May 18, 20202 min read

“Made in China” – Interview with stylist Carol Yang

Updated: May 26, 2020

Carol Yang has recently graduated from the Bachelor of Fashion at RMIT University. She has been studying fashion since 2014.

Her design focuses on using different dyeing techniques, exploring new methods to create visual effects such soft and hard silhouettes on the garments. Pushing Chinese fashion from ‘Made in China’ to ‘Designed in China’ is her purpose. Carol practice to rediscover the native traditional elements, and present the rich spiritual connotation of Chinese national characteristics in her design.

How has your story (background, life, growing up) influenced your brand?

Based on my nationality, China, most of my designs focus on the wearability and they are different from the mainstream displayed fashion. My background is made of diverse culture, so most of my inspiration comes from it. For example, my new design series, ‘Made in China’, recreates traditional Chinese elements and incorporates it into the design. This collection uses the dyeing process as the main technique in the design to present the rich dyeing Chinese culture.

How do you feel about the future of fashion?

From the perspective of my own country in recent years, people have begun to pay more attention to their style and the design trends of major fashion brands, I think that this is a good sign for the world of fashion. By the improvement of personal style, fashion is no longer for a few people, but for everyone. In my own view, the future of fashion will be more clearly divided into two areas, highly personalized fashion and generally recognized fashion.

What challenges have you faced within the industry?

For me, the biggest challenge is how to express my inspirations intuitively and creatively in my work. This part always takes me a lot of time, the process of transforming the fabric to the final draft is the most critical step for the whole collection.

In the process of being a designer, what has been the most valuable lesson that you’ve learnt?

The most valuable lesson I have learned from my four-year professional fashion design course is that, when you are inspired, you should express it in various ways, which can be patterns, colours, text and even sound. It should not just stop at clothes, these inspirations can be explored further and started to be combined and apply to the design.

What inspired you to work in the world of fashion?

When I see a garment, I always think about how to change it to become more unique and special, every ladies love beauty!

If you could send a message to brands about the value of sustainability and ethics, what would you tell them?

Reduce excessive packaging of clothes and don't design for the sake of design. Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is a typical example in the fashion world, as every year their fashion show sensationalizes the entire fashion circle, but because they cannot promote or sell these designs in a sustainable manner, each design would use three times textile than normal to improve the final prototype. This causes a huge garment waste.