Gold Fashion, Apparel and Garment Design · 2020
Hybrid Beauty Womenswear Collection
by Moon Chang
- A' Design Award 2020 Gold Winner in Fashion, Apparel and Garment Design
- Awarded April 15, 2020
- CLIENT: Moon Chang Design Studio
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 177,109
- Verification code 5C6DF9184E · Verify this award
About Hybrid Beauty Womenswear Collection
The design of Hybrid Beauty collection is to use the cuteness as the survival mechanism. Founded cute features are ribbons, ruffles, and flowers, and they are remade by traditional millinery and couture techniques. This recreates old couture techniques to modern hybrid, which is romantic, dark, but also eternal. The whole design process of Hybrid Beauty promotes sustainability to create timeless designs.
Positioned at the intersection of fashion design and sculptural art practice, this ensemble from Moon Jung Chang's Hybrid Beauty Womenswear Collection demonstrates exceptional mastery of textile manipulation techniques that transform flat fabric into three-dimensional organic forms of remarkable complexity. The designer's approach suggests deep engagement with traditions of architectural fashion pioneered by visionaries who elevated garment construction to spatial investigation, while simultaneously drawing upon craft traditions of pleating and folding that span multiple cultural heritages. The technical achievement evident in the cascading pleated elements rewards sustained examination, as each individual fan unit comprises meticulously calibrated folds that maintain consistent intervals while collectively generating rhythmic visual movement across the bodice. This accumulative construction method, wherein repeated modular elements combine to create larger organic wholes, evokes natural growth patterns observable in botanical and marine organisms, establishing the collection's thematic exploration of hybrid beauty wherein the mechanical precision of human craft meets the generative principles of natural form. The chromatic strategy demonstrates sophisticated understanding of how material properties affect color perception, as the light-absorbing depth of black velvet creates a void-like ground against which the luminous blush elements appear to float with ethereal presence. The designer's decision to terminate voluminous sleeves with translucent pink panels reveals thoughtful consideration of how garments frame and reveal the body, creating moments of delicacy within an otherwise substantial silhouette. The vertical ribbon element descending from the sculptural mass provides compositional structure while potentially referencing traditional sash elements from various dress heritage traditions. The environmental staging, with the figure standing in shallow reflective liquid, introduces an element of mystery and transformation appropriate to the collection's conceptual framework. Viewers might contemplate how the work negotiates boundaries between garment and artwork, between natural form and human fabrication, between concealment and revelation.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The hybrid flowers is the main motif of the collection. It reinterprets the historical cute features,ribbons, ruffles,and flowers, so the traditional millinery and couture techniques are embedded. Handmade flowers are molded by velvet with heated metal. The hybrid flowers translate into two dimensional print on silk and sequins, with stuffing, embroidery, and beading to create modern camouflage. The collection emphasized old couture techniques to hybrid version, in beautiful but also ugly way.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The whole collection is 8 looks womenswear, size 4.
- Tags
- modern couture, wearable couture, bow shirt, handmade flowers, oversize bow dress,
- Production Technology
- The traditional couture handmade flowers made out of 100 years brass metal mold. The couture tailoring techniques. The flower bouquet packaging process translates into draping and silhouette. The digital heat transferred prints on various fabrics like silk, organza, satin and sequin. The hand embroidery with beading, and also couture origami folds' transition to the big bow.
- Design Challenge
- The main challenge of this journey was to solve ptsd as a perspective of a fashion designer, how to visualize the conceptions into the real garment. The second challenge was reinterpretation of history. Collecting the historical and vintage tools to create handmade flowers takes almost 2 years. This journey was the challenge to make the past alive again.
- Project Duration
- Hybrid Beauty is mfa thesis from FIT graduate fashion design program. This started from August 2017, and ends up May 2019. It was exhibited in FIT museum in New York, and fashion show during New York fashion week S/S 2020.
