Faded Paper

technical description

White panelled long knitted skirt with a coordinating overskirt/belt featuring vertical brick-color knitted elements, and a sleeveless oversized jacquard knitted top in white and brick with back fastening and 3D details. All knitted pieces are hand-crafted using the "3D suspended Jacquard knitting" methodology, which creates face-like cuts that appear to float, and "paper-cut knitting" with heat forming. The look is completed by two pairs of white knitted gloves with thermoformed floral details, a black studded choker with central floral motif, a hand-held accessory composed of thermoformed dolls, and high black patent leather boots.

concept

Traditional Chinese paper cutting in folk culture was historically used as a patriarchal tool to repress and limit women’s aspirations. Traditional motifs symbolized abundance through fertility, showing childbearing as the only way for rural women to ensure family status and a secure place in society. Yi Ding has reconstructed this craft through marvelously engineered knitwear, inventing a suspended jacquard knitting technique to achieve the three-dimensional “flying paper” effect, to represent the independent women that inspire her today, and the shackles they have cut through. The use of lace motifs is a homage to the courage and determination of her mother who runs a lingerie store in their hometown, working day and night to ensure financial independence. In Ding’s collection tradition gets to be preserved and reinvented at the same time.

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