Junyu Liu

The collection draws inspiration from Éric Rohmer’s 1967 film La Collectionneuse, the fourth installment in his Six Moral Tales series and his first film in color. Set in a villa perched on the hills of Saint-Tropez in the French Riviera, the story follows two young men—Adrien, who prides himself on being rational and self-restrained, and his friend Daniel. They expect to enjoy a quiet, relaxing holiday away from female distractions, but soon Haydée, a free-spirited, spontaneous young woman, moves into the villa. Changing male companions daily, she is labeled by the two men as “the collector”—a woman who collects lovers. As the three coexist, Adrien becomes increasingly entangled in his feelings and desires for Haydée, all the while attempting to suppress them through a sense of moral superiority and reason. Through subtle dialogue and psychological tension, the film explores the self-justifications people create around desire, freedom, and self-control.

"While You Were Sleeping" is a fashion collection that revolves around the dynamic tension between desire and rationality. It seeks to capture the psychological landscape of individuals oscillating between longing and self-restraint, translating this complex emotional structure into a wearable language. Rather than narrating a complete love story, the collection focuses on the subtle inner states that emerge in moments of waiting, fantasizing, discerning, and deciding. The garments—dresses, wide-leg trousers, vests, and jackets—serve as foundational pieces, through which symbolic alterations in silhouette and print express the fluidity of inner emotions.

Ultimately, this collection does not aim to choose between desire and reason, but rather to explore how the two coexist in our daily decisions of what to wear: what we put on reflects what we long for—and how much of that longing we choose to reveal.