Violet
Zhou

This collection is an exploration of emotional states and inner struggles. Each piece represents a different state of mind: angry, weighed-down, wounded, numb, and finally, emerging, taking the audience through various emotional challenges, and end on a hopeful note that she is overcoming them. A central theme interwoven through the collection is the sense of being confined and disabled, shown by the constraining nature of the garments. The wearers are unable to move much in them, and even are quite literally “sealed in” the fabrics. They are, however, not completely paralyzed by the garments, and when the wearers walk in them, their actions are analogies of the active battles with emotions, foreshadowing the final piece which depicts the emergence from the confinement of the inner world.