Ran Bi’s Thesis Collection: Exploring the beauty in engineering, components and time

Throughout his childhood, Ran had been curious how machine functions. He and his father disassembled some mechanical structures and reassembled them, sometimes replacing a machine’s component that changed its function. This logic, he found these days, can produce similarly interesting outcomes if applied to fashion design. Much like engineering, clothes are constructed via cutting and joining individual pieces. Taking them apart and joining some to different clothes produce an abundance of repurposed looks.

He started partitioning, first by researching old or worn garments. He viewed these clothes as the most original that retain evidences of time and experiences. Deconstructing them and studying them carefully, he was soon able to tell the provenance of detached clothing parts through their details, cutting styles and shapes.

Suits are very much about fitted cuts and tailoring. They look beautifully straight due to complicated lining structures and perfectly shaped sleeves. Bomber jackets are characteristic of ribbed elastic cuffs and a puffy contour. Sweat shirt are made of a special cotton fabric named loopback jersey. Field jacket, with credited functionality, is made of waterproof materials. Ran understands clothing parts and characteristics as mechanic components. A sleeve is a product in its own right.

Throughout the design process, he developed a “component library”. Looking beyond sportiness, he seeks to express versatility with elegance and to create a beauty that is about joining and disjoining, complete and incomplete. A special experience is created for his wearers through the purposefully disjoined garments, allowing them to wonder and imagine what things could fill or join in there. Ran enjoys the process of assembling and disassembling, which he felt is the subconsciousness that guides him through design.

Special fabrics were employed for their durability and industrial aesthetic. Ran’s feeling for a classic, durable coat resembles that of sleeping in old, used bed sheets which become softer and more comfortable after years of usage and frequent washes. Therefore, he washed his fabrics with water and dyed them to create a comfortable and nostalgic feel. He made frequent visits to secondhand stores and hardware shops, making sense of the shapes of older garments. Many are deformed to some degree due to long time wearing, particularly cotton clothes. He found old pants maintain a leg-like shape if not washed or ironed. They look as if motor-cyclers’s ridding pants that are designed to have a built-in shape. This aesthetic and function discovery inspired him to use rubber coating in his design to maintain and emphasize shape, a process he named as pre-stretch. Stretching fabrics first and then applying rubber. When the rubber dries, a shape is achieved. Just like using hair fixture/spray, quite interesting, he found.