Yin Yang illusion is inspired by Beijin opera from the late Qing dynasty. In Chinese history, the art of theater is one of the most important art form, mostly important because of it serves from the royal family to public, with all different types of entertainment. I am especialy facinated by the actors and actresses from the end of the Ching dynasty, which was the peak of the art. The opera used to be played with only men, but women, from that period, appeared actresses on the stage again. A very famous icon of the time was Mei Lanfang, all he's life he played women's roles when he was on stage. And later he has become the standard of a beautiful woman, but off stage he was just another ordinary man. One of Mei's wives was an actress, Meng Xiaodong, she was an opposite example, she was famous for playing men's roles on stage. These two legendary actor and actress grabbed my attention. The illusion of the gender and identity, is also a trend happening nowadays around us. Combined with the culture of Qing dynasty and the works of both artists Alexander Tinie and Nadav Kander, I started to create my own journey of finding an identity.
In this collection, I'm trying to play with the musculinity and feminity, and the concept of positive and negative. With the concept of Yin And Yang, there is no certain ways of definition to describe everything to be named Yin or Yang ( negative or positive ), it is relevant. Therefore, I used this to describe the women in my collection, they are somewhere in between, sometimes can be more masculine, and sometimes can be feminine and romantic. Also to me, it is the narratives of the modern women, who actually had broken the old image, the stereotype of old times. In the process of thinking and designing, I also try to explore myself in this identity, to search in my own root and to find my own position in the history and identity of my own generation.
