The Next Unbreakable

Two things that I clocked having been to a few London College of Fashion MA Fashion shows – the growing number of outstanding menswear fashion graduates (14 menswear designers out of this year's crop of 22 showing students), the growing number of students who are of Chinese or Hong Kong origin.  I don't fiendishly monitor the ethnic backgrounds of students but this year interestingly there were a few Chinese graduates, particularly from the Fashion Artefact course, that took nuances of heritage and tradition to integrate into their work that seems somehow all too timely with what I was saying in my lengthy chinoiserie query as well as refreshing from a design point of view. 

Wei Wang's accessories were the first to troop out to accompany Joanne Power's MA collection – a perfect pairing in impactful yet clean lines.  His motive for creating his ceramic bags were twofold. "I am interested in both of bag and jewellery design, I thought it would be a good idea to combine these two objects to become a jewellery bag. After doing a lot research, the evening bag came into mind. On one hand, it is precious, which is suitable for the idea of the "jewellery bag". On the other hands, as a small but important fashion icon, an evening bag‚Äôs culture and identity functions become more and more important. It was crucial key to to inject new and vibrant elements into cultural function of an evening bag." 

Whilst "bag" might seem like too functional a word for these bijoux creations, which do in fact combine the qualities of purely decorative jewellery as well as the pocket space of a bag, Wang did also go at it from the point of view of of a product designer rather than being inspired by an abstract idea. "As a productive person, I believe “design requirements” are more important than inspiration. “Suitable” is the best. Therefore, I always like to choose object first and then using “requirements” to develop the function, material and social role."

The decision to use ceramics was supposedly made out of subtraction deeming bamboo, wood or jade to be too plain (again, interesting to see that the focus are on traditionally Chinese-associated materials) and metal too hard.  "Finally, I found ceramics had the right feminine character – elegant, unique, unpredictable and growing more precious as time passes. These elements match the evening clutch perfectly, no matter what function or social status."  The last phrase is also an intriguing one.  I suppose ceramics isn't ostentatious stemming from the fact that its primary use is for pottery, for providing vessels for the basic necessities of food and water.  

The process itself was an arduous one given that it was a basically trial and error as well as dusting down the clay ash and trying and trying again.  The pieces aboe show just a few of the prototypes and trials that Wang had to produce to obtain the right shapes.  "I used the most traditional Chinese technique of handmade ceramics with contemporary metal frame fixing. You can see the contrast from the techniques. It looks very easy and simple, but every tiny problem would lead to a fatally wrong result. I did some changes in my design and developed some ceramics making techniques after discussing with ceramics makers and metal professionals.  Ceramics is not like metal or plastic, you can make any shape what you want."  Wang actually likens ceramics to a fascinating woman, deeming the material something like playing hard to get with him having to invest emotion, patience and time to truly understand the full qualities of this delicate substance.

Fortunately Wang yieled a great deal of results by putting a heaping amount of TLC into his work and these jewellery/bag hybrids are mesmerising to look at as well as intriguing enough for most people to want to pick it up, verify its function and go on to using it.  It goes along with my firm belief that miniaudiere (ornamental small bags) aren't frivolous objects but rather something that just puts maximum visual impact into a bag.  I know my Oyster card, debit card, keys and phone could find a home in one these with ease.  Wang is keen to take this technique further and he says that he is hopeful for a sponsor who can help him perfect the product as he has picked up a ton of new ideas in the process of making this collection.  Different sizes?  Colours?  Different ceramic finishes?  Embellishments?  It could go on…