- Operation Flow
- The looks of collection seem very light and beautiful, but when you wear it, you will be wrapped around with 4-5 yards of light fabrics like faille or silk organza. This is the way of creating the experience of ptsd by flower bouquet packaging techniques.
- Research
- While researching the brain, there are connections between ptsd and also aesthetic judgement as a visual language metaphorically.The approach to this study is what if the universal object that everyone regards as beautiful becomes ugly and how this will look like, by showing that the beautiful and ugly are not opposite, they are same as a skin on a skin. By choosing pink flower as the object to experiment, which is a standard of the beauty, and also contains cliche and stereotype. Through this process, the evolutionary storyline of Hybrid Beauty was made.
- Inspiration
- Hybrid Beauty is the convergence of dualism, cuteness and death being used as a protective mechanism. It has a story based on the evolutionary order from the designer's researches. Starting from the designer's personal story, when the time Moon had ptsd, the death moment. To deal with this, Moon chose to go back to childhood, also on the other word being cute. By combining the cute features from clothes which have been survived until now with victorian silhouette, it create hybrid couture collection, which is not just beautiful, but also ugly.
- Image Credits
- Image #1-5: Moon Chang, The Noise
Video: Moon Chang, The Noise - Patents
- Copyright to Moon Chang
Colors of Hybrid Beauty Womenswear Collection
Get Hybrid Beauty Womenswear Collection
Bespoke Couture Fashion Design
We create extraordinary wearable art merging traditional couture techniques with contemporary aesthetics. Our award-winning approach transforms fashion into narrative experiences, crafting pieces that challenge beauty conventions through innovative handwork, sculptural forms, and meticulous…
G0E22 ShopDesign Interview about Hybrid Beauty Womenswear Collection
The title of the s/s 2020 collection is Hybrid Beauty. Starting from my personal story, when I had PTSD, the death moment. To deal with this, I tended to go back to childhood, also on the other word “Being Cute”. I use the cuteness as the survival mechanism.
I want to reinterpret the 17 to 18th century
couture and millinery techniques to hybrid and futuristic versions, which is romantic, dark, but also eternal. In this process, I wish to cooperate the concept of sustainability to create timeless designs.
couture and millinery techniques to hybrid and futuristic versions, which is romantic, dark, but also eternal. In this process, I wish to cooperate the concept of sustainability to create timeless designs.
This winning design is ready to meet customers at the department and concept stores in Asia and Europe. I am happy that people can touch, wear and feel.
This collection design took honestly 4 years to complete. For 2 years, I researched and designed about the garments expressing PTSD. Another 2 years was I used fashion as tool to recover from PTSD, and this winning design represents how PTSD recovered and rebirth of the new survival mechanism, the cuteness.
I love to be inspired by the personal story and experience, something I or other people experience because I believe design should be human story based.
Everyone goes through stressful and hard time, which can be PTSD moment. I am a fashion designer, not a doctor, and I wanted to help people and PTSD patients as the fashion designer's perspective.
Everyone goes through stressful and hard time, which can be PTSD moment. I am a fashion designer, not a doctor, and I wanted to help people and PTSD patients as the fashion designer's perspective.
I produce everything by myself. When my brand grows big, I am planning to open my own couture atelier.
I am the designer who loves beauty, aesthetic, as well as the function. I promote hybrid couture, which means wearable couture in modern and future days. I use many traditional couture techniques and reinterpret them into modern and sustainable ways, which bring a new aesthetic point of view and also wearable and functional.
I researched many fields of art, design, history, and even psychology and medical.
I am targeting all gender, and age, anyone who wants to wear. Also, I am planning to launch my second label, which is a lifestyle, so that customers can wear couture while walking with their dogs.
My design is not just a garment, everything was created artistically and scientifically. I created and tested materiality and fabric choices when dealing with PTSD in the design process. I researched and selected friends who suffer from PTSD to explore the impact of fashion play therapy, so to speak. I asked them to play with fabrics and materials, it reminded sufferers of their childhood and they felt at ease and more comfortable.
