Yayi Chen

Based on my personal experience growing up as a Chinese immigrant in a traditional entrepreneurial family running a Chinese restaurant in the western world, I created my collection, titled in Transient, as a collaborative collection of garments, textiles, objects, and performance that explores the poetic relationship between women’s identity, space, movement, and fashion in the Chinese diaspora in Europe. By applying the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard’s Topo-analyisis theory of space study from The Poetics of Space, I am exploring the invisible identity of Chinese women in their representative diasporic space — the restaurant. I create a narrative made through the movement of objects transformed into garments, questioning the scrutiny of Chinese women’s objectified laboring body. The women of in Transient are covered by lace bodysuits and translucent fabrics that represent their invisibility. Their garments are higly adorned with mounting drop beads, heavy fringes, and decorative knit jacquards, which are juxtaposed with their elementary stuffy server uniforms and traditional QiPao silhouettes derived from a family album one might find from the 1980s to 1990s.