations projected onto its spraypainted white surface. The vibrant animations demonstrate how striking and beautiful more adventurous selfexpression can be. The object is not meant to be worn on a daily basis, but should be worn as a performance piece in exhibitions or editorials.

Di Liu Evolution of MakeUp

My main focus for this project is the evolution of make-up, To discuss various types of make-up: ancient and modern, eastern and western. I also wished to discover why people wear make-up, why people use make-up in different ways, what is the meaning of make-up for people and how it has evolved.

In my final design, I let the makeup evolve from 2D to 3D. It is a transparent mask where people can group different kind of eyes, noses and lips together to show their various emotions when they wake up in the morning.

Weixin (Grace) Liu Shadow Self

My project explores the dark side of human nature, referred to as the Shadow Self by the psychologist Carl Jung. The final outcome is made mainly of air dry clay and plastic to represent the element of water, creating a tranquil underwater atmosphere through the shadows cast. By immersing and wearing the shadow on the body, I hope my piece could help individuals to realise the existence of our shadow self and start to get to know it, as it is what enables us to grow, to become a complete self.

Xuchen Liu Repeated Imprint

With the repeating movement of hand and fingerprints to show development, this is a performance piece with a glove revealing the finger tips alongside with a book shaped as a hand. The fingerprints are stamped on each page of the book and can be shared, showing the meaning of repetition, the metabolic and changeless things. Would you like a piece of me?

Peixi Miao Glorious and Fall

My project is about the Chinese rock music in 1980’s. The rock music in that period was very popular and glorious in China, but it was quickly destroyed and become a business commodity. What I want to show is the progress of how it was destroyed and finally disappeared.

I used a white balloon to show the rock music, because I think at the beginning of that period rock music was pure and perfect. Because I think there were still a lot of fetters around the rock music so I put wires around the balloon to show this. On the left side I made some sharp golden brass pieces which will break the balloon, just like the business and money broke the Chinese rock music in 1980’s.

This piece of jewellery is for anybody and it should be worn on the wrist because I want to separate the jewellery and the person wearing it, just like a spectator looking back on a beautiful time for Chinese rock music.

Christina Ng Jing Xing Astral Space Baby

Footwear based on my own fictional story, inspired by an interest in the unknown world beyond Earth.

An innocent human is sent on a space odyssey to Mars for 18 years and then comes back to Earth. I have created a pair of shoes for performance in response to my imaginary vision of the surface texture of Mars. Space Baby is walking around, leaving traces of Mars behind with the soles of her shoes.

Kathleen O’Hanlon Life Marks

My project revolves around skin and how skin picks up marks through periods of time and different conditions. I have created multiple skin pieces showing different marks in which the wearer can pick and choose as interchangeable pieces.

The embroidered latex pieces show existing imperfections such as change in pigmentation, stretch marks and scarring. The cupping pieces look at skin detoxing and creating non-permanent marks to the body. I aim for my pieces to celebrate the ‘imperfections’ that differentiate people. Techniques and materials included were the manipulation of brass sheet into tubing, soldering, embroidery, latex moulding, adhesive and paint experimentation.

Ruomeng Qu

In this project I aim to explore how colour affects human emotion.

Colour is an important part of painting or creating art works. The amazing texture of various pigments inspired me a lot. This wave start from a painting using a palette knife transitioning to splashing of liquid pigments. I used plaster to mould around a rod structure. When you wear it, you will be surrounded by the wave of colours, feeling their mutual colliding and mixing.

Patrick Rodwell Safe Return Doubtful

I have been inspired by the spirit and aesthetic of expeditions, both polar and Himalayan. I’ve created my own iteration of a trapper-style pack, bringing together pulk sleds, Nepalese Sherpa techniques, porters and hard-wearing heritage from boy scouts to explorers.

It is comprised of wood, leather, sisal rope, nylon webbing and metal fixings.

This style of pack carrying allows for personalisation, maximisation and optimisation. Lashing, strapping and stacking on the frame are rugged solutions to carrying. Porter-inspired hand-straps hark to the difficulty and stop/start nature of moving loads through exhilarating terrain.

The choice of colours and materials should offer a good-looking but functional offering for those inspired by these feats and the romanticism of a different way to explore and travel.

Kavya Sharma The Unconscious Mind

Difficult to pin down in definitive terms, sleep has best been understood as a passive state of unconsciousness. Suspension of our normal bodily activities and the inactive state of our consciousness intrigued me and made me want to look into it further. Sleep apnea, an extremely serious sleeping disorder occurs when the persons breathing is interrupted at the time of sleep when the brain and the rest of the body suffer from a lack of oxygen.

Inspired by this I wanted to create a mask of my own contradicting the pre-existing medical masks. I wanted to pay emphasis to the mechanism of breathing and used plants as the means of oxygen that were tied up in order to hinder the breathing.

