The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden is a collection of handcrafted couture garments that combines crochet and denim fabric, exploring how crochet techniques can be reinterpreted in a contemporary context on stable fabric bases. This collection embodies both elegance and ease, delivering an element of surprise as it explores the potential of garments to adapt to various movements of the body.

Inspired by 1920s European women’s fashion, the designs aim to free the body, offering versatile styling options that cater to different occasions and bring unexpected delight to the wearer.

For fabric transformation, the collection uses the devoré technique to create floral patterns on chambray fabric. In crochet, the designs delve into new possibilities for Irish crochet, incorporating the Chinese Bao Xiang floral pattern. By bringing flat patterns into a three-dimensional space and experimenting with rearrangements, the collection achieves a sculptural quality that reimagines traditional crochet within a modern fashion environment.

Suit-Dress: The Garden's Secret

Model: Rene

Evening-Dress: The Rose

Model: Julie

Skirt-Dress: The Lily

Model: Muqing

Evening-Dress: The Peony

Model: Cherly

'If you look the right way , you can see that the whole world is a garden.'

'And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles.'

— The Secret Garden

A1-EXPERIMENTAL LINE UP- Lily Chen s3851

MOODBOARD & INSPIRATION

My designs are more related to technology. When exploring crochet techniques, I try to combine crochet with stable woven fabrics to explore a more modern context on the art of crochet.

In terms of silhouette, an experience of pulling the lining out of a skirt inspired me to rethink the movement of the garment on the body. It made me think about how the same garment can be used in different scenarios, for example, if you don't have enough time to change for a dinner party after work, is there a possibility to make the change more practical? At the same time, I also refer to 1920s European women's professional dresses and evening gowns, which free the body shape and offer the possibility of movement experiments of clothing on the body.

The name of the collection, The Secret Garden, comes from the fairy tale of the same name, which has a line that says, ‘If you look the right way , you can see that the whole world is a garden.’ My understanding is that beauty is found in the ordinary, and this is one of the reasons why I love to crochet, the ordinary yarn is able to create all the beautiful things.