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Yiran Zhou’s gothic graduate collection explores the symbiotic relationship between identical twins

IMAGES VIA YIRAN ZHOU

WORDS BY IZZY WIGHT

“My twin sister inspires me, and this collection reflects our relationship.”

The intrinsic, almost telepathic connection between twins is something most of us will never understand. This is why RMIT fashion graduate and designer, Yiran Zhou, is exploring her twin relationship through art. “My twin sister inspires me,” she says. “… My way of explaining our relationship is [that] we can be reversed, mirrored or separated.”

Using cyanotype print and digital art, Yiran created her graduate collection, Twinning, to explore the positive and negative sides of reversed identity. Inspired by gothic romanticism, film noir and the anonymity of uniform, Twinning is about being both eerily similar and vastly different.


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As an official media partner of Paypal Melbourne Fashion FestivalFashion Journal is excited to once again be supporting the National Graduate Showcase, celebrating Australia’s top-ranked emerging fashion design talent. The top 10 leading graduates from across the country will exhibit their collections in a boundary-pushing presentation, showcasing experimental design and innovation. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be profiling each designer through a series of interviews. Next up is Jason Clark.

Please introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Yiran Zhou. I’m a freelance artist and [I recently] graduated from RMIT with a Bachelor of Fashion Design (Honours) Degree. I design garments and jewellery and create fashion images. So for me, fashion is a medium for creating art. Also, fashion leads me to feel art. My works aim to explore gothic romanticism, brimming with noir tones. I am trying to create a unique style in the fashion industry.

Tell us about your collection.

My collection is called Twinning. My twin sister inspires me, and this collection reflects our relationship. I know lots of fashion brands and designers used twins as a theme [right now]… like Gucci’s Twinsburg collection and some collections from Jun Takahashi and Rei Kawakubo.

Twinning is not just two models wearing the same garments and holding hands… from my perspective, those are not twins, so I call them ‘twin observers’. It was like how others thought about the relationship between twins. As the ‘truth twins’, my way of explaining our relationship is [that] we can be reversed, mirrored or separated. We also repeat, share, and do everything together.

My sister and I are born from one unit, and we are the same person genetically. But my sister and I have been quite different since we were small. We are just like reversed identities… so, I made this whole collection a uniform-liked silhouette, using jackets, pleated skirts, ties, belts and watches.

When did you know you wanted to get into fashion and textile design?

I started to figure out how patterns were made and unintentionally checked all the design details when I looked at my garments. At that moment, I knew I belonged here.

What were the major points of inspiration for your collection, and you more broadly as a designer?

I gain inspiration from multiple art pieces, like painting and literature. I always transfer some techniques from another subject area. Like I used cyanotype to create textiles, it was [originally] used for photographs. My work interests include investigations of human emotion, death and the human body in a noir tone.

How were digital art and cyanotype used in your design process? 

Well, digital art is another story. I will talk about the cyanotype first. So, in my design, I aimed to create an x-ray print to explore the negative side of an object. I used cyanotype to imitate the x-ray. However, due to weather reasons, I chose to use the cyanotype template to make a digital print. But I think it still looks good.

The digital fashion image is just another way for me to create an art piece. Creating virtual fashion helped me achieve [my] sustainable goals and [helps me to do things] that would be hard to do in the real world. I can create my own aesthetic and characters in the digital world.

Tell us about the experience of putting together your graduate collection.

I had imagined that it would be a very hard year. I have to say it was hard, but it was a valuable process. And I had an amazing learning experience at RMIT this year. Many thanks to the RMIT teaching team and my tutors Blake Barns, Peter Boyd and Chantal Kirby. They gave me a lot of support and encouragement. Also, Nirma Madhoo inspired me with digital works. I’m glad I met them in my life.

What part does sustainability play in your design practice? And other ethical considerations?

The entire collection is made with natural fabrics. The internal structure of the clothes is made of waste fabric. All the accessories are from the secondhand markets, and I remade them into new ones.

Dream Australian collaborators?

I’m doing lots of digital work right now, so I guess… I want to work with Justin Ridler. In the fashion industry, I would like to work with Song for the Mute.

Some of Yiran’s responses have been edited for clarity. To view more of the designer’s work, head here.

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