Meet Lai Tsui Yu this year’s Gold Apparel Winner in the 2021 Taiwan Student Design Competition. Lai is majoring in fashion design at Shih-Chien University and is a passionate feminist.
Tells us about your submission?
My design is inspired by RIOT GRRRL. There were a subculture group who combined punk with feminism during the 90’s in North America. North America also pioneered the third wave of feminism. They not only play punk music but also publish zines by themselves to promote the rights of women and LGBTQ.
Their proposition for women’s rights is: women can express their sexual desire, they can wear what they want, do what they want and be fearless in challenging the patriarchy.
The whole concept of this collection is if we looked to the near future, what would RIOT GRRRL be like? For the textiles, I choose black leather, which is the most iconic fabric of punk culture. I used green for the piping along the edges which is one of the colours representative of the women who joined ‘’vote for women’’ in the early twentieth century.
As for the silhouette of this long jacket, I choose it to feel masculine like the interiors of leather cars. I chose this because lots of people think the car is a very masculine object, and I want to flip this stereotype. I think it symbolizes my whole concept .
I purposefully drew attention to the jacket’s arm silhouette to make it the focal point of the whole piece. I want girls to feel powerful and confident when they wear this jacket.
What are your thoughts on working with leather?
Leather is always the material that I really like. I think as time passes, leather products will resonate more with the the people who wear it. This is the first time I used real leather to create the project, and it’s more difficult compared to the normal fabrics, but after I finished this project I felt really satisfied with the outcome.
Check out Lai on Instagram: @gwenmilai
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