Matta Kasih Siregar SIZE MATTERS

Size, scale and proportion are such overlooked elements of the visual experience but are so imperative to what a viewer understands of an image. The connotations of enlargement can be anything from intimidation to celebration.

Changing the proportions of the body, especially in isolation to the rest of the body or its surroundings, transforms the personal experience of movement and I wanted to create a piece that encourages a wearer to engage with their changed scales. By changing physical behaviour of the body one can begin to observe the consequential changes in emotion both introvertly and as a spectator.

Yinglu Tan Beauty of Men

Based on my observation and secondary research, men should have fair rights and opportunities to dress up and decorate themselves. But also, they need to suffer the feeling of pain and instability. For example, the feeling of high-heeled shoes and uncomfortable clothing.

Gabriella Timanti Organic Symmetries

This body piece explores patterns and symmetries in nature. It makes visible what we cannot see with the naked eye. It allows us to see microscopic forms of ocean life. The materials I have used are leather, felt, fabric and netting. When worn, this piece responds to both the symmetry of the body and the symmetries of the natural world.

Rong Wang Body Chat

Within our body, there is a selfdefence system, which launches attack, damage or purification when new cells intrude. This process is called transplant rejection in organ transplantation, from which my inspiration originates. I chose the traditional necklace as the ‘canvas’ for this design. It features the repulsion and attraction of magnets and rounded copper plates in opposite directions. To make my work more three-dimensional, I adopted welding techniques to connect the materials. I’d like to renew the audience’s idea of repulsion through my work.

Wendy Wang Beneath the Loneliness

How do lonely people actually feel deep inside? They usually pretend to be tough on the surface but need care inside their heart, and I hope my piece can help them to speak out about their feelings. The final piece is made of knitted wool and spotwelded steel rods coloured using metal primer and spray paint. This cross-body bag has a soft outside and a hard inside structure which shows the emotional heart on the outside but the tough structure inside.

Nicholas Willis Repeated Form

This project explores the purpose and strength of repeated patterns, specifically within nature and how these natural patterns have influenced and transformed man-made design.

My final design has been influenced by research exploring repetitions within nature and man-made forms by identifying similarities and differences of repetition, properties and purpose.

My final model made out of satin, mesh and aluminium expresses how the spiral form within natures design has been adapted and manipulated into a man-made structure in a brutalist style. This shows the stages of manipulation in form from the elegant natural swirls into harsh segmented forms.

Jemima Wright Self – Distortion

For my project I focussed on the perception of beauty, particularly amongst young women. The research I carried out led me to creating a multi-faceted mask made of mirrored acrylic with crystal resin pieces to break up the reflection. The result of this is that the person wearing it is seen to have distorted features through the resin, yet the onlooker is mainly seeing a disjointed reflection of themselves, prompting them to judge themselves instead. I attached each individual mirrored triangle using fabric to allow movement and used jump rings to attach the resin pieces.

Fangze Yan Multiple Personality

My project is about multiple personalities. I made three pieces to represent three different characters.

They are ‘crazy’, ‘weak’ and ‘control freak’. For the ‘crazy’ personality, I used red PVC and cut them into sharp shapes like broken glasses.

Some people cannot control their emotions, so they break things, and red can strongly represent blood. For ‘weak’, I used metal wires to make a XiangYun pattern. This is a traditional Chinese pattern which represents luck, and luck sometimes can be seen as a protection. For ‘control freak’, I used a lot of strings to wrap around the arm because I think lines are the best way to represent the feeling of control.

Zhongjin Zhang

Contemporary masculinity is a topic on fire. What I think interesting about this concept is that masculinity for me used to be a specific word, which represents a specific character or phenomenon. However, I think that way of thinking belongs to the past, as cultural diversity is accepted and advocated by more and more countries. So the concept driving this project is to create something to show how peoples’ impression of masculinity has changed.

Zixuan Zhang Melancholia

Through my questionnaires about depression, most people think that when they are depressed, good food and bright colours can make them feel better. After watching the films La La Land and The Grand Budapest Hotel, I found out that tones can be the primary element that represents happiness. I constructed the work with a combination of messy mindset and tasty fudge. Plastic and copper sheets are used to make the flower with chopped jelly as the core, and sugar paper surrounds the copper wire that supports it. Hopefully, this work can encourage people getting out of their depression.

Jie Zhu Maintain Connection

In this project I want to explore how to maintain relationships. My final piece requires to people to work with it. I used blue acrylic to make the bracelet and wool to weave the lines to connect the two parts. The twisted wool represents a complex relationship between people. I used a magnet to fix the bracelet, so when the motion frequency of the two sides is not consistent, the connection will fall apart.