BECOMING JOAN BY ANG ZHI HUI.

The designer and I palled when we both attended school together some three, four years ago, we met at a subway platform. It is always interesting to befriend a designer and to see their concept or aesthetic ‘evolve’ in such a short period of time. For Zhi Hui, she is no different. She wasn’t born with a silver spoon in mouth, making her graduation journey admirable.

‘Becoming Joan’ was the choice of theme, exploring Saint Joan of Arc’s timeline from childhood to warrior-days till death. The 13-piece collection was the result of exploring leading elements from the Saint’s history; armor, fire and ropes. (click here for runway looks)

Amour-like outers were piped to form a definite structure and ropes designs were implemented to macramé dresses. As for the fire element, it needed a lot of strenuous handwork that involves time-consuming process of dry felting. Dry felting is a tedious fabrication technique of agitating wool manually into the silk chiffon so as to achieve the desired fire effect. This represents the moment Saint Joan of Arc was burn at stake.

Apart from the clothing, the chained heels are an original design, especially custom made overseas. The idea was to make the accessories sellable while complimenting the collection.

It was fun catching up with an old friend and also, a joy to see one’s dream come true.

Images By Ridhwan Sesapar.

Dinie.