Abi Millen

My Final collection explores the Hong Kong protest whilst looking at controversial protest artist Ai Weiwei. The two elements to my collection show the juxtaposition and political clash often observed during protests between authorities and society.
One element included the use of traditional suiting, recreating them in new and experimental ways. This inspiration originated from Ai Weiwei’s book ‘New York1983-1993’ whereby the image ‘Wang Keping + Ai Weiwei’ sparked perception attached to the traditional garment and the power it suggests. Alongside this I studied the Umbrella Movement formulated during the Hong Kong protest. Exploring the use of umbrellas in the protests as protective wear and bringing the silhottes and fabric into the collection as sportswear. I created a range of umbrella sleeves and dresses taking the original umbrella pattern pieces and draping this to create a wearable outfit.
Sustainability was an element I wanted to bring into my collection. I reached out to umbrella companies including Barbour to enquire about any deadstock of fabric they no long wanted to up-recycle for my collection. Thankfully I’ve been able to make all my umbrella sports elements from Barbour’s upcycled fabrics.
“The word suit derives from the French suite, meaning "following", from some Late Latin derivative form of the Latin verb sequor = "I follow", because the component garments (jacket and trousers and waistcoat) follow each other and have the same cloth and colour and are worn together.”[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suit]