Mannie Rosie Nan Gao

UGGLEY F.C is a small football club located in the town Uggley.

This ugly fashion collection is an amalgamation of personal, social and ecological ugliness. Forming the unlikely comparisons between skin conditions, mould, stalagmites and graffiti in club toilets. Using the feeling of chronically dry, peeling, inflamed skin to inform my textile techniques, silhouette and shoes. Presented to the audience through aesthetically aggressive patterns, colours and knit.

When knitting, the fabric faces away from the maker, creating a lack of control, but also, an opportunity to highlight the ‘other’ side. The back that is not seen, due to its messy, ugly appearance. The word strip has come to have many meanings in this collection, the stripping of skin and the football strip. Sportswear has informed the garment construction and allowed for further experimentation, with different weights and strengths of yarns. Primarily elastic yarns (the brats of the yarn family) which refuse to relinquish control.

However, again allowing for a design process that places the designer in the passenger seat. Whilst constantly problem solving it has created new silhouettes and textures that have broadened this collection beyond initial designs. Altogether this accumulates into a collection that forces the viewer to perceive ‘ugliness’ and consciously rework their own definition.

The research for this collection started with Shanghai, which has been known as the “Eastern Pairs” for the past century. It was the cultural centre of China at the time, containing a diverse range of colliding people, nationalities, and cultures.

I became intrigued by the women of Shanghai who were independent and rebellious. In the mid 1900s Shanghai women gained the right to wear cheongsam. When a group or an individual started to think about cultural confidence, a sense of belonging to the nation started to arise. As for me, cultural confidence is not rejecting or scorn foreign cultures.

I believe my daily clothing choices are an outward expression of my own sense of ‘self’, showing the blurring of my gender and the boundaries of the cultures I associate with. I believe that an individual’s culture does not need to be defined, and I endeavoured to integrate this with my own life experiences.

Within this fashion collection, modern design represents my experience of studying abroad whilst traditional Chinese elements refers to my cultural background. Double fabrics used throughout the garments symbolises the fusion of the two cultures.