Utopia He Kohinga by Yina Hwang is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 A' Design Award Hiriwa in Hoahoa Kākahu, Āhua me te Kākahu Competition Category.

HiriwaKākahu· 2020

Utopia He Kohinga

by Yina Hwang

Client: Yina Hwang

A' Design Award Hiriwa Winner in Kākahu Category

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Colors

The Design

About Utopia He Kohinga

I roto i tenei kohinga, ko Yina Hwang te mea i whakaaweahia e te ahua o te hangarite me te hangarite me te pa ki te ahurea puoro. I whakapaehia e ia tenei kohinga i runga i tana waa whakaurunga ki te hanga i tetahi kohinga o nga kakahu huatau me nga taputapu whai kiko hei hanga i nga korero o tona wheako. Ko nga tarai katoa me nga papanga i roto i te kaupapa ko te taketake me tana whakamahi i te hiako PU, Satin, Power Mash, me Spandex mo te turanga o nga papanga.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award Hiriwa

Ko Utopia He Kohinga te toa o te A' Design Award Hiriwa, he whakaaetanga tino whai mana e hoatu ana ki ngā hoahoa taumata teitei rawa, ātaahua me te whakamīharo. Ko ngā toa Hiriwa he mahi tino kanapa, tino auaha e whakaatu ana i te mātanga, te pūmanawa me te mōhio hōhonu o ā rātou kaihoahoa. E tūmanakohia ana ko Utopia He Kohinga he mahi whakamīharo, he tauira, he tino ngaio, he auaha hōhonu. Ko tēnei hoahoa i toa i te Hiriwa he hanganga rongonui, whakamīharotia e whai wāhi ana ki te whakawhānui i ngā rohe o te toi, te pūtaiao, te hoahoa me te hangarau. Ko Utopia He Kohinga he mahi e hae ana te tini, e whakaara ana i ngā hiahia, e kawe mai ana i ngā kare-ā-roto pai, ā, e whakaoho ana i te mīharo.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: The designer was brought up in a Korean society where everybody demanded perfection in appearance. Since young, her asymmetrical face made her feel like she was ugly or not up to society’s demand of perfection. That put her in a box where it restricted her freedom of thought and expression. Yina curated this collection based on her pivotal moment of self embracement while she was traveling the world in 2018, to create the functional yet abstract garments to embody the story of her experience.
Dimensions & Packaging: US size 2 to 6
Tags: Embracement, Self-empowerment, Balance, Symmetricity, Asymmetricity
Production Technology: To start this collection, I self-experimented by going towards the other end of the spectrum of what society views as “perfect” by using surgery tape to distort my physical appearance to lay down the foundation of what I will be creating. The distortion led to the collages. The collages led to the prints which also created the silhouettes to my initial prototypes. Every print and fabric in the project is original and I mainly used PU leather, Satin, Power Mash, and Spandex for the base of the fabrics.
Design Challenge: The challenge was getting the right prints on the right fabric. Every fabric has a different result of prints and has a different approach to sewing. I went through a series of fabric tests and garment prototypes to reach the final result.
Research: As I immersed myself into the underground music culture, I was inspired by how people with different backgrounds, shapes, colors, genders, and sexuality are embraced under one roof and it led me to a self-empowering moment. I researched its culture, how diverse people live and what they wear. These researches and experiments laid down the foundation of this project.
Inspiration: This project was mainly inspired by the shapes that are symmetric and asymmetric with a touch of underground music culture. Depending on the line of division, a symmetrical shape can be simultaneously asymmetric. It’s all about how you choose to perceive it. Every shape has its own beauty and every beauty has it’s own shape. This project aims to break down the wearer’s restriction for the freedom of expression, and help the wearers bring out their own spirits.
Project Duration: This project started in September 2018 and finished in January 2020 in New York and was presented in New York Fashion Week on February 7th, 2020 in New York, USA.
Operation Flow: Some of the garments can transform the shapes by attaching/detaching fabric panels using snaps.
Patents: Copyrights belong to Yina Hwang, 2020.
Image Credits: Image #1: Photographer John Carlo, 2019
Image #2: Photographer John Carlo, 2019
Image #3: Photographer John Carlo, 2019
Image #4: Photographer John Carlo, 2019
Image #5: Photographer John Carlo, 2019