Emerging Melbourne designer Yuxi Lui’s graduate collection explores the sentimentality of jewellery

“I started to experiment with jewellery hiding, stuffing, piling, and how that created weird silhouettes on the body.”

As an official media partner of PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival, Fashion Journal is excited to once again be supporting the National Graduate Showcase x Emporium Melbourne, 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.

Looking for more fashion news and features? Head to our Fashion section.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be profiling each designer through a series of interviews. Next up is Yuxi Liu. Inspired by memories of her grandmother’s jewellery and by observing those around her, Yuxi’s designs fuse the sentimentality of jewellery with quality craftsmanship. Below, she tells us about her collection.

Please introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi there, my name is Yuxi. Most people would call me Zona instead. I am a recent Master of Fashion graduate from RMIT. I was born in China, now based in Melbourne. During the pandemic, I got the opportunity to work as a fashion designer assistant in Shanghai which allowed me to gain more professional experience. Now I’d say I’m lucky to have both industrial knowledge and academic knowledge. And I am very excited to practice more in this area.

Tell us about your collection.

My recent collection was mostly carried through from my observation of people around me, and I always had this passion for jewellery, so my attention was naturally coming to these wearable objects. During my design development process, I noticed there are actually so many stories I can tell. The one I always tell people is that my grandma used to wear her gold bracelet on her wrist but covered with an old scarf to avoid being noticed by jewellery thieves.

This made me start thinking, ‘Why do people wear jewellery? What value do we perceive from wearing jewellery? Are they passed down through the generations? Or do people like them just because they are worth a lot of money and look cute?’. When someone wears jewellery, is their personal value getting raised or not? What if people wear jewellery underneath their clothes, which is something most people do to their necklaces, are they still considered jewellery wearers?

Then I started to experiment with jewellery hiding, stuffing, piling, and how that created weird silhouettes on the body and how that action can suggest the emotional value of the jewellery. So you could see a lot of pockets designed on the garments, both exposed and internal, and the wearers can put in as many as items they want, at the positions they think are more important to them.

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

I think it kind of emerged during my high school. I was just simply attracted to fashion-related TV series and shows. Actually, maybe even much earlier. I can still remember when I was so little I was very much interested in my mum’s wardrobe and specifically her beaded black velvet jacket. There was also this princess dress-up game I played with my sister by wrapping around blankets and bed sheets on each other. Then when I was deciding on my major for uni I just knew fashion design was my thing.

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

I might have mentioned above that I do like observing people around me, such as their dressing behaviours, uncommon habits, fun moments… I find these overlooked things fascinating and powerful; they can somehow empower me and give me the drive to reflect on different topics.

The other thing I would say is my almost crazy attention to detail. I value craftsmanship a lot and I believe that that is something that couldn’t be replaced easily during fashion production. My research also always involves traditional hand-making techniques and constructions, even from other disciplines. To bring something new and even a bit quirky to the most ordinary items has always been the main theme in my design.

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

It was definitely a great experience, I was very satisfied to see the final outcomes that I achieved. But it was also a quite difficult year for me and I’d say my master’s year has been the most challenging year during my study, not only because I expected a lot from myself but also because the criteria were set pretty high.

Also, I think everyone who has worked in the fashion production process would understand what I mean. From research to designing, from material selection to sewing, they were all I did during the whole year. But again, I am very proud of what I did and it’s the collection that best represents me as a designer so far. I’d like to thank all the support from my friends and all the teaching staff!

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

I tried my best to select fabrics in natural materials that are produced in super high quality. They are very wearable and durable. I also mentioned that I like to design based on ordinary garments, and I believe that making beautiful, functional and durable clothes is one of the most practical ways to achieve sustainable fashion. So most of my designs are not over-decorated, you could basically pick several pieces and wear them in public without feeling like you’re watched all the time.

Who do you think is most exciting in Australian fashion right now?

I think it’s always the fresh graduates! They always show so much potential in what fashion can be. I can’t wait to see what my cohort will make in the future. Their graduation collections were all so different and I’m pretty sure people will be amazed to hear how they came up with their concepts and designs etc.

What about the Australian fashion industry needs to change?

I reckon it would be really nice if there could be more platforms to support international designers. I know some people around me couldn’t find jobs just because of their visa conditions so they ended up being forced into a whole different industry, I see it as a waste of their talents and time. I know that Australia is already a very open and inclusive country, however, I think there’s still more to be done to keep our fashion industry going even better.

Dream Australian collaborators?

For now, I don’t have anyone particular in mind, but I do want to collaborate with some photographers or videographers to further expand my work, graphic designers would be lovely too. I just like the idea of how far the work from one discipline can be translated onto a whole new level using another language, and I honestly don’t want my work to just pause because I graduated.

To view more of Yuxi’s work, head here. You can get your tickets to PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival’s National Graduate Showcase x Emporium Melbourne here.