Designer Profile 2023: Jin Tuan
With its unsettled winter as usual, UChicago welcomes its very own 2023 MODA fashion show, joining the February fashion gala along with London, Milan, and Paris. On a Chicago-windy day last week, I sat down with Jin Tuan, one of the new designers this year, in Ex Libris to learn about her story of exploring identity, design collections, and other experiences in MODA.
Tell me about yourself!
I’m Jin, a second-year majoring in psychology with minors in computer science and visual arts. I’m from Cupertino, California.
What made you decide to become a designer?
I've been interested in fashion since I was a little kid. It started off with my mom dressing me up for school, who has a huge collection of scarves. So I used to be really interested in how to fold the rectangle into something that I could use as clothes. Then I got to learn about designers and the history of luxury brands – that’s how I started off. As I grew older and started to understand who I was in this world, I went more down to the avant-garde path or at least less of the big brand names.
I’ve been wanting to make clothes for a really long time and started sketching designs specifically in lower school. Over quarantine, I realized I had a lot more time, and MODA seemed to be a good place to give myself a little push since it’s more organized and I can do it with other people.
image courtesy of Jin
What are three words that describe your design this year?
Personalized, bold, spontaneous.
Tell us about your collection!
I started off with a theme of wanting to explore the space beyond and in between binaries. As a queer person, I realized that existing as who I am has caused me to question the world around me more than if I were to just have been comfortable with being a cis girl or being straight. This type of questioning is what I want to raise with my inspirations and materials in hand – to represent me in my collection. For example, using the scarves to mold the rectangles into a shape that fits the body or transforms the body in one way, or using not only traditional tailoring techniques like darts, slashing, and patterns, but also an almost free-handing way to subvert these western techniques in a way that is unexpected, or at least truer to who I am and where I come from.
However, instead of celebrating myself and making everything about my own personality and world, I later decided to celebrate my models. I chose them based on their vibes and interviewed them to understand who they were, where they came from, and what their personalities were like. The design is personalized to them and a showcase of their individualities, which are translated through my style and my design vision.
A transition from a self-portrait to a portrait of people around me.
image courtesy of Jin
What is your design process? How do you start thinking about an idea and realize it?
In general, my designs come to me intuitively, and a lot of times happen to be nature or geometric shapes. I tried to incorporate the inspiration into something that fits on a body, in the sense that I can choose two or three different things that I want to represent in a look. Then I made a lot of iterations of one design, either on paper or in my head. That's always the first step after inspiration.
Secondarily, I fine-tune what would work and what wouldn't work, because I think there's a big difference between something that's two-dimensional versus three-dimensional. Based on the way that fabrics drape, and what fabrics I have on hand, I'll change and adapt.
For example, I'm using the concept behind Japanese tanmono, taking rectangles of fabric directly off the loom and manipulating rectangles, not cutting [into] them so that they become the clothing that you see. What I want to do was simply the way that I go.
image courtesy of Jin
Where do you draw your inspiration from? A specific designer, a mood, a place, etc.
There are too many fashion creatives who inspire me. But one of my earliest fashion icons was Alexander McQueen. I enjoy the fact that whenever he makes a controversial statement, it always has depth and doesn’t ever fall flat. Rather than a simple spectacle, there's always a conversation that can be taken from it. I enjoy it when people use unconventional materials that aren't supposed to be for that purpose and adapt to the purpose they want. Over the past two years, I've gotten more into avant-garde fashion and different cultural clothing. Seeing what daily casual wear and formal wear are like in different cultures is also interesting to me.
My collection this year is very much reflective of my long-term inspirations. Style-wise, I have been subconsciously influenced by these very specific fashion brands, fashion houses, and trends. But just if I am designing something for myself, it is always something that is existing in the world with me and that I happen to notice.
Essentially, I tried to crystallize each of the personalities into a single moment or instance that I can capture in fashion. For example, one of them was like moonlight, filtering through like trees onto a river that I wanted to capture in my clothing. The collection includes both nature and the antithesis of nature in the artificial, but after all, everything comes back to celebrating what makes up an individual.
Faye Toogood, Assemblage 6: Unlearning
What is the greatest challenge you encountered throughout the process? How did you overcome it?
Frankly, one of the greatest challenges is time management. It’s tough to balance the work of a UChicago student, a designer, and all other extracurricular activities. MODA becomes my excuse to put my time into creative work.
Getting started is also really daunting - but just “getting over it!” That's what I told myself. As long as something’s out there, I can always improve on it, going with the flow and seeing how things work out.
Looking back at the journey you went through this year, what have you learned and what’s the biggest reward you gain?
The thing that I learned the most is finding cohesion in a collection. Since my inspiration is so random and sourced from everywhere, it's really hard to find something in common besides the fact that it's all my creation. A part of it was learning to let go of needing a perfect plan and letting the pieces fall into place and finding cohesion afterward. The other part was thinking about setting myself up for success. There are certain techniques that I can use to prime myself so that I can eventually find that one common string running through everything.
Embrace the chaos and trust the process, and everything will come together.
Any advice for those who want to be a designer next year?
DBC is good because it can promote competence. You’ll have a group of people create with you, and it also teaches you skills. Beyond that, it gives you a space to explore. To anybody who wants to be a designer, I would say make your own space to explore, and failure can always be reframed as artistic liberty.
A few words for the MODA fashion show audience?
As cliche as it is, dress like yourself!
Find a facet of yourself that you want to emphasize and play it up for a day. You can always change clothes, but you can't change yourself.
image courtesy of Jin