"Hybrid Beauty" is the word that I created to reflect my concept and aesthetic, which is tension and dualism between aesthetic and senses. Therefore, It means using the cuteness and childhood to overcome PTSD.
I created 5D sketchbook, which contains all the senses, such as visual, smell, touch, hearing, and feeling. Also I use all the fashion tools and design tools to create it.
My design can be looked like a beautiful collection, but inside of it, there is a dark and sad experience, and many researches behind it, which will evoke people's curiosity. Also, I played with the concept of the beauty and ugliness. In the “Hybrid Beauty” collection, I challenge to break the stereotypes of beauty, and I use flowers as metaphors that beauty can become ugly, and also the ugly can become beautiful.
I did everything by myself. I love to collaborate with artists and photographer after I finalize my collection. This creative collaboration will produce new visual languages and also even new unexpected space or exhibition.
The technology I used was the reinterpreting the traditional couture and millinery techniques. Many people abandon the old things because of time consuming and functional issues. I also want the techniques to survive again. The cute features which have been traditionally used and inherited is a ribbon, ruffles, and flowers. By practicing the traditional millinery and couture techniques with using velvet and silk to mold flowers, and ribbon foldings. These reinterpret the 17 to 18th century couture techniques to hybrid and futuristic versions by combining my dual aesthetic and concept.
I have to develop the system and data analysis to calculate the interviewers and testers who are all involved in this research. I had to know which fabrics with materials are useful for PTSD patients to be more comfortable and safe, as well as the customers too.
My challenge was creating visual realization of the concept of PTSD, which is a mental health. I collected many experiences and story from myself and others, study the medical and psychological treatment, and add aesthetic and functionality to the design realization.
I want to get a proof my design is not just a fashion, but also with function and story. Also, I wish many people to know about PTSD and hope to recover, saying "we can do it!"
I am also a PTSD patient, I had a bad accident while doing fashion and always nervous when I am doing fashion. I am also on the process of recovering, and become much better after completing my design collection. In this process, I had to meet many PTSD sufferers and that also leads me to open up my mind and design development much wider and deeper both as a human being and designer.
My second brand, Venus In Black is launching soon. We seek sustainable and ethical approach to the design and production process. The brands’ goal is to elevate the environmental human and animal friendly lifestyle, to work on enhancing animal rights, and to abandon toxic and non recycled materials, animal leather and furs. Moon Chang and Venus In Black promise to be a sustainable and ethical brand which is born with the love for coexistence with human and animal, and with human and nature.
Grand Interview about Hybrid Beauty Womenswear Collection
The title of the collection is Hybrid Beauty. Starting from my personal story, when I had PTSD, the death moment, I tend to go back to childhood to deal with this, also on the other word “Being Cute”. I used cuteness to survive the death situation. The cute features which have been survived from the past, and traditionally used and inherited, until present, are a ribbon, ruffles, and flowers. By practicing the traditional millinery and couture techniques with using velvet and silk to mold flowers, and ribbon foldings, I reinterpreted the 17 to 18th century couture techniques from the past to hybrid and futuristic versions, which is romantic, dark, but also eternal.
PTSD and mental health is a very heavy topic for fashion. I chose PTSD as the main concept of my collections because I found a hope that fashion has a healing power. This journey started with my personal experience being a victim of the fashion industry, fashion overcame my health. I realized this is not just my experience, it is for everyone who is in the fashion industry, moreover, people living in this society. I challenged myself to solve mental health from the perspective of a fashion designer. Therefore, my brand, Moon Chang, has a big overall theme, called Hybrid Beauty, which uses “fashion as the treatment of mental health", using “vulnerability and cuteness as the protective mechanism to fight against deadly stressful conditions in modern society.
