YIHAN WU

This collection explores designer's physical and emotional transformation through the treatment of scoliosis—a journey toward self-reconciliation and healing through design.

Drawing from personal experience, Yihan reimagines the discomfort and distortion caused by scoliosis—such as uneven shoulders and leg lengths—as the foundation for a new aesthetic. The collection challenges conventional ideals of symmetry and beauty, embracing asymmetry as a form of strength and authenticity. Garments are constructed with intentionally slanted and rotated pattern pieces that appear misaligned when flat, but naturally twist around the body when worn—echoing the organic form of a scoliosis-affected spine.

Research into both traditional Chinese treatments and 19th-century Western mechanical traction revealed a shared principle of counter-directional pulling, which inspired an innovative approach to pattern cutting. Yihan developed a methodology that mimics these tensions, creating structure through balance and resistance.

The pre-collection draws from choreographer Ruth Page’s Expanding Universe, experimenting with elastic bands and everyday movement to simulate the dynamics between constrained bodies and garments in motion. This approach reflects Yihan's vision of a gentler, self-guided form of healing through motion.

In the final collection, influences from Robert Morris’s Untitled felt series inform a deeper exploration of materiality and form. By adopting techniques such as folding, stacking, and one-piece cutting, Yihan evolved her twist structures from 2D to 3D, allowing garments to fall in relaxed, sculptural silhouettes that mirror the complexity—and softness—of healing.