River To Ocean Wearable Sculpture

Press Kit

Unique Properties

Nie teamed up with fashion designer Qiongxin Kou to create the collection River to Ocean which debuted at London Fashion Week 2020. River to Ocean combines Kou’s textile work with Nie's 3D printed sculptures that resemble splashing liquid frozen in time. The models were Nie's 3D design and sculptures as hats, vests, and decorations on their shoes.
The wearable sculptures mimic different forms in moments of how water drops on flowers or collide with rocks.

Dimensions & Packaging

Hat: Width 300mm x Depth 300mm x Height 400mm
Vest: Width 600mm x Depth 600mm x Height 800mm

Tags

Sculpture, functional sculpture, wearable sculpture, art, craftworks

Production Technology

The hat and the vest are created and designed in 3D software first, then 3d printed into small parts using raisin material, and finally painted, assembled and crated by hand as a wearable sculpture.

Design Challenge

The biggest challenge here is to transform the sculpture into a wearable and comfortable hat and vest. The piece is designed to be able to break down into small pieces and easily and freely assemble back into different forms, giving the vest a more dynamic look, also easy to carry out and recycle.

Project Duration

“River To Ocean” is made for and showcased in London Fashion Week 2020 F/W. It started in December 2019 and ends in February 2020. The whole making process had been done in New York and California.

Operation Flow

The wearable sculptures are designed to be worn or displayed in a gallery. They are in big silhouettes but fairly light weight. With putting on the 3D printing piece, you can flexibly move but need to pay attention to things around you due to its volume structure. The multiple branches of the vest are designed in a way to be easily broken down and restructured into new forms.

Research

These wearable sculptures explore the way to make sculpture into wearable art frozen in time, material friendly, and non-unidirectional value under the balance between the ecosystem and the human body. It carries out experiments on its development potentials and various techniques of 3d manufacturing process based on the resin materials. The combination of fashion and sculpture remade the piece as mixed media for artworks, giving people strength and contemplation while wearing or looking at it.
In fact, to accept self or see who we really are is the most challenging thing in life, many people use their whole lives to compromise with themselves, to heal the pain they got from childhood hard memories or frustrating time that had destroyed their confidences. To know, to see and to accept oneself could create beautiful moments in life, this principle will release so much pain and build so much courage and brightness, and this goal forms the essential thought for this collection.
The inspiration of the hat comes from the water drops on the flower, splashes, and frozen in the air, this is the birth of life. For the vest, it’s the moment the river flowing into the ocean, colliding with the rocks, breaking apart, frozen in time, this is the struggle of life.
To use sculpture to memorize these important moments in life and then wear it in the body is a healing journey and also a form of newborn.

Inspiration

“River To Ocean”, seeing who you are while flowing your way. This concept is a metaphor to illustrate the moment in life that one who finally finds a true self throughout his/her past experiences. As a Chinese proverb has said, “The small me meets the big me” which means that one will bravely face up to and accept true selves throughout what he or she has experienced.

Image Credits

Yiyao Nie
Qiongxin Kou

Patents

Yiyao Nie

Colors of River To Ocean Wearable Sculpture

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