This year the students of Institut Français de la Mode were part of the official calendar of Paris Fashion Week® and opened the Fall/ Winter 2021/22 fashion week with their graduate show.
With experimentation being the connecting thread between all the collections, this year’s graduates presented craft-heavy pieces, with strong intellectual backdrops. Inspired by a vast array of references, it seems that the students were pushed to take risks and embrace their failures as the most crucial part of their process. It was refreshing to see garments that were not created to meet certain expectations, as this generation does not try to answer the question: “What do people want to wear?” Instead, the class of 2021 wants their work to be the reply to: “What will make fashion better?”
Mengche Chiang
Mengche Chiang
What was Mengche Chiang’s inspiration? “Paris!” Originally from Taipei, the designer started exploring the relationship between them and the City of Light. The elements of the collection, second-hand garments from Guerrisol and objects from Saint Ouen write a love letter to Paris. Smitten by the French word for garbage, “poubelle”, which for Chiang hides the word belle (beautiful), the collection, which gives the impression of disarray, is visually linked to the city’s “ugly charm”; the dirty corners and the torn metro posters. Playing with the idea of repurposing, Chiang’s pieces are fluid volumes that feel interchangeable, just like the fleeting moments of the city.
Mathieu Goosse
Mathieu Goosse
Mathieu Goosse
With a background in Industrial Design, Mathieu Goose moved to fashion and IFM to enthusiastically pursue the themes that inspire him the most: Reducing, exhaustion, love, and fragility. Questioning what fuels our obsessions, Goosse puts himself in a personal relationship with the garment. Instead of visual mood boards, Mathieu is looking at emotions and senses in order to start creating his collections. With materials being the priority, sanded silk, peeling python skin, and recycled denim make up a precise set of looks in metallic tones and vivid colours. What are Mathieu’s plans after IFM? “Keep going!”
Jen-Hsin Hsieh
Jen-Hsin Hsieh
Deeply inspired by William Blake’s poem collection “Songs of innocence and experience”, Taiwan-born designer Jen-Hsin creates a universe around the lyrical ruling of “showing the two contrary states of the Human Soul.” Visualising his poetic references through draping and combining it with traditional tailoring, Hsieh would describe their collection in one word: Melancholy.
Luhui Miao
Luhui Miao
Luhui Miao
Inspired by gay porn, Chinese designer Luhui Miao wanted to create garments that depict all the things we hide about ourselves and the ways that we choose to reveal our true identities through clothing. Miao’s black-toned designs give a choice to the wearer by being able to change the shape of the pieces from sexy to modest and vice versa. “The virus made me think about how short life is- we should just do what we want and dress however we want to,” Miao shares. After IFM Luhui wants to explore the possibility of starting a brand but only after learning more about the business of fashion.
Tang Tsung Chien
Tang Tsung Chien
Tang Tsung Chien
“A home is a kingdom of its own in the midst of the world, a stronghold amid life’s storms and stresses, a refuge, even a sanctuary.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)
Graduating from the BA in Textile and material design at the technique-focused Ecole Duperré and being a 2019 finalist at the Festival d’Hyeres, Tang Tsung Chien designs by making. Completing the MA from home in Taiwan, due to the pandemic, Chien’s collection is deeply influenced by the childhood memory of “dreaming of a future of prosperity”, a concept that led them to the name of the collection: “Kingdom Come”. Mixing the raw with the refined, all materials in the line-up are presented as equals. In contrast with many current students Tang has a unique way of looking at the current climate: “I have spent half of my MA working from home. I have really enjoyed the freedom to make things that are close to my heart. It gives me happiness and peace. I am very grateful.”
