Yuchen Liu

Project Phantom Grapple is an experimental fashion-art project that tells the story of a wrestler from the real world who is suddenly pulled into a surrealist dreamscape. In this twisted dimension, gravity bends, time distorts, and identity becomes fluid. The familiar logic of strength and control unravels as the wrestler navigates through symbolic illusions and dream-born arenas.

Blending surrealist aesthetics, dream symbolism, and the visceral tension of wrestling, the project reimagines garments as spatial paradoxes: medieval belt pouches become bottomless voids, wrestling mats fold into impossible architecture, and oversized animal motifs become both companions and spectators.

Through a mix of trompe-l'œil techniques, sculptural silhouettes, and spatial dislocation, the collection invites the viewer to reconsider the boundaries between body, space, and narrative.

A journey of Phantom Grapple—where force meets the fantastic.