While researching the history of couture and flower making, I came up with a way to create my own petals using 100-year-old brass metal. I wanted to incorporate time into my collection with timeless techniques, using historical tools along with new techniques to express my design aesthetic and vision.Definitely, it was difficult to find historical pieces in the United States, so I collected the molds overseas. Also, I found M&S Schmalberg, a historic handmade flower company in NYC, and they helped me create large blooms for my Hybrid Beauty collection. Every joint effort is born into a new flower of the past and future.
My aesthetic focus on the dichotomy between beauty and ugliness is an invaluable narrative of my own visual and psychological vocabulary. I love to play with the tension and dualism between aesthetic and senses. Also, I always challenge myself to break the stereotypes of beauty, especially in the fashion industry. Many people who desire fashion have become slaves to consume fashion products, and also are willing to nip and tuck their bodies to meet fashion’s standard beauty ideals. I saw many victims who were hurt by fashion. Therefore, my brand “Moon Chang” does not have distinctive sizes, we only have size 0, which means “no size”. I found beauty by building exaggerated and oversized silhouettes and textures for the human body as the symbols for breaking the norms and expectations of a female body and beauty standards in our society that we slave to.
While using flower bouquet packaging as a draping and pattern-making technique, I came up with the idea of human packaging. I use flowers as a symbol of humanity and a metaphor for universal beauty, empowering humanity through clothing, aesthetics, functionality, and durability.
PTSD and aesthetic judgments are closely related as they are both triggered through memory, stimulation, and perception in the brain. I collected many experiences from myself and others, studied the medical and psychological treatment including neurobiology, and added aesthetic and functionality. My collection looks beautiful externally, but inside of it, there are dark and sad experiences, and many researches behind it, which will evoke people’s empathy and curiosity. My mission as a designer is not to just make beautiful garments but I aimed to exercise materiality and fabric choices to heal the trauma.
My dual aesthetic, beauty v.s. Ugliness, and in love with wastes, and ugliness, this evolves into the shapes, materiality, and fabrications to illustrate the dreamy but dark fairytale, which reflects our life. I wish to portray that every existence in this world has both softness and toughness, and this concept led me to develop the concept of Hybrid Couture, which is the mix of beautiful couture and functional street or sportswear. And stereotypically, couture has been received as uncomfortable garments, or just for special occasions, and I wanted to challenge that couture can be functional and durable. I realized what I love, which is fashion, can hurt nature and humans ultimately, and it’s not sustainable. In the beginning, I believed the easiest way to be sustainable was choosing the right materials with durability, longevity, and of course aesthetic.
Black and Pink! I have two different personas as a person. One external side is black, dark, massive and oversized(maximalism). But the other is an internal and hidden one, who loves pink, something small and cute(minimalism). The color “black” is considered as “dead”. However, I think it is a forever color, and also the pink which represents youth and love, but this also can be a death. Breaking the original meanings of each color and embedding the new perspective. My interpretation of Pink tries to bring the hidden shy one out, as the process of overcoming the trauma. My binary perception illustrates the contrast of the beauty and the beast, the light of purity and the darkness of shadow, dead and alive, and the fantasy and the reality. And I believe all the girls used to love pink when they were kids, and suddenly forget about their princess dream when they become adults, and I design the clothes that girls dreamed of when they were kids.
Yes, winning the A'Design Award was a truly honorable moment and a great opportunity to share my wearable couture with a global audience. I always want to share the positive message that anyone can overcome trauma and that everyone is beautiful both physically and mentally. Through this experience, I was able to share wearable couture and healing fashion with the public, which motivated me to take on more challenges and explore more.
The future of my fashion design is wearable couture and empowerment, which means “life” in terms of “sustainability”. It means “sustainable life” and “eternity.” I believe my traditionally invented designs have healing power to help people who suffer from mental health, and this is the power for the future fashion. I wish to create the whole experience of creativity and sustainability, and my brand makes people beautiful but empowering in social and ethical ways.