Weekly Assignment 1

• Reading Reflection

Two pointsI agree with the most in Gao's talk are: fashion should innovate and the concept of fashion needs to communicate with people. To me, fashion must be innovative, because the people who create it are at the forefront of the times. They are leading a certain concept or meaning. It can’t be old. Fashion needs new forms, concepts, ideas, cultures, and backgrounds. Personally, I care a lot about the aesthetic quality of clothing. But sometimes when I watch fashion shows, I realize that beauty is not always the most obvious thing presented. What stands out most is the attitude behind the work. I hope that when I look at a piece of clothing, I can see what the designer is trying to express. At the same time, I believe that this expression doesn’t have a standard answer. Good fashion is something that can communicate and interact with human. For me, fashion is the externalization of one's identity. It can be used to express all kinds of ideas and emotions. In Chinese, there’s a saying: people are evaluated by their clothes. Interestingly, I’ve found that a person’s style of dress often does reflect, quite accurately, the way they act and interact with others. Interactive fashion makes this even more obvious as a form of personal expression, because it requires us to visualize perceived human behaviors through certain elements.

I’m not a very skilled designer, and often I can’t fully understand some designers’ works. But I still really admire, and even wish I had, that creativity and ability to translate thoughts into tangible things. Innovation is very difficult because it requires endless thinking. Yet I also believe that this is exactly where the charm of fashion lies. From having an idea, to shaping it into a concept, to creating something physical, to designing interactions—every step demands continuous innovation. I think the future of fashion will inevitably be deeply connected to new technologies and new meanings. Technology provides more ways of presentation and interaction, and new meanings generate an endless stream of design styles.

In this course, I also hope to create a work that expresses my own attitude. I’ve noticed that many of my past works were only about appearances, and I couldn’t really say what I was trying to express. But this time, I want to create something with an inner core, something that can resonate with others.