Extending the traditional boundaries of fashion designing in the virtual world, we have begun on taking digital revolution for the upgraded expressions. As fashion stretches its approach through technology, designs of Yimeng Yu with her paradoxical concepts take us on further brims of imaginations.

Hi Yimeng, let's start with your upbringing and the first instances of you exploring your creative endeavors. Please take us through the memory lane of your growing-up phase.

I am Yimeng Yu, based in Beijing, China, an interdisciplinary fashion designer and artist focusing on the future of fashion, accessories and materials. I graduated from Royal College of Art, MA Fashion and I am currently the fashion design director in Central Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design. My research includes computational design and digital fabrication, smart textiles and wearable technology, future fashion system and business model.

At present, in the context of post-pandemic era, my main research concentrates more on the digital landscape, exploring and extending the possibilities of fashion design, trying to break the boundary of physical limits of materials, structures and exhibition ways in fashion design.

I have been integrating digital methods into many of my research in different level and aspects, so it is hard to define which practice is my first instance or which one is the most important one. But there have been three stages of research relates to my fashion design experience. In the beginning, when I was in my BA study, I paid more attention on physical garment making, and in my BA graduation collection, I made a series of interactive fashion design which can sense the incoming of people and react with lights and form changes.

In my MA study, I focus on more the business model developing and products system building, and in my MA graduation design, I finished a customizable clothing system which provides the garment assets, tools and methods that allows individuals to choose, assemble and transform the garments as they wish. At last, which I mean now, I stepped into fully digital design and production, which contains two sides, one is digital design for 3D printing and one is digital design exists only in virtual world.

Pursuing Arts and bringing imaginations into visual reality. Please talk about your artistic and creative influences and inspirations.

As I said before, I stepped into fully digital fashion design for my recent research. The covid-19 was a trigger to push me pay more time on digital, but I gradually found out the hidden beauty of digital fashion design and I feel it is so powerful, sustainable and inevitable.

In the digital landscape, there is no physical limit so it becomes a perfect way of art creation, also digital tool can create something even beyond people’s imagination, because it is based on algorithm and codes, I enjoy the way of exploring in digital world to find new forms, new materials and new visuals, and using my aesthetics and art sense to create fully new things.

Speak to my specific work, apart from my previous physical fashion design experience, which I could do the same in digital world, there is one more thing special in my fully digital design pathway, my digital artwork mainly focus on parametric design, and I like to setting rules for machine to generate the design. I am addicted to algorithm design and I like using “order” to create “disorder”, I like to balance the contrary, the creation core reveals in my works very obviously, my work always integrates the hardness and the softness, the darkness and elegance, the controls and uncontrollable.

Is fashion art in your world? Since it is mostly digital and can only be experienced virtually, what are you wanting to improve or develop exquisitely?

In my world, I divided fashion into two parts, one is fashion design and the other is fashion art. Fashion design is more practical and fashion art is more about the spiritual, I do both of them but I think you might want to talk more about digital fashion art? Yes, for now, most digital fashion experiences still exist in online world, for people to wear and sharing through social media, but the research of bringing digital fashion into real world in this industry has been developing constantly.

For now, apart from the 2D photo dressing, the AR filter fitting is mature for the 3D dressing and the boundary of virtual and reality is blur. For my next step, I would like to fully bring my digital design into reality which means what you can wear digitally, you can also get in real life, physically.

Can you tell us about your conceptualizations? The garments look a lot like costumes from fantasy worlds. Where do you see your work progressing from here?

Yes, like I talked before, the creation in digital world has no limits, so I can make it super exaggerated and fantastic and that is why digital fashion is so attractive for me, I always like using art as a way to explore mysteries and invisible connections, and my concepts always coming from this.

Most of my work concepts and inspirations come from the macro universe and micro-organism, I like to imagine and show the “unseen” in the universe, and I like the fractal geometry in nature worlds.

If you were to give yourself a challenge, what would that be and why?

Well, I think every new work for me is a challenge and I am always challenging myself, trying what I haven’t done before. So, I would consider every new attempt of creating new art form to be a challenge, I like to try new methods, learn new skills and explore new aesthetics.

If each artwork and garment had superpowers - as it very much looks so, which one would be your favorite and why?

As I have been experimenting new works all the time, so I have to say that “the next one” would be my favorite one. Cause I am always wanting to extend my potential of creating art.

Would you like to tell us about your recent favorite movies and music artists?

I think this question is quite linked to the last one, I do love superpowers. I like MARVEL studios’ movie and I like to see superhero, and I like the fantasy scene in this kind of movie, which can inspire me a lot and make me excited.

As for the music artists, I like to listen to dark-trap at the moment, my favorite music artist is a Chinese music producer anti-general. Apart from that, I love classical music as well, I think it is the very opposite style but just like my artworks, I like the balance and the integration of contrast.

What art is for you personally? What do you resonate the most with?

I think art is something emotional and spiritual, it relates to culture, to the subconscious mind, to some opinions that an individual wants to express. Art for a person is a way to find and express their inner self. When you like an art, you might find there is something similar with yourself or your hidden self. When you create an art, you might just make what’s inside you visible.

Last but not least, what are the new concepts you’re looking forward to working on?

I am working on my new collection, and it will continue my workflow and aesthetics, the algorithm driven design. Coming from math but ending with art, which are the combination of ration and emotion, order and disorder, machine and nature. and I’ve been working with some brands and company to develop collaborative NFTs and digital collections as well, will be released very soon.