F0x-Δreamer

Ningxuan Liu

Summary
Final work

I am a young designer who recently graduated from the UAL, London College of Fashion’s BA (Hons) Costume for Performance major. I will attend California College of the Arts in Autumn 2025 for my MFA in Graphic Design.

In my undergraduate studies, I majored in Costume for Performance, which laid a solid foundation in art and enlightened me that the core of artistic creation lies in having a deep dialogue with the audience through visual elements. I also benefited greatly from the multiple cross-disciplinary collaborations during my undergraduate studies. I completed several interdisciplinary projects with students majoring in makeup and hair design. In these projects, I learned how to integrate the professional advantages of different fields into one work to create a more expressive and layered visual effect.

In the meantime, I was also an intern in the account team in Ogilvy Beijing during the summer vacation of my sophomore year. I was deeply engaged in two official advertising projects for Mercedes-Benz. These experiences not only improved my teamwork ability but also gave me a deeper understanding of the application scenarios of graphic design in multiple fields and how to identify customer needs, link supplier solutions to those needs, provide the voice of the customer to the supplier organisation and manage the customer relationship.

As I engaged in more diverse media and forms of art and design, I gradually realised that the discipline of visual communication design could reach a wider audience and inspire unlimited creative possibilities through various media carriers. This desire for horizontal expansion, as well as my interest in the commonality between visual communication design and costume design in communicating concepts, made me decide to pursue postgraduate education in the field of visual communication design, hoping to enhance my professional ability and artistic vision further.

I am a young designer who recently graduated from the UAL, London College of Fashion

CollegeLondon College of Fashion
CourseBA (Hons) Costume for Performance
Graduation year2025

This project is inspired by the Chinese folktale The Fox Bride from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Liaozhai Zhiyi), a Qing dynasty collection of supernatural stories by Pu Songling. In the original tale, a fox spirit dressed as a bride appears in a mysterious wedding procession, blending illusion and ritual.These stories often explore blurred boundaries between human and spirit, using female figures such as fox spirits and ghosts to examine desire, social tension, and alternative identities (Zeitlin, 1993). Drawing from this narrative, the project reimagines the tale through a personal lens.

In my version, a Generation-Z Chinese girl studying in London encounters a fox spirit bride in a dream. Within this surreal space, the two characters interact—mirroring each other across time, culture, and identity. Their encounter becomes a metaphor for internal conflict and transformation, exploring the fluid boundary between human and non-human.

Zhezhi/Origami is used as both a visual language and a structural method. Folding becomes a symbol of concealment, layering, and emotional control. While the Fox Spirit’s costume is sculptural and ritualistic, the Human Girl’s design reflects identity fragmentation through transparency, digital prints, and styling influenced by Generation-Z fashion.

The final outcome includes two contrasting costumes and a filmed performance. The project combines mythology, contemporary identity, and movement-based design to explore transformation through structure and emotion.

Final work

F0x-Δreamer

Story Overview
A Gen-Z Chinese art student falls asleep while painting a fox. In her dream, she encounters the Fox Bride from the Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Liaozhai Zhiyi), who appears dancing. The Contemporary Girl and the Fox Bride begin to interact, gradually realising they are two sides of the same feminine self—rational and emotional, visual and physical, restrained and expressive. Through their connection, the story explores duality within female identity.
Performance Approach
This dance-drama performance is partly inspired by the elements of physical theatre. The Fox Bride uses traditional Chinese dance, while the Contemporary Girl moves through spontaneous physical improvisation—highlighting two contrasting yet connected expressions of female identity.
Director: NingXuan Liu
Assistant Director: TieChen Song
Costume Design: NingXuan Liu
Choreographer: KaiXian Wang & LiWei Wang
Camera Department: SiTe Li
Editor&Colorist: ChenZhao Yan
Hair&Makeup: DiuDiu
Production Assistant: MengJie Cao & Yang Zhao & Rui Xu
Craft Service: Liang Zhang

Ningxuan Liu

Final work

F0x-Δreamer

Research and process

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