Faculty of Design

Material Art & Design

Xueqi (Flora) Wang

Butterfly Lover

My collection of hand embroidery and garment uses materiality and traditional decoration to show people how Chinese folk craft can be used in contemporary fashion. The final dress is a long flare dress with a V-neck and sleeveless bodice designed by me, the whole dress was made by green thick satin. The idea of the two butterflies on the bodice was inspired by the Chinese folk story and they were finished by traditional Chinese embroidery technique which named Su embroidery. For the decoration, I stitched every single laser cut fabric with beads and the layout was based on the photos of the butterflies' wings under the microscope. For the closure of the dress, I applied traditional Chinese buckle on the right side, because in Chinese custom we say “men left women right.” The buckles were handmade and the material is polyester rope. The pattern of the buckle that I applied called Pipa Knot, the shape of the buckle looks like Chinese traditional instrument “Pipa” that is why called Pipa Knot. For leave a split, the closure of the dress is end at mid-thigh; this idea was inspired by “Cheongsam” which is the traditional Chinese garment popular in China during 1920s-1930s.

“Front of the dress”