DESIGN STATEMENT

As a fashion designer from an immigrant background, my work draws heavily from experiences such as ostracization and the feeling of being an outsider. My four look graduate capsule collection for RMIT’s Bachelor of Fashion (Design) - titled “What It Feels Like For A Boy” the collection is an exploration of masculinity and existing societal expectations of “manliness”. 

RESEARCH & INSPIRATIONS

Challenging Stereotypes

Fashion offers a powerful platform to challenge rigid ideals of masculinity, often associated with strength, dominance, and muscularity. Traditional Western menswear has perpetuated the V-shaped silhouette—broad shoulders, padded chests, and narrow waists—symbolizing societal expectations around gender, sexuality, class, and power. My work disrupts these conventions by combining exaggerated muscularity with feminine details like embroidery and appliqué in tailoring and sportswear. These parodic designs question the relevance of such ideals and encourage conversations about masculinity in contemporary culture.

Inspired by Thom Browne, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Walter Van Beirendonck, my collection addresses critical issues of gender, body image, and mental health. By exploring masculinity, I challenge the hyper-sexualization of male bodies and promote representation and inclusivity, contributing to evolving cultural dialogues.

Slow Fashion and Sustainability

Committed to sustainability and craftsmanship, I incorporate hand-making techniques like needle felting, trapunto quilting, and wet leather molding. Needle felting, used across the collection, joins fabric remnants and adds rich texture, blending tradition with innovation. Upcycled materials, such as a basketball tank (Look 1) and a knitted sweater (Look 2), further emphasize circularity. Through artisanal methods, my collection bridges strength and sensitivity, redefining masculinity through material and design.

PROCESS & TECHNIQUES

For my graduate menswear collection, I employ three artisanal techniques to explore masculinity through material and form. Needle felting adds texture and joins fabric remnants, blending structured tailoring with handcrafted details to challenge traditional masculine archetypes. Wet-molding leather shapes vegetable-tanned leather into exaggerated forms, such as a tote bag with a torso design and dumbbell handles, symbolizing societal pressures on men to embody strength and perfection. Trapunto quilting, inspired by Elsa Schiaparelli’s Skeleton Dress, creates a raised, padded effect on wool fabric to mimic muscles, seen in the collection’s first look tailored jacket. These methods critique rigid ideals of masculinity and body image.

FINAL OUTCOMES

The first look in my collection satirizes the idealized male physique perpetuated by gym and social media culture. It critiques unattainable beauty standards linked to body dysmorphia. Using the trapunto technique, I embedded the illusion of a muscular torso into a tailored single-breasted wool jacket. Paired with an upcycled sports tank, cut-off denim shorts, and tailored trousers, the look parodies the “jock” and upwardly mobile professional archetypes.

The second look explores softer masculinity, incorporating traditionally feminine details like embroidery and appliqué into menswear. A needle-felted wool overcoat and twin set challenge gendered expectations of texture and adornment, questioning what is considered feminine or butch.

The third look merges tailored blazers, sporty bomber jackets, and mechanic overalls, disrupting stereotypes of class and masculinity. This hybrid design fuses refinement with ruggedness, blending white-blue-collar aesthetics to challenge rigid societal norms and enable new expressions of identity.

The final look merges men’s tailoring and tuxedo styles with women’s corsetry. The trapunto technique is used to create the 3D effect of the male torso in the vest and weight lifting dumbbells in the shoulders of the jacket personifying the idea of “carrying weights on the shoulders”. The bow tie is replaced by a phalenopsis orchid and tuxedo pants are reimagined as tailored shorts.

For my graduate collection, I designed a bag blending a “muscle gym bag” and shopping tote. Crafted from wet-molded, vegetable-tanned leather, its torso-like shape critiques idealized male forms while merging traditionally gendered activities, such as working out and shopping, to subvert masculine stereotypes.